Gold
author Orson Scott CardHe invented science fiction. And in this final and crowning achievement of a career spanning 50 years, Isaac Asimov shares short stories ranging from the humorous to the profound, ruminations on the science fiction genre itself, and thoughts on the craft and writing of science fiction.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. Short stories: Cal Left to Right Frustration Hallucination The Instability Alexander the God In the Canyon Good-bye to Earth Battle-Hymn Feghoot and the Courts Fault-Intolerant Kid Brother The Nations in Space The Smile of the Chipper Gold Essays: The Longest Voyage Inventing a Universe Flying Saucers and Science Fiction Invasion The Science Fiction Blowgun The Robot Chronicles Golden Age Ahead The All-Human Galaxy Psychohistory Science Fiction Series Survivors Nowhere!
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2010–2023years
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- Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
Gold by Isaac Asimov
- It sounds crazy, but as someone who reads a lot of fiction (and very little fan fiction, because most of it's crap), I sincerely think this is one of the best things I've read in years. I'd personally rank it up with Asimov or Heinlein at their best.
If you're the kind of person, upon discovering a 'wizarding world' would:
- Look into establishing arbitrage between the wizards' fixed ratio of Gold/Silver currency and the muggles' variable ratio
-Try to discover the underlying laws and mechanics of magic
-Use a time machine to prove/disprove P == NP
Read this Book!
- I wonder when this technology will be good/flexible enough to use in filmmaking, where it seems like it could replace a chunk of work currently done by makeup/VFX, and give real-time results.
There’s an old Asimov short story, Gold, which describes a future of filmmaking that seems more similar to this than the way movies are currently made: everything is animated/CGI, but in real-time—the animators are performers as well who deliver their performance while the director offers feedback.
- I am reading a short story collection of Asimov compiled in a book called Gold.
The second half of the book contains extensive commentary by Asimov on how to write science fiction. He delves into a lot of topics like writing style, grammer, ideas and many other things.
There is a whole chapter on a how to generate a story from an idea and how to get the idea to start with. In it, he stresses on thinking. As in real, solid literal thinking, what we would normally call brainstorming. As a science fiction author, he says that the brainstorming is not something that he used to do in short bursts like someone would normally do. He writes that a science fiction author has to think to a point where her/his head starts aching, literally.
