Gateway

Gateway is a very entertaining book that alternates between the main character's description of his life working as a "prospector" a group of people tasked with piloting alien ships that they are not sure how to control to potentially new technology and fabulous wealth or into a certain death. This storyline is alternated with on in which the author is going to counseling sessions to try to work out the problems of his last mission. The two stories intertwine in a way that revels the same story but from different perspectives. There also interspersed throughout the book little informative tidbits in the form of classified ads and interviews with other characters giving the reader a word illustration of what is going on in the larger world of Gateway. I thought there were an especially good idea. Overall I really liked this book and was more than willing to give it a 5 stars. But then I got to the last chapters.I have often heard other authors say that they do not consider their books sci fi when they obviously are. And I have always wondered why that is. I would think that one would love to have their book classified as this because it has a guaranteed fan base. But after reading Gateway and a few others I am beginning to see why. I have read several of the Hugo and Nebula award winning books and one thing that has bothered me about they is that many of these books that have been judged to be the best of the genera for that year by both readers (Hugo) and writers (Nebula) are written at about the emotional level of a 16 year old boy from the 1960. To give an example, there are several chapters in the story where the main character has encounters with his main love interest and they have quirky relationship that really doesn't seem to get developed that much except for the fact that she keeps referring to horoscopes and he keeps smoking and making witty retorts between endless bouts of sex. In one chapter he confronts his girlfriend after finding out that she has slept with another man (that he also has romantic feeling for) they end up getting into a fight and he severely beats her actually picking her up off the ground to punch her and knock a tooth out. Later in the book they are reunited and she makes know reference to the vicious attack and professes that she still loves him! WTF!!!!! The character even mentions that he can see the gap in her smile when the aforementioned tooth was knocked out! To me this is the most implausible part of the entire story. 1.) It implies that she is to blame for what happened and she acknowledges that. 2.) It also suggests that he is just so irresistible that despite he viciously beat a women she will still come back to him and let bygones be bygones making some offhand comment about people with his sign being volatile. This would maybe have made sense to me when I was 14 if I had read it but I am not and neither was the author when he wrote it. And I think that here is why you have authors that write a variety of books not wanting the sci fi label applied to their work. Even the acknowledged best in the genre often has terrible character development and just is not written with a mature non-male audience in mind. I am beginning to get the impression that labeling a book as sci fi indicates that it is sci fi written in a immature pulpy manner as which I find really sad since many stories have some really good ideas that are just really poorly executed.

Great book reread it in the last week. For those who don’t know Gateway is a relic of the Heechee an ancient alien race that has vanished. They have left ships behind that no one knows where they go. It is either death nothing or jackpot. Robinette Broadhead is a player and he eventually hits the Jackpot. But he is tormented by those who have been left behind. And he seeks psychiatric help a computer program named Ziggy

I love Gateway. I've read this and the sequels several times, over the decades. But if you check out the reviews, you'll see a spectrum of taste, ranging from adulation to contempt. Here's a brief sample of the science fiction works that I like. If you like them too, then you'll probably enjoy Gateway (a lot).Asimov's Foundation Series95%+ of Heinlein's work (I think I've read them all)Clarke (Fountains of Paradise, Rendezvous with Rama)The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry HarrisonRay Bradbury (451 for example)Charles Sheffield's Cold as Ice seriesAldous Huxley (BNW, Chrome Yellow, Ape and Essence)I think that Gateway fits into this genre very well, but closer to the "far out" range, like Niven's Rig World. Still, he handles the fantastic very well and makes it believable, as in "Yeah, that could happen."Now the bad news. The sequels are very good and they introduce interesting new situations and characters. But in my opinion (you may think otherwise) they are 4-star. This first book in the series is the best. To me, it's well worth reading the series but Gateway is a stand-alone masterpiece, like Stranger in a Strange Land, and Fahrenheit 451. If you like shootouts with ray-guns, this is not your book.

This book has one thing going for it, and that is that it is original. The basic premise of "Gateway" as an abandoned alien outpost with a bunch of alien FTL ships that still sort of work is an intriguing setup. This is "hard sci-fi" but the focus is clearly on the human psyche, emotions, and relationships. I'm not opposed to that - I'd rather have a good story with well-developed, complex characters rather than space battles and exploding spaceships and laser beams. But this particular book didn't work for me.Quite simply, I found this book terminally dull and dreary. There is some humor sprinkled throughout, most of it quite dark. But otherwise - our protagonist is a self-absorbed drifter. He never takes much initiative, until the last possible minute, and usually out of fear or desperation. I found very little to identify with or like about him.The future world imagined here is also quite bleak. We don't learn a whole lot about the world outside of Gateway, but it sounds like the Earth is overpopulated with a dreary subsistence existence for the untold billions, and a minority of rich people living in luxury. Gateway itself is not much better - a bunch of desperate prospectors, mostly dropouts from society, essentially playing Russian roulette for a chance at getting rich.The book alternates between the present, with the narrator (Rob) "on the couch" with a computer psychotherapist, and the past, describing Rob's time at Gateway. The two storylines converge toward the end of the book, which is the only part I found interesting (but depressing!) For the first 80% or so, they are quite disconnected, except for occasional mention of characters or events from the "past" storyline coming up in the "present" therapy sessions, and of course the "present" foreshadowing that Rob somehow strikes it rich, and that something bad happens. Otherwise the therapy sessions are mostly Rob whining about the computer therapist, which speaks mostly in clichés. The "past" storyline at Gateway is a little more engaging, but again it is such a bleak setting. There is not much action, so instead we have lots of drifting, dissipation, and navel-gazing while waiting for something to happen.So overall, this book has an interesting concept, and I can understand why it is considered a classic, but I didn't enjoy reading it. It gave me the same feeling as I had years ago in high school when they made us read John Updike's "Rabbit Run". As literature I guess it's good because it says something about the human condition, but there's nothing uplifting or enjoyable about reading it. Definitely not something to read if you're just looking for a few hours of escapist fantasy.One other note: The Kindle edition has numerous typos and formatting mistakes. There are sections where entire sentences appear to get chopped up and duplicated at random, making entire pages unintelligible. There are sections where the "main text" gets run into the "notices" and "classified ads". There are words and names that clearly got spelled wrong. Much more intrusive and pervasive than the occasional typos that pop up in Kindle editions.

