Rating: 
Summary: Despite structural flaws, a satisfying read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A fine beginning.
Review: I'm always reluctant to start a new series of Sci-fi novels because of the usual let-down that ensues after a fine beginning novel. I've read the sequel, "Beyond the Blue Event Horizon," and I was thoroughly disappointed. It took me over a year to even bother to start the third book, which I am reading now and so far it doesn't look too promising, either. So, what I'm trying to say, in so many run-on sentences, is to read the first book only. It has a great mystery at its heart, and does what all masterful Sci-fi does best: raises more questions than it answers. There are a few down moments, but they are forgivable given that I was there with the characters pondering the mysteries of the Heechee and subconciously fearful for their well-being when they do travel to the stars. Some never return; some return with their entrails splattered all over the inside of the ship. It's a dice game with the craft of the Heechee. But those who return with artifacts and knowledge are likely to become rich beyond their wildest dreams. For some reason, much like Dan Simmons' "Endymion," I keep having memory flashes from this novel. I was there in spirit. The great Sci-fi novels take you on a journey into the unknown and sometimes beyond. This is one of those novels.
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