In other words, this is a very science fictional story. Gallun wrote, and Zee Prime recalls what Olaf Stapledon imagined in Last and First Men or Star Maker.

VJ-23X of Lameth was a common futuristic character type in 1930s science fiction, like the kind that Edmond Hamilton, Neil R. Jerrodd’s family reminds me of the family Stone in Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones.

Asimov quickly sketches in a series of characters at every temporal stage of the story, and even though they lack depth of characterization, they capture different stages of humanity that have been imagined before in science fiction. Overall, “The Last Question” is a gem of a story, and one that epitomizes the idea story in science fiction. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles. Asimov, there's a story I think you wrote, whose title I can't remember-' at which point I interrupted to tell him it was 'The Last Question' and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, 'Dr. They don't remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably 'The Last Question'. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they think I may have written, and tell them where to find it. Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer. See this quote I stole from Wikipedia: Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn't have to fiddle with it and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. But then, science fiction has never been timid about thinking big.Īsimov claimed “The Last Question” was his favorite story he ever wrote. Asimov was known for his ego, and he assumes our species is just as egotistical. Hell, “The Last Question” is the most hubric statement ever made about mankind. And what a whopper! No one has ever claimed to have caught a bigger fish. Isaac Asimov was obviously aiming to tell the tallest tall tale he could imagine when he wrote “ The Last Question” for the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly. Story #28 of 107: “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov Group Read 27: The Big Book of Science Fiction

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov