I'm not sure I've appreciated the full meaning of the California trilogy - I can't help but feel I'm missing something deep. Nonetheless the series is highly enjoyable. KSR has a magnificent ability to convincingly portray near future scenarios. The Gold Coast is brash and packed with technology and science, yet manages to be sensitive and politically aware. I think I prefer Pacific Edge but this is definitely better than The Wild Shore.

I've read most of KSR's books and I've got to say that I think Gold Coast is the best yet. A magnificently written piece with an honest and believable main character. A SF masterpiece, Robinson knows his stuff but doesn't waste space showing off his knowledge, choosing instead to add information subtlely and cleverly.

A must read for any SF fan, or anyone who wants to read a great novel.

To judge from some of the other reviews of this book, many read The Gold Coast expecting more of Robinson's excellent adventure-SF, like the magnificent Mars Trilogy or Antarctica. Those expectations are understandable but do this great book a disservice.

The setting is Orange County in the middle of the 21st Century, with the USSR and the Cold War alive and well. Orange County has largely disappeared into a maze of highways and strip malls. The protagonist, Jim, is a twenty-something still dependent on his parents, who dabbles in Zen, post-modern poetry, works at an insurance agency and teaches night classes at a local community college. He cannot concentrate on anything for too long and tends to see other people as characters in a novel who come and go at random: when Jim's dad taught him about engine mechanics, Jim is interested and sees how the thermodynamics involved can be a metaphor for society, but then he promptly forgets it. When he visits his uncle Tom in a massive retirement home, he is fascinated by the lonely old man's storys of how Orange County used to be and resolves to spend more time with him, but as soon as the visit ends, he gets the heeby-jeebies about the retirement complex and ignores his uncle until he's obligated to visit again. He is in a relationship showing signs of becoming serious, but betrays his girlfriend for a random hook-up with a girl at a party. When Jim's friends tell him that his ex's heart was broken by the betray, he is surprised and rather indifferent.

Eventually Jim realizes how hollow he is and his first attempt to find meaning is to get involved with some saboteurs trying to end America's huge military-industrial complex. Eventually, we see him grow up and develop a mature relationship with an art teacher, and even become reconciled with his parents. He also finds his voice as a history writer who seeks to find out what Orange County used to be like, and how it came to be a suburban nightmare.

Jim is the main character, but Robinson also looks at Jim's parents, friends, and intersperses the fiction with prose meditations on the stages of Orange County's history. The result is a rich journey to a world that is hauntingly like our own. For instance, nobody has a boyfriend or girlfriend, they have "allies", much like the modern term "partner", and while the Cold War may be dead in our world, Robinson does a good job of making our consumer culture take a look in the mirror.

Many people talked about "American Beauty"'s indictment of American suburbia, but ten years before that movie came out, Robinson created a much better examination of suburban culture, without the blatant polemics of American Beauty.

It's different from much of Robinson's other work, but it still has his unique style and is well worth your time.

gold coast may not be one of leonards best but it satisfies the crime novel fan.the plot is pretty good considering its been seen before.the ending i must say is surprising.it also has a few funny moments to keep you in good humor.good book but not leonards best.

I read this book in 2 afternoons. Although it's short, the characters are fully realized and well-rounded. I really liked the Roland Crow character; such a jolly fellow going around shooting people and throwing them off balconies! I'm getting to like Elmore Leonard very much. If you like this stuff, I also recommend Joe R. Lansdale's series about Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, as well as anything by Christopher Moore.

Elmore Leonard's "Gold Coast" is a classic book about a femme fatale. "You're not too bright. I like that in a man," said one actress in a late night film noir classic film, and Leonard's major female (Karen DiCilia) in "Gold Coast" is one smart cookie, using men for her own monetary advantage. Not that she doesn't like men's company. She just likes controlling men much more.

Leonard's novel is fast-moving, witty and downright scary in places, especially when Roland is part of the scene. A huge, pseudo-cowboy-hit-man, Roland is the stuff of nightmares, a killer with little thought for his victims. He almost makes me want to own a gun.

Larry Rochelle, author of DEATH & DEVOTION, TRACETRACKS and DANCE WITH THE PONY

Recalls the era of grand hotels and processions from Boston to the country shore during the 19th and 20th century when gentlemen and ladies paraded according to a strict code of social behavior. Wonderful photos of bygone places and memories of now suburban places which once were bucolic and a time when life seemed easier and gentler--especially if you were rich enough to enjoy it and not on the 'serving end.'

This is a great book. Of course, you'd have to have an interest in the time and the place, the 1st half of the 19th Century and the coast of Georgia. Emminently readable, with good expositions of the various agricultural practices of the time. Well done.

As a Georgia 'native' and historian with a deep interest in the field, I found this to be a fascinating text. But I would certainly agree that you have to have an interest in the topic--in which case it is well worth buying and reading.

The book has some good photos, but the printing is poor quality and the layout and design are sloppy and confusing.
Whole sections of the text are lifted directly from Vincent Seyfried's "The Long Island Railroad: A Comprehensive History." And the source of some of Brian Merlis' photos must be questioned.

having grown up in sheepshead bay, I couldnt say no to this book. Pictures and history are quite interesting, but they arranged somewhat haphazardly and the history is not in chronologic order. A good book if you are from the area