Tuesday 2 May 2017

The Day Of Judgement In Fantasy And SF

 The previous post listed five prominent sf writers who are frequently mentioned on this blog and also cited either one or two works by each:

HG Wells, one short story;
Isaac Asimov, one short story;
Poul Anderson, two novels;
James Blish, one novel;
CS Lewis, two novels.

Although the subject-matter of that post was the "Day of Judgement" and although Poul Anderson is the main focus of this blog, the two novels by Anderson were alone in not describing a supernatural Judgement Day! Let us rectify that by referring instead to a fantasy novel by Anderson. See here and here.

Thus, as I frequently remark, Anderson seems to cover every possibility. Each of these five authors presents a different imaginative account of the outcome of the Day of Judgement and Lewis does it twice. In Blish's version, the "Judgement" as such does not happen because the wrong side wins Armageddon but perhaps the summoning of the last magicians before Satan is an inversion of the Judgement? Other parallels and contrasts can be drawn between these six accounts of Judgement Day.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I remember Asimov's short story "The Last Trump." And I liked it--bearing out my view that IA was better at short stories than at novels. I esp. liked how, atheist tho he was, Asimov handled the idea of God. Having God speak to Etheriel in a "still, small voice" reminded me of how the Prophet Elijah heard God only in a small, gentle sound in 1 Kings.

Sean