Description:

The last Isaac Asimov science fiction collection which contains all of his previously uncollected stories.Gold is Isaac Asimov's last science fiction collection' one containing all of his uncollected SF stories that had never before appeared in book form. Gold is the final and crowning achievement of the fifty-five year career of science fiction's transcendent genius' the world-famous author who defined the field of SF for its practitioners' for its millions of readers' and for the world at large.The stories collected here for the first time range from the humorous to the profound' for Asimov was engaged until the end of his days in the work of redefining and expanding the boundaries of the literature he loved' and indeed' helped create. And there is more. For at the heart of this extraordinary compendium is the title story' "Gold'" a moving and revealing drama about a writer who gambles everything on a chance at immortality-a gamble Asimov himself made. And won. SUMMARY: Gold is the final and crowning achievement of the fifty-year career of science fiction's transcendent genius, the world-famous author who defined the field of science fiction for its practitioners, its millions of readers, and the world at large. The first section contains stories that range from the humorous to the profound, at the heart of which is the title story, "Gold," a moving and revealing drama about a writer who gambles everything on a chance at immortality: a gamble Asimov himself made -- and won. The second section contains the grand master's ruminations on the SF genre itself. And the final section is comprised of Asimov's thoughts on the craft and writing of science fiction.

Amazon.com Review

14 new short stories, previously uncollected essays on science fiction and the craft of writing, and the Hugo Award-winning title novella about a writer who gambles everything on a chance at immortality.

From Publishers Weekly

Asimov, who died in 1992 and whose influence can hardly be exaggerated, is ill-served by this work, two-thirds of which consists of book introductions and editorials he wrote for Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. The fiction included here, though a decidedly mixed bag (several pieces are short-shorts whose long-term value is dubious), includes two of Asimov's most important late stories, "Cal" and the title story. "Cal" is one of several tales here in which a robot's use of a word processor has unexpected consequences, but it stands above the others (such as "Fault-Intolerant") because Cal is as vibrant as the humans in the story. The Hugo-winning "Gold," meanwhile, in which a "compu-drama" director agrees to adapt an SF novel to the new medium, is by itself worth the price of this book. The two nonfiction sections, by contrast, are sloppily compiled ("Suspense" is the first part of a two-part editorial not continued here, for instance). Additionally, several of the editorials, by referring to stories published in the magazine but not here, have lost much of their effectiveness. A volume of Asimov's uncollected fantasy stories is promised by HarperPrism for 1996; one wishes that this book had included those stories instead of the nonfiction here. Even so, however, this collection presents enough valuable insight into Asimov's work to mitigate disappointment.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.