Wealth ... or death. Those were the choices Gateway offered. Humans had discovered this artificial spaceport, full of working interstellar ships left behind by the mysterious, vanished Heechee. Their destinations are preprogrammed. They are easy to operate, but impossible to control. Some came back with discoveries which made their intrepid pilots rich; others returned with their remains barely identifiable. It was the ultimate game of Russian roulette, but in this resource-starved future there was no shortage of desperate volunteers.
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Some SF writers have astonishingly long productive careers. Frederik Pohl started in 1940 and with Cyril Kornbluth co-wrote such classic 1950s satires as The Space Merchants. He won Hugo and Nebula awards for the 1977 Gateway, a major novel combining classic SF excitement with psychological depth and now reissued in Millennium SF Masterworks. The compelling central idea is Gateway itself, an asteroid base stuffed with abandoned interstellar ships built by the mysterious, elusive alien "Heechee". These tiny vessels can travel on autopilot to countless unknown destinations. Some human passengers return with fabulous technologies and scientific insights, others empty-handed. Many more die from incomprehensible hazards at journey's end, or from lack of food or air in overlong round-trips. So the atmosphere of the human community at Gateway is uniquely edgy, halfway between a gold-rush town and Death Row. Pohl's unheroic hero Broadhead has both good and bad luck in Heechee craft, emerging with riches and terrible loss. We learn the shattering story of what happened in successive flashbacks, while the engaging, scene-stealing AI psychology software called Sigfrid patiently tries to put Broadhead together again. Gateway is witty and humane, full of clever insights, ingenious asides and claustrophobic drama. Its sequels are less impressive. --David Langford
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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One of the very best must-read SF novels of all time
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I've just noticed that this is due to be published in the SF Masterworks series, wiith the original US paperback cover, even!
I read this about 20 years ago, not long after it came out in 1977, and again a couple of times since. Probably my favourite Pohl book. It's the story of a man named Robinette Broadhead, his struggle to survive and make it rich in a world where most people are poor. On an asteroid named Gateway, a long-gone species of aliens called the Heechee left a thousand of their spaceships. No one knows how they work, but it is possible to operate them, to go to preprogrammed destinations elsewhere in the galaxy. Sometimes the crew bring back valuable discoveries. Sometimes they come back dead, or not at all. It's also the story of Broadhead's guilt at letting something terrible happen to his girlfriend, Klara, and how he learns to deal with that.
What makes the story for me is a mixture of things - Pohl's use of sidebars to give us a picture of the world the story is set in, for instance. The sense of mystery created by the fact that no one really knows what they're doing with the Heechee ships. His telling of the story in the form of flashbacks interspersed with sessions with Broadhead's psychoanalyst (who is a computer programme). Even the way it ends so suddenly, in just a page or so, when the actions that Broadhead spends years regretting flash by in a blur...
Well worth anyone's money, I'd say, and certainly an appropriate addition to the SF Masterworks series.
If you enjoy this, go on & read the other Heechee books, such as Beyond the Blue Event Horizon & Heechee Rendezvous - Pohl has created a fascinating Universe to set these stories in!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
From the initial premise to the final resolution this novel was powerful, imaginative stuff. Revolving around the central idea that a spacestation full of abandoned alien spacecraft have been found, and which human prospectors are trying to exploit, it paints a dark and sinister tale. For, though the alien craft can be used to travel to preset destinations, nobody actually knows where most of those destinations are, or whether they will ever come back. The perils of this hi tech Russian Roulette range from flying straight into a boiling sun, to simply running out of whatever fuel these ships use. It is a tale about fear of the unknown, and overcoming that fear for greed.
The central character Robinette Broadhead is a complex person teetering dangerously on the edge of sanity, and his tale is interwoven with counselling sessions with his computer therapist Sigfrid who manages to steal every scene in which he appears.
It is a long time since I was able to lose myself in the mystique of a sci fi novel like this. Questions such as who were the Heechee who built these ships, where did they go, and what awaits humans who try to make use of their barely understood technology will keep you turning the pages to the very end.
I cannot stress how highly I regard this book. Buy it now or forever wonder what you missed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Jason Mills
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Deservedly called a classic. Pohl's novels have varied in quality, but this is undoubtedly his greatest work. The sequels are good but tend to dilute rather than intensify the original. But do not miss "Gateway".
