Yet another half-remembered sci fi story question

August 18, 2017 7:12 PM

It was a short story. The basic plot was: guy who lived a life he really disliked (it was boring, he didn't take risks, denied himself pleasures) because he thought that would earn him brownie points in the afterlife wakes up dead, only to find that the afterlife is not clouds and golden harps, but basically just a re-creation of the earthly life. What was the story title and/or author?
posted by eviemath to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Could it be one of the stories in Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman?
posted by freya_lamb at 11:11 AM on August 19, 2017

Response by poster: I don't think so. It seemed to be a one-off story. In tone and writing style, it more resembled Asimov as far as I recall (the main character's situation was played more for humor in the irony than for pathos or a darker humor, for example) though I can't find a likely candidate among lists of Asimov short stories and the person I was discussing the short story with who also remembers it vaguely says he hasn't read any Asimov outside of the Foundation series (which this short story is definitely unrelated to). I'm maybe 60 to 75% sure that the story is from the middle to late classic era of sci Fi?
posted by eviemath at 1:58 PM on August 19, 2017