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Title: Gateway by Frederik Pohl ISBN: 0-345-34690-4 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 February, 1987 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (62 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Old fashioned future scenario
Comment: Yeah, a good book and an interesting read since the reason why the character became so rich keeps you turning the pages. But steady on, because right now we are on the brink of the 21st Century and reading this is like watching an old black and white Flash Gordon series. It's science fiction, yes, but its hopelessly outdated now. You can't help but smile at some of the old concepts being bandied around in this book, such as Freudian analysis and the description of the plastic robot psychologist. I found the whole basis of the book to be flawed and typical of science fiction from the 50's to the 80's i.e stary eyed characters without a hint of true human maliciousness which has dominated our species for centuries and also wide sweeping comments concerning space travel which simply havent stood the test of time for the modern reader. A classic? Lets just say it sums up the whole of science fiction literature before the words 'digital' and 'nanotech" and 'virtual' became household words even for children. A classic to be compared with Dickens or Tolstoy? No. However, save yourself 30 years of sci-fi literature from 1950-1980 (with the possible exception of 2001) and read it and smile.
Rating: 5
Summary: A complete work in itself.
Comment: GATEWAY is the first in a 4 book series... but the other books could be considered optional.
The setting is rather simple, though the story seems to take on part a life of its own. Humans discover that an ancient race has left them with starships to explore their universe with... only the human beings cannot control, or even understand them. This enigma leads to a simple solution: promise reward to the brave souls who will dare try and pilot one of the craft, and pray they come back alive, as many do not.
This is the setup, and the story starts here, but winds up in any of a thousand places. In the end all question of who the ancient beings were who built and left the ships and their nesting place, Gateway Station, remain a mystery. The ending is, however, satisfying enough to leave it at just that. For those who want to know what becomes of the "hero" of the story, Robinette Broadhead, and know the identity of the older-than-time alien civilization of the Heechee, read on.
Rating: 4
Summary: Despite structural flaws, a satisfying read
Comment: Frederik Pohl has always been one of my favourite SF authors. As a double Hugo/Nebula winner for 1997's best novel, that makes it (at least nominally) one of the best of the best.
In the mid-21st century, tunnels and artifacts are discovered on Venus. This discovery leads in turn to the far more lucrative discovery of Gateway, an asteroid orbiting the sun outside the elliptical plane, tunnelled out and housing nearly 1000 spaceships abandoned half a million years ago by a mysterious race that humans have labelled the Heechee. These fully-functional ships are capable of faster-than-light travel and can hold one to five passengers. The problem is, no one knows how to operate the controls. Prospectors have spent their life's savings to travel to Gateway and travel in one of the ships to destinations unknown, hoping to make a major scientific or commercial discovery. Some do and hit it big. Most don't. Many don't come back.
The protagonist, millionaire Robinette Broadhead, is one of the ones who hit it big. We find out two important things about him at the beginning of Gateway. First, on one of his trips he made a major discovery worth 18 million dollars. Second, he is a very screwed-up man; we first meet him lying on a mat in the office of his digital shrink, Sigfrid.
Structurally, the novel's chapters alternate between Broadhead's sessions with Sigfrid, and flashbacks to Broadhead's experiences on Gateway. Unfortunately the book's structure is its major weakness. There is simply too much Sigfrid; Broadhead's appointments with the shrink could have been removed by half without harming the story. Besides, reading Freudian interpretation after interpretation of Broadhead's dreams and word choices starts to get monotonous.
It is the flashback sequences on Gateway and beyond that make this novel interesting by far. Pohl has done an excellent job of preserving the mystery of the Heechee. They are never revealed, even at the denouement of the story. Their presence is felt only through the tunnels of Gateway, the rare half-million-year-old artifacts they left behind, and their still-functional spaceships with their cryptic controls, the function of which can only be guessed at (more often than not wrongly). Interspersed throughout the book are page-long sidebars containing snapshots of life on or about Gateway: classified ads, trip reports, academic lectures. In addition to helping create a general impression of the risks of being a Gateway prospector, some of these little diversions provide clues to how the story ends, and are worth reading carefully.
If you're a hard SF fan and haven't picked up Gateway yet, you owe it to yourself. Despite its literary flaws, it's on my list of must-read SF novels.
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Title: Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl ISBN: 0345446674 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Heechee Rendezvous by Frederik Pohl ISBN: 0345300556 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 March, 1985 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Annals of the Heechee by Frederik Pohl ISBN: 0345325664 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 April, 1988 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman ISBN: 0060510862 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Gateway Trip by Frederik Pohl ISBN: 0345375440 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 13 December, 1991 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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