Best Sci-fi short story?
Legendary author Isaac Asimov rated his most favorite stories in this order: "The Last Question", "The Bicentennial Man", and "The Ugly Little Boy".
Going by a few hacker discussions, "The Last Question" did seem to be one of the real favorites, and even got tagged as the best ever. Luckily this story is available online here.
I am a bit literary-challenged, and may be it's me, but is this really the best? No doubt it's quite good, but i am sure there would be others that might be better. This link has the other contenders in the form of a top 100 list. Here are the top 10 from it:
Ender's Game
-- Orson Scott Card
Nightfall
-- Isaac Asimov
The Bicentennial Man
-- Isaac Asimov
Flowers For Algernon
-- Daniel Keyes
The Last Question
-- Isaac Asimov
The Nine Billion Names Of God
-- Arthur C Clarke
The Man Who Sold the Moon
-- Robert A Heinlein
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
-- Harlan Ellison
The Green Hills Of Earth
-- Robert A Heinlein
A Sound Of Thunder
-- Ray Bradbury
Time to read! :-)
There is a short and funny story which might have served as a inspiration for "The Last Question" (1956). It was written 2 years before Asimov wrote his masterpiece.
The story is "Answer," from Angels and Spaceships, by Fredric Brown (Dutton, 1954). Here is the original text:
http://www.alteich.com/oldsite/answer.htm
I noticed that the top 10 server is australian which clams me a bit, since 'enders game' is decidedly not a great piece of anything let alone science fiction.
Still I must read many of the others on the list to determine this (= crazy australians) once and for all.
:-). So which are the few you really like?
So, which ones you liked a year after? can you make some recommendations?
I think the Foundation Series definitely belongs in here. Not too much science, but SF nevertheless and one of the best I have read (have read half the books in this list).