It's unclear why the author put the scene into the book as later it seems as though it never took place. Its an unpleasant moment in an otherwise interesting novel.

She leaves him, but then returns and professes her love. But something soured the whole book for me which was when Robinette beats up his girlfriend. Its an excellent premise for a science fiction novel and Frederik Pohl brings to two parts of the story together very elegantly. Some of these are automated as they describe the destruction of crews. Between these alternating stories we find extracts from Gateway's rule book and workers' contracts, small ads and reports from other missions. The other chapters follow Robinette's adventures, his love life, partying and life on Gateway. Alternate chapters look at Robinette's interaction with his electronic shrink, trying to come to terms with some disaster that takes place, we understand, during his time flying from Gateway. Gateway is a carefully constructed novel. Despite this, the unknowns about the flights keep Robinette from flying until he can no longer put it off.

Air, water, food costs money and potential crew must pay their bills or risk being kicked off the asteroid. So Gateway attracts those who are desperate, or hoping to turn a small amount of money into extreme wealth. Essentially its a gamble, but in the overcrowded, poor future, its the only way to make real wealth for those from a lowly background. At these destinations there might, and the emphasis is on might, be technology that could make the crew richer and the company that runs Gateway even richer.īut some of these destinations are lethal - perhaps the edge of a supernova or black hole, or they might need travel time in excess of the air and provisions that people like Robinette could take with them. The technology was barely understood, yet using the spacecraft could take their crews to far-off stars, solar systems or even outside the galaxy. Years before humanity discovered this hollowed out asteroid which contained hundreds of alien craft. With his cash he buys a trip to Gateway and signs up to be an explorer using the alien spacecraft there. Robinette Broadhead is a miner, but has dreams of escaping and one day wins the lottery. In the distant future the solar system has been colonised, but one most of the inner planets working people struggle to survive in appalling conditions of over-population, low wages, synthetic food and very low income. This is, essentially, a spoiler, so stop reading here if you don't want to know a key plot element. Frederik Pohl is a remarkable novel, but there was a fatal problem with it that I will mention in this review.

Fred pohl gateway