"The Last Trump" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by American writer

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

. It was first published in the June 1955 issue of ''

Fantastic Universe ''Fantastic Universe'' was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishin ...

'' and reprinted in the 1957 collection ''

Earth Is Room Enough ''Earth Is Room Enough'' is a collection of fifteen short science fiction and fantasy stories and two pieces of comic verse by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1957. In his autobiography ''In Joy Still Felt'', Asimov wrote, "I was sti ...

''. Although humorous, it deals '' inter alia'' with a serious subject, calendar reform.

Plot summary

By order of the Council of Ascendants and approved of by the Chief, it is decided that the

Day of Resurrection In Islam, "the promise and threat" () of Judgment Day ( ar, یوم القيامة, Yawm al-qiyāmah, Day of Resurrection or ar, یوم الدین, italic=no, Yawm ad-din, Day of Judgement), when "all bodies will be resurrected" from the dead, ...

is due on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, despite the protestations of Etheriel, a junior Seraph with responsibility for the world. Whilst he seeks an audience with the Chief to plead for a stay of execution for "his" planet, the Last Trump is sounded, and as of January 1, 1957, time comes to a stop on Earth. A mysterious figure known only as R. E. Mann (a pun on Ahriman, the Persian name for

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

)—later revealed as the devil—makes his way across the world, seeing what has happened in the Hereafter and pleased with it. All the dead are coming back to life, naked and uncaring. He meets a former professor of history who observes that the people have indeed been judged and are not in heaven but hell. He also meets a manufacturer of breakfast cereal, who angrily threatens to sue, since no one will need his product any more. Etheriel has his meeting with the Chief and argues that the date January 1, 1957, unqualified, is meaningless, and that therefore a single Day of Resurrection is also impossible. The Chief agrees and declares that the end will come only when all the peoples of the Earth agree on a common date (which, given the wide variety of cultures on Earth, is extremely unlikely to ever occur). The world is instantly restored to normality. R. E. Mann, frustrated in his endeavours, plans to promote the adoption of a new calendar system, based on the Atomic Era, to begin on December 2, 1944.

Critical response

Peter S. Rieth describes the story as "a rather sorrowful account of the resurrection of the dead and one angel's valiant attempt to stop the end of the world", and says that "Asimov litters his story with a large quantity of simple, day-to-day practical examples of how our wildest hope (resurrection and eternal life) may in practice become a waking nightmare."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Trump, The Short stories by Isaac Asimov 1955 short stories Science fiction short stories Works originally published in Fantastic Universe