GATEWAY

by Frederik Pohl ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 1977

Lately Pohl has been gearing his future worlds and technologies less to fate-of-civilization extrapolation than to the imaginative shaping of inner events. (See Man Plus, 1976), Gateway does take place in a future society reflecting some penetrating guesses about the food-and-energy crisis. It does involve a complex Russian-roulette variant of space travel, employing the ships abandoned by an ancient alien civilization on the ""Gateway"" asteroid off Venus. But these materials--solid enough for a couple of books in themselves--are mere background to a wonderfully original analyst-and-patient couchhanger. The analyst is a computer named Sigfrid von Shrink, and the patient is the ulcer-ridden, fabulously wealthy lone survivor of the most monstrous disaster in the history of the Gateway ships. The sum total is a sort of ragged, irresistible bravura display, marred by a misproportioned ending but full of utterly splendid invention. Major Pohl, and one of the season's more worthwhile events.

Pub Date: March 28, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION