Reading Frederik Pohl's Gateway was a fairly pleasant experience. Lately I haven't got much time to devote to reading. A few days ago I had a few minutes to spare in a bookshop, I saw the book -- looked interesting. It's not really a big book, only 400 (small) pages long.
The story goes like this: a guy named Robinette Broadhead wins at the lottery. Instead of spending his money to raise some kids or party like mad for a whole year, he buys himself a ticket to the Gateway. The Gateway is a space station built by an ancient race of aliens, the Heechee. Nobody knows anything about who the Heechee were, how they looked like, or why did they built certain artifacts. However the complexity of the Heechee technology helps mankind progress, and the times are tough (overpopulation + pollution).
The finding of new Heechee artifacts is done with the help of the Gateway. Docked in the Gateway about a thousand spaceships that can travel faster than light speeds (*ahem* tau space). The problem with them is that nobody knows how to set the coordinates. So travelling is kind of a trial and error rate, and the pilots' mortality rate is quite high. However if the pilot finds Heechee artifacts he/she's set for life. Robinette would like to join a few expeditions, so he live a life without worries.
A parallel storyline is represented by conversations between Robinette and Sigfrid von Psycho, his robot psychiatrist. Basically in these paragraphs Robinette does nothing but whine for pages without end. What makes up for these boring moments are the vivid descriptions of life on the Gateway. I really enjoyed those, and Robinette's travels through space. In these moments Pohl shines as a writer. However in building his characters he's a little bit feeble. Robinette is nothing but an angsty little girl throughout the novel, an Sigfrid is as flat (but not as lovable) as HAL 9000. Really, I saw a few reviews on the Internet praising the characters in this book. Well, not really, teen angst doesn't actually mean deep. Yes, Robinette's remorse at the end is almost digestible. Yet in all other places his demeanor is just annoying. Really, I felt like bitchslapping him a few times.
However things get really sci-fi-licious once the space travels begin. A vivid universe unfolds before the reader, with countless enigmas. It's a bit disappointing that the end is quickly wrapped up, and virtually all the questions about the Heechee remain unanswered. I also felt a bit cheated at the end, because I was fed a cheap psychological novel, cunningly wrapped up in really really delicious science fiction.
Overall, was it worth it? Yes, definitely, for the science fiction. I loved the Gateway, the travels, the mystery of the Heechee. Maybe I will read the sequels one day, out of sheer curiosity -- I understand many things about the Heechee are explained. Reviewers complain that in later novels the characters become flat. Who cares? Both Asimov and Clarke had flat characters. Which was great, more story, less whining. Gateway could have been sheer awesomeness. Yet somewhere on the road, clumsily built characters got in the way of the story.
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