Gold (short story)

"Gold" was originally published in the September 1991 issue of Analog

"Gold" is a short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It originally appeared in the September 1991 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact and was collected in the eponymous volume Gold. It was one of the last short stories he wrote in his life, and won a Hugo Award for best Novelette in 1992.

Plot summary

The story describes the efforts of fictional computer animators to create a "compu-drama" from the second section of Asimov's novel The Gods Themselves, which occurs in a parallel universe with different laws of physics to that within which Earth is situated, amongst a trigendered species of energy-based beings and one triad of narrative protagonists in particular. The story attributes this middle portion to an author named Gregory Laborian, saying it is a stand-alone novel entitled Three In One. Laborian convinces director Jonas Willard, who had won fame for a CGI version of King Lear, to create an animated version of Laborian's story. Besides demonstrating Asimov's admiration for William Shakespeare's plays, "Gold" may be taken as a response to criticisms of Asimov's non-visual writing style.

External links

• Gold title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database