Frederick Pohl - Gateway - 9

[endall]

Gateway

‘Gateway’ won the Hugo for best novel in 1978

Gateway is an asteroid drilled with tunnels and orbiting the Earth in an often ignored patch of the sky. It is discovered by bizarre accident a prospector on Venus discovers a tunnel containing an alien spaceship. When he repairs the ship it automatically takes him to Gateway where a thousand other ships of various sizes have been abandoned for half a million years. Dying before he is rescued the prospector becomes a legend and Gateway becomes a place where humans use the ships to search for their vanished owners.

We already know from the beginning that searching for the aliens is not healthy and rewarding job because even though the hero is rich he is in therapy. Our hero has a lot of problems stemming from his time as a poor miner in the food mines and issues with his mother, sexual orientation and violence. Nothing much changes after he wins the lottery and uses the cash to go Gateway. Taking the ships out prospecting is itself a lottery. The ships are pre-programed to go only to one destination and return. The human crews can only carry so much food travel to far and you will starve before returning. The unknown destinations are often hazardous and many of the ships do not return. However, the few alien artifacts discovered and some of the scientific surveys are of incalculable value to a population explosion threatened Earth. One successful trip can set you up for life including access to the holy grail of ‘full medical’.

Our hero discovers that, apart from his many problems that his computerized psychiatrist is trying to solve, he is also a coward. He finally makes his successful trip and retires to spend his reward but at the expense of many friends.

This slim volume is the beginning of the Heechee saga in it Pohl deliberately tells us nothing about the Heechee only describes the mechanics of travel from Gateway. We have glimpses of the high technology they possessed as well as FTL space flight, ships that last half a million years they have a metal that glows. The human who run the Gateway Corporation are convinced the Heechee will the saviors of mankind if only we can find out where they went. The glimpses of their ‘trash’ Pohl shows like the ‘prayer fans’ are tantalizing pointers to the rest of the story. Pohl inserts information windows into the narrative providing technical data about Gateway, logs of the various voyages and classified ads for the prospectors. These do not detract from the story flow but make it more understandable and credible. You have to wonder whether Pohl, already a nearby planet SF writer when this book was published, knew then that it was the start of such an enthralling saga. A saga that has become a template for alien society and the future in much of the SF that followed.

[Superenigmatix]

Do you have a rating for the book.

I personally loved this series - all four of them, plus the extra book of short stories which is essential for clearing up some of the questions unanswered elsewhere.

I'll give it 10/10 for the first book - actually i wouldn't mind reading it again myself, it's been awhile since I did.

sE

[bob k. mando]

so endall ... what would you rate it?

[endall]

I put my ratings on the index basically a 9 with lower scores in the other categories. It is hard to go back and rate first books. Replete with the 20/20 hindsight view that they started a highly successful series it is tempting to rate them high. But if you were rating Gateway (and other similiar 'series starters') honestly what would the rating be? Personally, in this instance I can see what Pohl was trying to achieve in just laying out the few facts. Did he know it was going to be an ongoing, remarkable and signpost saga?

[Darb]

Well done - a very complete review.

Minor request - when reviewing, try not to give away too much of the overall story. The goal is to give people a general taste of what the book is about, and then to describe what you liked and/or disliked about it. I tend to dislike movie trailers that give away too much info, and thus undercut (rather than strengthen) my need to see (or read) them.

[Superenigmatix]

Good grief - He's written a new Gateway book!

Review here: The Boy Who Would Live Forever

now how the hell am I going to get a copy out here!

cheers

sE

[wolfspirit]

I'll give it a 10/10! Excellent read!

everyone should read this book!

magicfan241