Broadhead in sessions with an AI psychiatrist, trying to get to the root of a deep trauma that both threads will eventually converge on. His story unfolds in two parts, one of which follows his life and relationships from Earth to Gateway and beyond, and the other of which has the older and now fantastically rich Mr. But he’s easy to relate to, not really being a bad guy at heart, and his fear is understandable, given the horrible deaths that await many prospectors. Bob, as he’s called, is a pretty flawed character, a self-centered, sex-chasing man who’s also somewhat of a coward. One such volunteer is Robinette Broadhead, a former miner of oil shale (now used for growing foodstuffs - yum), who wins the lottery. People volunteer for this mission because life on an overcrowded Earth has become pretty miserable for most, with quality medical care available only to the wealthy few (sound familiar?). So, the Gateway Corporation recruits 'prospectors' willing to risk a fairly high chance of death to take images of different parts of the galaxy and bring back artifacts that the Corporation might study.

Nobody has a clue how Heechee technology works. A once temperate star might have supernova-d since the time of Heechee civilization. Not all of the ships still work perfectly after half a million years, and some of the destinations are lethal. Nobody knows what happened to the Heechee or why they abandoned their base, but many of the ships are in working order and will travel by autopilot to other star systems and the planets orbiting them. Humanity has discovered an ancient alien space station near Venus, called Gateway, which is filled with small starships.

To be fair, the setup is one of the coolest in science fiction. At eleven, I was more interested in the science fiction aspects (somehow, most of the sex and drug use went over my head), but with repeated readings, I’ve come to appreciate the human elements of the story a lot more. Gateway is a book I’ve read several times since I was a kid, and an old favorite.

Gateway pohl