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 First edition cover | |
| Author | Frederik Pohl |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Vincent DiFate (serial)[1] |
| Cover artist | Boris Vallejo[2] |
| Language | English |
| Series | Heechee Saga |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
Publication date | April 1977 (serial from Nov 1976)[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 313 (first ed.) |
| Awards | Nebula Award for Best Novel (1977) Hugo Award for Best Novel (1978) John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1978) Locus Award for Best Novel (1978) |
| ISBN | 0-312-31780-8 |
| OCLC | 2862581 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.P748 Gat PS3566.O36[3] |
| Followed by | Beyond the Blue Event Horizon |
Gateway is a 1977 science-fiction novel by American writerFrederik Pohl. It is the opening novel in theHeechee saga, with four sequels that followed (five books overall).Gateway won the 1978Hugo Award forBest Novel,[4] the 1978Locus Award forBest Novel,[4] the 1977Nebula Award forBest Novel,[5] and the 1978John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.[4] The novel was adapted into acomputer game in 1992.
Gateway was serialized inGalaxy prior to its hardcover publication. A short concluding chapter, cut before publication, was later published in the August 1977 issue ofGalaxy.[6]
Gateway is an asteroid hollowed out by theHeechee, a long-vanished alien race. Humans have had limited success understanding the left-behind bits of Heechee technology found there and elsewhere. The Gateway Corporation administers the asteroid on behalf of the governments of theUnited States, theSoviet Union, the New People's Asia, the Venusian Confederation, and the United States ofBrazil.
Nearly a thousand small, abandoned starships are located at Gateway. By extremely dangeroustrial and error, humans have partially learned how to operate them. The controls for selecting a destination have been identified, but nobody knows where a particular setting will take the ship, how long the trip will last, or even if enough fuel is available to get back. Those who choose to risk their lives cram the limited space with equipment and hopefully enough food for the trip, but sometimes it is not enough, and they have to resort first to cannibalism, and if that is not enough, to suicide. Attempts atreverse engineering to find out how the ships work have ended only in disaster, as has changing the settings in midflight. Most settings lead to useless or lethal places. A few, however, result in the discovery of new Heechee artifacts andhabitable planets in other star systems, making the crews extremely wealthy. The vessels were made in three standard sizes, which can hold a maximum of one, three, or five people. Some "threes" and many "fives" are armored. Each ship includes a lander to visit a planet or other object if one is found.
Despite the risks, many people onimpoverished, overcrowded Earth dream of going to Gateway. Robinette Stetley Broadhead is a young food shale miner who wins a lottery, giving him enough money to purchase a one-way ticket to Gateway. Once there, he is frightened of the danger and puts off going on a mission as long as he can. In the meantime, he becomes romantically involved with two different women, eventually settling on Gelle-Klara Moynlin, his co-enabler in fearful delaying. Eventually, he starts running out of money, and although still terrified, he goes out on three trips. The first, with Klara and three others, is unsuccessful, and afterwards tension rises between them until he gives her a vicious beating. On the second trip, he goes by himself and inadvertently makes a discovery through unauthorized experimentation when he becomes infuriated after reaching Gateway Two, a smaller version of Gateway with only about 150 ships. He is awarded a sizable bonus because his route saves about 100 days of travel time; the windfall is partially offset by the large penalty for incapacitating his ship. On his third trip, the Gateway Corporation tries something different – sending two armored fives, one slightly behind the other, to the same destination, one rejected by most ships' computers; each crewmember is promised a million-dollar bonus. Bob signs up in desperation, along with Klara, with whom he has reconciled.
When the ships arrive, their crews find to their horror that they are in the gravitational grip of ablack hole without enough power to break free. One person devises a desperate escape plan: Move everyone into one ship and thrust the other toward the black hole with an explosion in a lander, thus gaining enough of a boost to escape. They work frantically to transfer unnecessary equipment to make room for everyone in one ship, but Broadhead finds himself alone in the wrong ship when time runs out. He closes the hatch so that the plan can proceed. However, his ship is the one that breaks free.
Broadhead returns to Gateway and is awarded all the mission bonuses. He feels such enormoussurvivor guilt for dooming his crewmates, especially Klara, that hesuppresses his memories of what happened, but he is very disturbed and miserable, though he does not understand why, so back on Earth as a wealthy man, he seeks therapy from anartificial intelligenceFreudian therapist program, which he names Sigfrid von Shrink.
The narrative alternates in time between Broadhead's experiences on Gateway and his sessions with Sigfrid, converging on the traumatic events near the black hole and Broadhead finally remembering them so he can begin to heal. Sigfrid helps him realize that due to thegravitational time dilation of the black hole's immense gravity field, time is passing much more slowly for his former crewmates and none of them have actually died yet. Broadhead, however, concludes that this means that they will still be alive when he dies, with Klara still believing that he betrayed them to save himself.
Also embedded in the narrative are various mission reports (usually with fatalities), roster openings, technical bulletins, and other documents Broadhead might have read on Gateway, adding to the verisimilitude. The economic side of living at Gateway is presented in detail, commencing with the contract all explorers must enter into with the Gateway Corporation, and including how some awards are determined.
C. Ben Ostrander reviewedGateway inThe Space Gamer No. 12.[7] Ostrander commented, "I loved this book. I like books thatdon't solve big problems, but take care of the characters."[7]
In 2015Variety announced that aGateway TV series was going to be written and produced byDavid Eick andJosh Pate forSyfy, although it failed to enter production.[9] In 2017Skybound Entertainment made an agreement with the Pohl estate for another attempt at making a TV series but it failed to begin production as well.[10]