Gateway

by Frederik Pohl

Book Overview

Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345318595
• ISBN13: 9780345318596
• Release Date: March 1984
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Do yourself a favor and check this one out

Perhaps it's the extensive psychotherapy that turns people off, but I found Gateway to be one of the most moving pieces of sci-fi I have ever read, second to Stranger in a Strange Land. Gateway came about 15 years later, and the 70s were a fantastic time for the genre, in my opinion. Your mileage may vary, but I think it's important that you know where I'm coming from as a reader. At any rate, I was engrossed by the humanity, or vulnerability, of the characters in this book. It's not something you see very often in the genre. While characters in an Asimov or Clarke novel (God love them) may only serve to move the plot, Pohl lets the plot move around them; the central conflict is within. So this may actually turn off the escapist reader. But this is still firmly science fiction, as it explores speculative ideas as a necessary part of the story. Nothing today can approximate the Gateway space station; only on a smaller scale, at best. It's a story of desperation that also carries science fiction's famous "sense of wonder." It's something every star gazer has felt, and Pohl nails it. Unfortunately, he isn't as adept in psychiatry as he is spinning yarns, and the sections with Bob talking to his therapist feel slightly dull compared to the sharpness of Gateway station and its occupants. But only by comparison. It's also one of the few books I've ever re-read.

First or second on my list of Great SciFi Experiences

Read this years ago, haven't forgotten a word. Astounded that nobody's made a movie of it -- can't think of a more cinematic novel. Because of its odd structure and unexpected humor, some might think it just plain strange -- but rarely has the intensity ratcheted up, for me, as highly as in this one book. Only caveat is this, and let me be absolutely clear: Do. Not. Read. The. Sequels.

A complete work in itself.

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.

Superiour Science Fiction

Wow. I just finished this book the other day. Unlike what other people have said Pohl is surely a master of his art. This is what I'd consider Hard Core Science Fiction, much like that of Asimov. The story is written in a great fashion, from the past to future, but never leaves you completely in the dark as to what's going on. I have yet to read the rest of the series, but this is the true meaning to superior science fiction. It was all worth the last line (now THAT'S how you end a book!) I wish I could give more stars.

Pohl's best, and that's saying something

Although the character of Robinette Broadhead is expertly handled and the frame narrative adds to the suspense, I think the real reason this is one of the greatest sf novels of all time lies in the world Pohl has created. He has taken a silly idea, something you'd expect to find in a pre-Campbell pulp or a Silver Age comic book, and made it perfectly plausible. Imagine how it would have been done then: people discover a mysterious box and find that when you enter you will either die or become rich. It's a cool idea, and a great setup for a story, but it's also terminally silly. Pohl has taken this clumsy deus ex machina box and opened it for us, so that the roulette wheel of Gateway makes perfect sense, and both the risk and the reward become logical, even necessary, extensions of the place. My one complaint: Pohl is too addicted to the practice of ending each chapter with a clever sentence.