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gateway won all three of the major awards available in 1977 (Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Award and I remember being pretty damn impressed with it at the time, so I was wondering how it would fare some 35 years later. Now there's no question that Science Fiction dates and it isn't a very good guide to predicting technological development. Even ten years ago, few could have imagined how all-pervasive and essential to modern life the Internet would become. SF is particularly vulnerable to this change. Sometimes titles stand up, sometimes (indeed more often than not) they don't. For every still brilliant Alfred Bester's Tiger! Tiger! (aka the more prosaic The Stars My Destination) there are umpteen turgid tomes by the likes of E.E. 'Doc' Smith.
That said, the SF idea behind Gateway still holds up well. Some time in the near future the remnants of a vanished alien race is found on a tunneled-out asteroid, now named Gateway, on the edges of the solar system. All that's left behind are scattered mysterious objects and hundreds of ships with pre-programmed destinations. Volunteers can take out a ship which are for one, three and five persons. Most of the time they return with nothing, sometimes a little, sometimes they don't return at all, sometimes the crew are found dead, and sometimes they hit it big and the crew are made for life. The story itself alternates between sessions with a computer psychiatrist and his patient, our protagonist who made a big find and with the story of his life and relationships on Gateway. Dumped throughout the text on separate pages are a variety of fragmentary pieces which form a collage of life on Gateway.
Dumped is an emotive word but that's now how these sections appear.... Read more ›
That said, the SF idea behind Gateway still holds up well. Some time in the near future the remnants of a vanished alien race is found on a tunneled-out asteroid, now named Gateway, on the edges of the solar system. All that's left behind are scattered mysterious objects and hundreds of ships with pre-programmed destinations. Volunteers can take out a ship which are for one, three and five persons. Most of the time they return with nothing, sometimes a little, sometimes they don't return at all, sometimes the crew are found dead, and sometimes they hit it big and the crew are made for life. The story itself alternates between sessions with a computer psychiatrist and his patient, our protagonist who made a big find and with the story of his life and relationships on Gateway. Dumped throughout the text on separate pages are a variety of fragmentary pieces which form a collage of life on Gateway.
Dumped is an emotive word but that's now how these sections appear.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Although the only reviews i post are on those books that i really love (with one exception) this truly is a standout book. An intellligent, gripping and beautifully written book that deals with the ideas of fear, guilt and ultimately what it is to be human. I truly can't recommend this book highly enough and for anybody who wants to read interesting thoughtful SF you'll do well to read this. A true masterpiece
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
How can sci - fi be this dull?
Like others, I thought I would try this book because it was listed as one of the Sci-Fi Masterworks.
I really am not sure why this book won any prizes. Read more
I really am not sure why this book won any prizes. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. M. Ratcliffe
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book that makes a mark
This book is about a human who wins two gambles at long odds to become enormously wealthy. Along the way he incurs some great losses. Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. K. Sparrow
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gateway
This is a must reed for all the lovers of the (Classic) SF genre; It's one of the first books that mentioned the existence of black holes, long before there was any real proof of... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Aragorn
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gateway... a gateway to a great read
I selected this book based on it's story - not it's writer and was surprised how good it was. If you are looking for a good (quick) read, that manages to keep you hooked from the... Read more
Published 18 months ago by stripyking
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bob's Excellent Adventure
Bob Broadhead toils away at a boring labor job with little hope of anything better. When he wins the lottery, the prize money is enough for one-way passage to the asteroid... Read more
Published 22 months ago by John M. Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars
just buy it
Been reading sci-fi for oooh over 30 years and this , people , really deserves the title of classic.No review necessary , I just insist that you buy/borrow/steal it!
Published 23 months ago by W. Rollason
5.0 out of 5 stars
A deserved science fiction classic
Frederik Pohl's Gateway has the rare distinction of winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards, that is both the award given by critics and by readers (in addition to also winning the... Read more
Published on 25 April 2011 by Mark Pack
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding sf classic
Beautifully written and compelling, Pohl's story presents the very human side of stellar exploration. This is not your standard sf!
Published on 29 Dec 2010 by Dr. Steven R. D. French
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gateway To A Heavenly Read Of The Heavens
Robinette Broadhead is a male and is going through therapy with a
Robotic psychologist.
Taking us back in time he relates his incredible time at Gateway,
an... Read more
Robotic psychologist.
Taking us back in time he relates his incredible time at Gateway,
an... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2010 by Mr. John Frank Herbert
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive
I wanted to find a good sci-fi book and when I stumbled upon Gateway I thought it sounded very interesting, so I bought it. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2010 by J. Pemberton
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