Perhaps the greatest love saga ever written, in a SciFi novel? (Gateway - Frederik Pohl)

Name: johnny8977

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Product:	Gateway - Frederik Pohl
Date:	18/03/02 (386 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Human interest story, Very imaginative, Follow on books expand on the ideas

Disadvantages: newcomers to SciFi may be put off

I rate really good books on how many times you can re-read them and still get as much enjoyment out of them as the first read. I’ve read perhaps hundreds of good books in my life, but only a few I would call really great on the basis I can read them repeatedly and still be engrossed by them.

The three stories I would count as being great (they are all sets of books) are The Lord Of the Rings, Orson Scott Card’s Ender saga (see my earlier Op on Ender’s Game) and Frederik Pohl’s Heechee saga, the first book being Gateway. The saga comprises of Gateway (1976), Beyond The Blue Event Horizon (1980), Heechee Rendezvous (1984) and Annals Of The Heechee (1987). This opinion is about the first book, Gateway, but I would recommend the entire saga.

Gateway was first published in 1976 and went onto receive the Nebula and Hugo awards for science fiction. Ringworld by Larry Niven and Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke have also done this, so this gives you some idea of how highly rated this book is within the science-fiction community. I would personally rate this book above the two mentioned for one important reason, its story is one of human interest, of people, it’s actually a love story deep down. The science fiction is secondary to the actual story. Ringworld and Rendezvous With Rama are pure science fiction. That is not to say the imagination and science fiction of Gateway isn’t good- far from it. It’s just that Gateway has much more going for it.

The story follows a central character called Robinette Broadhead. Quite an unusual and slightly feminine name, but you’ll find more out about that if you read the book. He prefers Bob, so that’s what we’ll call him here. Bob lives on Earth sometime in the future. Earth is over-populated and for most people a horrible place to live. Bob wants out. Bob gets lucky and wins the lottery, and seeing his chance to escape Earth, he buys a ticket
to Gateway.

Gateway is an artifact made out of an asteroid left by the Heechee. The Heechee are an alien race that appear to once have been present in the Solar System but for some reason vanished millennia ago. All they left behind were some tunnels on Venus, the Gateway asteroid, and a few spaceships. There are a few of these spaceships on Venus, but the majority have been left on the Gateway asteroid. Nothing is known on how to work them, apart from how to set them going on their pre-determined course. Some come back to Gateway, the majority don’t and the people piloting them are never heard from again. Even those that do return sometimes return too late, after the crew’s oxygen or water has run out. But the lucky ones that sometimes return bring back technological wonders that help humankind. These lucky ones are rewarded handsomely. That is the gamble of Gateway – set off on a journey you have no control of to almost certain death, but if you do return you have the chance of fortune beyond you dreams.

So Bob decides for the gamble, and Gateway follows his adventure. The book is written in alternating chapters. One chapter tells the story of Bob while he was on Gateway, the next is set after Gateway, when Bob is recounting his experiences with a robotic physiatrist. Therefore right from the beginning you know Bob is one of the lucky ones and returned alive, but how lucky is not so obvious. Another interesting feature of the book is that every few pages there is an example of life on Gateway. The majority of these are adverts that would appear on Gateway notice boards, but there are also things like a copy of the contract each Gateway prospector has to sign or transcripts of Heechee lectures. This helps give background to the entire story in a non-intrusive matter.

I could go on forever on the details of the book, but ultimately that would spoil it for those you that have non yet read and will so in the future. Rest as
sured this is a very interesting and clever book filled with excellent ideas and imagination.

But wait, didn’t I say this was a love story. Yes, it is. But I won’t give too much away about that because it is the reason I keep coming back to this book year after year. It isn’t your regular Mills & Boon style boy meets girls and falls in love type love story. No. It’s an everyday story of boy meets girl, boy and girl fight, boy and girl love each other, boy and girl ……………….

And it is the part that is missing that is absolutely outstanding and drives the rest of the story into 3 more books. All I can say without spoiling the surprise is that the conclusion and the consequences of what happens at the end of Gateway means that you cannot wait to read the follow ups. The other books move onto more and more imaginative ideas, including why exactly the Heechee vanished, but the love story always remains.

If you have never read science fiction in you life, read this. If you have never read a love story in your life, read this. Hell, if you’re illiterate, learn how to read, and read this!

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