Quite simply it's the twist in the last line. With an Asimov short story, you expect a twist anyway that forces re-evaluation of the characters and events, but The Last Question manages to transcend this and forces the reader to re-evaluate the nature of the external world (ie. outside the story itself, with some inter-textuality to the Bible thrown in).
The execution of this idea was also first-rate, IMO. The question 'can entropy be reversed?' acts as a brilliant 'hook' for the story as he fleshes out the history of the universe. He took a question usually too remote to be worth consideration in literature, and humanized it. And finishing on the Genesis quote was a stroke of brilliance.
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Quite simply it's the twist in the last line. With an Asimov short story, you expect a twist anyway that forces re-evaluation of the characters and events, but The Last Question manages to transcend this and forces the reader to re-evaluate the nature of the external world (ie. outside the story itself, with some inter-textuality to the Bible thrown in).
The execution of this idea was also first-rate, IMO. The question 'can entropy be reversed?' acts as a brilliant 'hook' for the story as he fleshes out the history of the universe. He took a question usually too remote to be worth consideration in literature, and humanized it. And finishing on the Genesis quote was a stroke of brilliance.
'It takes control and slowly tears you apart.'