The book is about Robinette Broadhead and his experiences on Gateway. Gateway is an artificial spaceport full of working interstellar ships that were left behind by this mysterious alien race called the Heecheees. These ships are pre-programmed by the aliens (that never show up in the book by the way) to take you to various destinations in the universe. 50% of the ships come back and a few of the astronauts die. People volunteer and are paid if they bring alien artifacts back.The idea of the book must have influenced the creators of the movie Stargate and this is why I decided to read it.I find the main character very annoying, as he isn't very bright. he has psychological issues and sees an AI psychologist to help him. He is also more concerned about meeting women and having relationships with them than actually exploring the universe.I am quite surprised this book got so many awards. While it does contain some cool ideas I found the characters very boring and not intellectually stimulating. This is why I gave it just two stars.

The strength of this excellent book is the pleasing premise on which it is founded. The theme of a human encounter with the artefacts and machinery of a mysteriously vanished alien civilisation is redolent of ‘Rendezvous with Rama’ by Arthur C Clark published three years prior. However Pohl develops this shared theme brilliantly by introducing a means by which humanity can travel at in access of the speed of the light without the usual literary and scientific objections. In this way he is able to maintain a high degree of scientific verisimilitude.The narrative is cleverly peppered with scientifically accurate contributions about neutron stars, black holes and the dilation of time around such singularities. Pohl brilliantly constructs a tangible space community with a convincing ethos, population and culture skilfully sketched through the inclusion: of resident’s letters, adverts and mission reports.This is a study of fear, desperation and the pioneering spirit of humanity. The claustrophobia of the semi lit Heechee tunnels of Gateway and spacecraft adroitly create tension and suspense throughout.At the heart of the narrative is also a pleasing theme of guilt as the flawed central character struggles to come to terms with the consequences of his own survival. This is developed through the dialogue between Brodhead and his AI psychotherapist the juxtaposition between who serves to illuminate the former and the reader as to what it is to be human.Pohl writes with fluidity and pace and uses comic one-liners to great effect. This is an accomplished piece of writing which is convincing on many levels.

??Gateway?? was published in 1976 but the themes seem pretty contemporary some 40 years later: environmental destruction, economic inequality, social alienation, childlessness. It feels very naturalistic: we never encounter any aliens because they are long gone, and we don't understand their amazing technological artifacts at all. But we’re trying, we're organized, fumbling around for it, and desperadoes like our (male) narrator Robinette Broadhead are at the vanguard of discovery, setting out in the alien pre-programmed spacecraft in a gold rush for more abandoned alien technology.The committee that runs the colony from where it happens is also very nicely depicted in that it's harsh but seems meticulously fair; large sums of money are doled out to successful pilots.As well as the scenario and setting, the characters and their tales are also naturalistic: they're in constant emotional turmoil. It's an interplanetary human society that without religion and tradition leaves many of its members morally rudderless.Only the narrative device of telling the story to an AI psychotherapist feels a bit clunky.

First I'll start by saying that this book was written decades ago. So a number of the key sci-fi concepts are very dated now, initially this put me off, but frankly I'm glad I stuck with it.The book features an entirely flawed but human cast of characters in a truly dystopian future, and portrays them in a very clear and concise manner. You feel for the main character, whilst at the same time wanting to give him a kick up the backside and say 'get on with it!' But that's easy to say when your life isn't at risk.My only real complaint is that the cover jacket in no way reflects the actual story, but since this is a very minor niggle and is still great artwork I'll let it pass!Overall a great read and well worth a little suspension of disbelief.

A great and compassionate book about love and life that happens to be science fiction. I read a lot of science fiction (as well as write it), and this is some of the best. I can't understand why i have missed it before. A great bit of writing about human character, what it really is to be an explorer, the nature of courage and fear, and above all, the pointlessness, beauty, and inevitability of love. It asks more than it answers, and when it ended, i was (as the old cliche of good writing goes) grief struck as the characters seemed like old friends and i wanted more of them.Great writing, like great music, inspires and gives us all hope - if someone can be this perceptive maybe, just maybe, someone will eventually figure a way out of this mess we call the human condition.