Monday, December 8, 2008

Isaac Asimov's "Gold" (novelette, free): Asimov's own fanfic!

This story is actually about two other stories: William Shakespeare's play "King Lear", & Asimov's own novel "The Gods Themselves". About half the text devoted to each. Jonas Willard is the director filming them (makes "compu-drama" - some sort of computer animation). An author named Gregory Laborian fills in the role of Asimov.

Reader's familiarity with those stories will likely affect reaction.

I'd not read "King Lear"; found this part boring.

While "The Gods Themselves" is among the better novels of Asimov, it's an unusual one. I'd read it years ago, & found this part the story easy to follow. Not boring, but not great either.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, September 1991.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Webscription. [via Free Speculative Fiction Online & Best Science Fiction Stories].
Winner of Hugo Award 1992 in novelette category.

Related.

  1. Stories/feed of Asimov.
  2. Stories/feed of Analog/Astounding.
  3. Hugo Award winning stories/feed.

2 comments:

  1. RustyDecember 13, 2008 at 10:01 AM

    This was a very... "interesting" short story. Not my favorite Asimov story, but I guess it does show that he was capable of writing something different and full of detailed descriptions.

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  2. AnonymousDecember 13, 2008 at 11:07 AM

    I guess it depends on reader's expectations from the story.

    Also, were you familiar with King Lear? I wasn't, & I wasn't expecting an education in Shakespeare when I picked up Asimov.

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