Please help me find this sci-fi story again.

July 31, 2007 11:17 PM

Do you remember a sci-fi short story about the last man on earth and suspended animation and the evolution of algae?

I read this short(ish) story many years ago. My memory of the story is vague, but it's haunted me for years, and I really want to find it again.

I think it was by one of the old school sci-fi greats, like Ben Bova or Poul Anderson, and it told the story of the Earth destroyed by WWIII/ The last man on earth who'd figured out a way to put himself into a suspended animation, in an attempt to find some meaning to life. At first he'd just put himself under for a thousand years or so, but when he realized that all life on the planet had been destroyed and needed time to re-evolve (or just evolve, I suppose) he put himself under for longer and longer amounts of time.

There was one re-awakening that sticks in my head: he came out of his hibernation to discover that there was only one species of life on earth: a beautiful green algea that was slowly creeping out of the sea to adopt to life on land.

What the heck was this story?!

posted by Specklet to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

I suspect you're not talking about World of Ptavvs.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:55 PM on July 31, 2007

I think you're talking about "Second Ending" from Monsters and Medics. One major plot detail that doesn't match, though, is that there are robots involved in Second Ending... if that rings bells now, then that's your story.
posted by anaelith at 12:23 AM on August 1, 2007

Are you maybe remembering Genesis by Poul Anderson? It's been years since I've read it, so I might be off, but some of those details sound like a good fit.
posted by ekstasis23 at 9:47 AM on August 1, 2007

Response by poster: It's definitely not Genesis or World of Ptavvs, but "Second Ending" looks like it might be what I'm looking for. Even the cover of Monsters and Medics looks familiar.

Thanks, guys!
posted by Specklet at 8:21 PM on August 1, 2007