One of the nice things about writing about a different book from my collection every day is rediscovering old favorites. In this case, Frederik Pohl’s Heechee Saga, which starts with Gateway, which I liked and remember vividly, although I have only read it once or twice1.
This book was written in the 1970s and it’s always fun to read books about the future and see what comes true, and doesn’t.
First, this book is hard science fiction, written by a man, about a male main character. And yet – unusual for books by old school male science fiction writers – it contains female characters who, like the male characters, go to space and have space adventures and aren’t always trying to drag men to the altar.2
We meet the main character, Robinette Broadhead3, during a therapy session in chapter 1. His therapist, who he calls Sigmund, is an AI routine4 who sometimes uses a physical dummy, but is mostly a voice in a room with a padded floor and a window that shows a video scene5. Sigmund keeps trying to get Bob to talk about things that really bother him. And Bob, with the long experience of a man who has been in therapy for years and years, uses psychobabble (“I prefer you don’t use psychiatric terms, Bob.”), refuses to speak instead disappearing into safer memories, chooses even safer memories to share with his therapist, who holds him accountable for his lack of progress, and threatens to leave and not come back (although he always does).
The book veers back and forth between Bob’s therapy sessions and his narration of his story, the story that leads to the traumatic event that is the reason he sought out therapy to begin with. He was but a child when explorers from Earth find the remains of an alien base on Venus6, call the aliens the Heechee, and send artifacts back to earth museums. Later, these same explorers find a map that leads them another alien base, this one on an asteroid – and with ships! Unfortunately, they have no idea what these aliens look like and cannot interpret their language, and so they have no idea how to steer the ships or even tell where they are going. Basically, you get in, push “Go”, the ship takes you out to a destination, then it brings you back, at some pre-programmed time.
Bob, who at this time, has inherited his father’s sh*t job in the Wyoming “food mines” where they mine hydrocarbons that gets turned into food for the people of earth.7 After a bad breakup with a girlfriend, he has a psychic break and ends up in a mental hospital for a few months; his mother, who also works in the food mines, cannot afford his treatment plus treatment for the form of black lung she develops in his absence8, and dies. So, when he wins $250k in the lottery9, he has nothing left on Earth and decides to blow it all becoming a Heechee prospector.
Prospectors are people who go to Gateway and, from there, search for Heechee artifacts. Originally, searching happened in the tunnels and hidden rooms on the base itself; recently, it has mostly taken the form of getting into a Heechee ship, pushing the “Go” button, and seeing where it takes you, in an effort to find artifacts out there… somewhere… and hopefully return with your legs and your life.
Some of these ships are singles, holding one person; some hold more than one person, and you are then forced to find a partner or a group who wants to go with you. Some of the ships go out and then come back right away: low risk, low return. Other ships go out and don’t come back – or come back long after their human passengers have died: high risk, very low return. Some ships take their passengers to places where they can find other Heechee artifacts: high return. Of course, every prospector hopes to strike a big one and return to earth to live in wealth. However, every prospector has to take some level of risk just to avoid getting spaced from Gateway because they can’t pay their “hotel” bill.
The book goes on to tell about Bob’s adventures going prospecting in the Heechee ships, the friends and characters he meets there, and how he meets, falls in love with, and loses the love of his life, Klara, the one who literally got away, and why he so desperately does not want to discuss it with Sigmund, now that he is back on Earth, with untold wealth from his adventures and, in particular, his last adventure.
His story is punctuated with artifacts from the future: an advertisement for the museum he remembers from his childhood, the agreement he signs when he arrives on Gateway, a handful of lines of Sigmund’s code. They add a fun element to the book and fill in exposition without wasting time having Bob explain the details of his agreement, or whatever.
If you, like me, like books about people exploring the artic or traveling across the plains in a covered wagon, or exploring new lands here or on other planets, or journeying across middle earths, or joining the first wave of humans settling new planets – and if you haven’t tried the Heechee Saga yet, give Gateway a shot. It’s fun and easy to read, draws you in and keeps you reading, and has a great sense of humor without being goofy.
- Literally. At most I’ve read it twice. ↩︎
- Check. Women expected to take on challenges like men was not standard in the 1970s. I used to belong to a SF writers club and one of the writers asked me what I thought of such and such a book. I said it had clearly been written by a man because the female character – although intended to be a strong leader – had as part of her origin story that she had been raped. As if that was the only way that the male writer could think to “prove” that she was a woman – I guess it was either that or having a baby. And then I had to explain to him what that meant. Hey, Princess Leia didn’t have to get raped to prove she was a woman. She was all woman – and a kickass rebel leader. ↩︎
- While it is not as strange as it may have been in the 1970s as it is now, Robinette kind of has a “boy named Sue” chip on his shoulder about it. Now he goes by Bob. ↩︎
- Check. There are numerous studies showing that computers could be helpful aids in certain aspects of therapy. These are studies from decades ago, before AI was a thing. And, incidentally, those stories say that they should be used in combination with human doctors and not be the only form of therapy. ↩︎
- Check. Cruise ships now routinely have this for inner cabins and a colleague was just telling me about a cruise-ship restaurant designed to be as if you were on a train with windows showing a moving video of passing scenery. Google “faux video windows” and you can own one yourself. ↩︎
- This one feels like a miss to me. The more we learn about Venus, the less hospitable to Earth life it seems. ↩︎
- Check. Oh, you think we’re not eating oil? Where do you think artificial flavors and colors come from? And artificial sweeteners? Why do you think everyone is warning us about “ultra-processed” foods? And why they’re finding microplastics in every corner of our bodies? What the heck do you think microplastics are? ↩︎
- Check. At least in the U.S. ↩︎
- Which I feel you are obligated to say in the voice of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, when he told his modern henchmen that he would demand One. Million. Dollars in ransom from the world’s leaders. As one of my NY colleagues said when she looked at the restaurant check at a Midwestern dining establishment, “Oh, that’s so cute.” ↩︎
Change+Management 