"Gateway" by Frederik Pohl; 6/10 [H]

Good, not great.  The big thing to see here is the premise, but I found the story mostly uninteresting, the finale it kept building up moderately disappointing, the choice of narrative style distracting, and the characters boring.  That said, it was a great premise, and the world in which Pohl set the book is also one of major interest to me.

The novel is set in an ultra-capitalistic future in which the tiny minority of wealthy people have medical care that makes them nearly immortal (organ transplants, rejuvenation drugs, etc), while everyone else is floundering in a highly exploitative society.  Did this democractic socialist find that vision interesting? Yeah. 

The main feature on which we focus is the Gateway, a chunk of rock discovered by space explorers that was hollowed out by a long-since-vanished alien race millions of years ago and used as a base for small ships to go on exploratory missions at faster-than-light speeds to uncharted regions all over the galaxy. The human race is unable to dismantle this technology for reproduction or recreation, but the ships in the Gateway are all pre-programmed with destination coordinates, so it is possible for would-be explorers to simply press buttons and rush off to far-off star systems. 

If they manage to return and bring with them bits of technology from their destinations (medicine, gizmos, food, etc) they can gain the rights from the corporation which runs the Gateway to huge bonuses which set them on the aforementioned easy street for life.  Sorta like the colonists coming to the New World.  There is a high level of danger, however, and even if you can get back, there is no guarantee that you'll be able to return with anything of worth.

The protagonist is recounting his story of travel in one of these ships to a therapist computer named Sigfrid, which is helping him cope with what happened on his voyage.  This plot device was an anathema to me, I really didn't care for either the protagonist or the computer, and it interrupted the narrative whenever I finally managed to get hooked, giving the whole book a stilted feeling.  A good idea and a good setting, but like Ringworld, I didn't care for how the author put them to use.

Pohl was better known as an editor of science fiction magazines, including Astonishing Stories, Galaxy, and If, the former of which gave beginnings to many major authors of the period under his editorship.  He was one of the guiding lights to the genre for decades, and is still living and writing to this day (92 years old).  He is thoroughly respected as a man who furthered the interests of science fiction and who helped bring it and its best authors into the public eye.  Did this influence the Hugo voters into giving him a vote of thanks when he produced his best novel? I don't know, but I will say I think Niven & Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer" deserved the award that year (more on that to come). This is worth your time, but not as good as advertised.