AvonVilla reviewed Gateway by Frederik Pohl (Heechee, #1)
Past its use-by date
3 stars
A deserted alien transport hub is discovered on an asteroid, and humans get to use the ships to explore the galaxy, despite not really understanding how they achieve faster-than-light travel. It's incredibly dangerous. The company which runs it creates a nightmare of late-stage capitalism. It's a bit like "Squid Game", where the economy is so bad, you risk everything by getting on one of the Gateway ships. The setting also reminded me of "The Expanse". That's the good bit.
The parallel plot is about the protagonist dealing with the trauma of his experiences on Gateway, as he takes part in therapy with a computer psychoanalyst called Sigfrid. This section let it down for me. Like Pohl's "Man Plus", the tortured masculinity he portrays is annoying, at best. Towards the end of the book, the protagonist Rob launches a vicious assault on his girlfriend, who somehow still decides to come back …
A deserted alien transport hub is discovered on an asteroid, and humans get to use the ships to explore the galaxy, despite not really understanding how they achieve faster-than-light travel. It's incredibly dangerous. The company which runs it creates a nightmare of late-stage capitalism. It's a bit like "Squid Game", where the economy is so bad, you risk everything by getting on one of the Gateway ships. The setting also reminded me of "The Expanse". That's the good bit.
The parallel plot is about the protagonist dealing with the trauma of his experiences on Gateway, as he takes part in therapy with a computer psychoanalyst called Sigfrid. This section let it down for me. Like Pohl's "Man Plus", the tortured masculinity he portrays is annoying, at best. Towards the end of the book, the protagonist Rob launches a vicious assault on his girlfriend, who somehow still decides to come back to him. Pohl makes a feeble attempt to redeem the character with a bit of guilt and remorse, but it's not enough. He doesn't deserve a happy ending. The exploration of Rob's bisexuality is also cringeworthy. Pohl seems to be well-meaning, but he just regurgitates Freudian nonsense in fictional form.
Disappointing.
