Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection (original 1995; edition 1996)

I rather liked the first story ("Cal"), about a robot who wants to be a writer, and the title story has some interesting ideas about a future sensory medium and may give some indication of Asimov's feelings about The Gods Themselves. The rest of the stories are okay, but nothing special.

That's roughly the first third of the book; the rest reprints introductions to other anthologies and editorials from Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (though without any headnotes indicating what came from where; you're left to extrapolate from internal evidence and the copyright dates at the end). On the whole, these aren't worth the bother. ( )

Published four years after Asimov's death, this book contains a number of previously unpublished stories and articles about the art of writing science fiction and the field of science fiction. Some of the stories are very good - particularly the title piece, but some are slightly less impressive and a reminder of why the pun is considered the lowest form of humour :-) ( )

A collection of stories, writing about science fiction, and writing about science. The first roughly 40% of the book is a short story collection, the next section includes articles about science fiction, and the last, articles about writing. The stories are pretty minor apart from a couple, and quite a few of the amusing short joke variety.

The rest may not be of too much interest to those with only a passing interest in SF, or none in writing, but Asimov's cheerfully pleasant not taking himself too seriously style continues throughout.

Gold : Cal - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Left to Right - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Frustration - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Hallucination - Isaac Asimov
Gold : The Instability - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Alexander the God - Isaac Asimov
Gold : In the Canyon - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Good-bye to Earth - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Battle-Hymn - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Feghoot and the Courts - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Fault-Intolerant - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Kid Brother - Isaac Asimov
Gold : The Nations in Space - Isaac Asimov
Gold : The Smile of the Chipper - Isaac Asimov
Gold : Gold - Isaac Asimov

Robowriter aspirations.

4 out of 5

Robert L. Backward.

3 out of 5

Compuwar just hasn't got the mindset.

3.5 out of 5

Energy planet other.

2.5 out of 5

Bang on viewing.

3 out of 5

Long lived conqueror emulations perhaps preferable.

3 out of 5

Engineering optimism.

3 out of 5

O'Neill leaving.

3 out of 5

Title is critical.

3.5 out of 5

Bad metallic joke taste.

2.5 out of 5

Could get boring.

3 out of 5

Siblingbot taken way too seriously.

3.5 out of 5

Check your work.

2.5 out of 5

Artificial charisma fiance removal.

3.5 out of 5

Doing up a new one like Lear.

3 out of 5

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/11/gold-science-fiction-collection-isaac.html ( )