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casheww's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
devermismysteris's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
christopherc's review against another edition
2.0
The big idea of Frederik Pohl's 1977 novel Gateway is an alien relic discovered orbiting the sun. This eponymous space station holds hundreds of alien ships that human explorers find are capable of faster-than-light travel and can be directed towards certain preset destinations. Some of the ships come back with fantastic new technologies that make their finders rich, but most ships either don't come back at all, or come back with a dead crew. In this dystopian vision of the future, when the poor masses of an overpopulated Earth slave away in mines to barely stay alive, many are willing to take their chances for a shot at the good life.
The protagonist of Gateway is Robinette Broadhead, a former miner who has realized his dream of working as a prospector in spite of the poor odds. As the novel opens, he is back on Earth talking to a psychiatrist, now fantastically wealthy from one of his finds, but traumatized by something that happened on a trip out from Gateway. In the first person, his life is told in flashbacks that alternate with psychoanalytical sessions. His psychiatrist is a computer program, inspired by the old ELIZA program that Joseph Weizenbaum wrote in the Sixties.
The ending of this book, the big event that so scarred Broadhead and has been repeatedly foreshadowed, is bizarrely rushed, only a couple of pages of sketchy description. It is almost as if Pohl was struggling to meet a deadline. Most of Broadhead's sessions with his psychoanalyst repetitive, only serving to fill the page count. This story could have been packed into a novella and would have been all the better for it.
I'm really surpised that Gateway was showered with accolades upon publication. Perhaps part of that is how edgy it may have seemed to a 1977 audience. Not only does Pohl write of a future where gay relationships are as ordinary as straight ones, but he puts some gay sex fantasies in the head of his mainly straight protagonist. Everyone in the book has multiple sex partners and smokes grass. Broadhead is a twisted guy, one moment drawing the reader's sympathy and the next beating up his girlfriend or attacking another girlfriend with a knife. It is thus more adventurous than most science-fiction. However, the dialogue that Pohl writes is essentially stuck in the mid-20th century when this writer was starting out, and the descriptive prose is fairly pulp.
One might be attracted to read Gateway because it found a place in the canon of science-fiction, and the speculative ideas of the book are interesting enough, but be aware that it suffers from the usual deficiences of the genre and then some.
The protagonist of Gateway is Robinette Broadhead, a former miner who has realized his dream of working as a prospector in spite of the poor odds. As the novel opens, he is back on Earth talking to a psychiatrist, now fantastically wealthy from one of his finds, but traumatized by something that happened on a trip out from Gateway. In the first person, his life is told in flashbacks that alternate with psychoanalytical sessions. His psychiatrist is a computer program, inspired by the old ELIZA program that Joseph Weizenbaum wrote in the Sixties.
The ending of this book, the big event that so scarred Broadhead and has been repeatedly foreshadowed, is bizarrely rushed, only a couple of pages of sketchy description. It is almost as if Pohl was struggling to meet a deadline. Most of Broadhead's sessions with his psychoanalyst repetitive, only serving to fill the page count. This story could have been packed into a novella and would have been all the better for it.
I'm really surpised that Gateway was showered with accolades upon publication. Perhaps part of that is how edgy it may have seemed to a 1977 audience. Not only does Pohl write of a future where gay relationships are as ordinary as straight ones, but he puts some gay sex fantasies in the head of his mainly straight protagonist. Everyone in the book has multiple sex partners and smokes grass. Broadhead is a twisted guy, one moment drawing the reader's sympathy and the next beating up his girlfriend or attacking another girlfriend with a knife. It is thus more adventurous than most science-fiction. However, the dialogue that Pohl writes is essentially stuck in the mid-20th century when this writer was starting out, and the descriptive prose is fairly pulp.
One might be attracted to read Gateway because it found a place in the canon of science-fiction, and the speculative ideas of the book are interesting enough, but be aware that it suffers from the usual deficiences of the genre and then some.
alicia_sg's review against another edition
3.0
Un libro clásico de ciencia ficción que contiene los elementos del género y un paso más. Es un libro muy entretenido, que engancha fácil y que trata los vericuetos de la mente humana en situaciones traumáticas y de estrés.
Tiene un par de partes problemáticas para mi: una en la que justifica la violencia hacia su compañera Klara y luego cuando el protagonista entra en una ruleta de promiscuidad en la que hace comentarios sobre sus compañeras sexuales un tanto faltones.
Pero no se puede juzgar un libro porque tenga un protagonista que sea un poco gilipollas.
Tiene un par de partes problemáticas para mi: una en la que justifica la violencia hacia su compañera Klara y luego cuando el protagonista entra en una ruleta de promiscuidad en la que hace comentarios sobre sus compañeras sexuales un tanto faltones.
Pero no se puede juzgar un libro porque tenga un protagonista que sea un poco gilipollas.
goodkoopa's review against another edition
4.0
A guy goes to an asteroid and there's people living there and lots of aliens ships that are on autopilot and they fly to far away places and the people go on the ships and collect stuff and get money but sometimes they die and one guy has no legs. The guy also has a robot psychologist. It was a good book because it was really interesting all the stuff that happened and it wasn't like other science fiction books and there was lots of sex. I would like to read the next book in the thing because i want to know what happens next and often when you read the next book you find out what happened next so I want to do that.
kaiguerrero's review against another edition
4.0
Me ha sorprendido lo mucho que me ha gustado. El protagonista es odioso, misógino y asqueroso. Pero no deja de ser el reflejo de una sociedad enferma. La novela te atrapa entre la reflexión existencial que esconde y la creciente intriga que la trama va generando. Lo recomiendo muchísimo. Eso sí, la sombre de Freud te persigue durante toda la lectura, para bien y para mal.
marcrinai's review against another edition
4.0
¿Que pasaría si la humanidad encontrase perdida un satélite artificial alienígena, abandonado desde hace más de medio millón de años? Así comienza este grandioso libro lleno de misterios que se irán resolviendo en los siguientes libros poco a poco.
seyj's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
duccquacc's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tritlo's review against another edition
5.0
I thought it was a pretty good read. Did not take long, and though the book takes a little time to start, it really picks up, and when I was half done, I just had to finish it then and there. It's interesting how the whole book is a build up to a twist ending, though it's not one you see coming. The alien race presented, though not seen in the book is intriguing, and I'm considering getting the rest of the Heechee trilogy to find out more about. All in all a good read, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who's considering it.