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draackje's review against another edition
3.0
Supposedly a Science Fiction Masterwork. I can see why, but I'm not sure I agree.
It depicts a very realistic future with scarce resources, where you are either very rich and live a luxury life, or are very poor and live a hard-working life in mines etc. One way to escape the poor life is to volunteer for a possibly very rewarding exploration of the universe in recently discovered alien spaceships, of which nobody knows how they work or where they go. This is galactic russian roulette though: you may come back with riches from another planet, you may come back with nothing, you may come back dead, or you may not come back at all. In the story it becomes clear that life as a space-explorer isn't great: you have to live on a desolate, boring spacestation, you have to pay your bills and food, and the only way to earn money is to gamble your life on an alien spaceship and hope to return with valuables. Otherwise you'll have to gamble your life again and again. The only distractions from constantly living in fearful anticipation of the next (potentially deadly) exploration are sex, drugs, alcohol and gambling.
The story starts off slow, focusing on Bob's lifestory. In one storyline we see his story develop chronological, in the other storyline we see Bob discuss his lifestory in the future with his robotic psychiatrist. From the first page you know Bob is troubled by some experience in his life, but he somehow ended up rich. The chronological storyline and the psychiatrical storyline slowly work towards a combined climax, you can see this climax coming from page one. This helps to drive the point of the author home; life as space-explorer is extremely boring and almost hopeless; hardly anything happens, it only exist out of fearful anticipation and distractions, and like with gambling you know you're probably going to end up pretty bad. The main character isn't likeable, he is just an ordinary egocentric guy, that behaves much like anybody would do in such a situation. Try to make the best of it and procrastinate a lot. All in all, not much happens in the story, it moves very slowly and at times it's almost boring. But since you know (from the psychiatric storyline) that something dramatic will happen, you read on.
Eventually you get to the climax, and by then you'll have an understanding (maybe even sympathy) for the characters, you'll have 'experienced' how boring and hopeless life is for them, you can feel their anticipation; waiting for that one lucky gamble, just as you're waiting for that one moment of climax. And I have to admit that I read the last ten pages three times over, just to try to grasp the "dramaticness" of the climax. This might be the most dramatic ending to a (love)story I have ever read. It is odd to have read 200+ pages without really caring about any of the characters or events, and then to read the last ten pages in absolute disbelief.
If I could, I would only recommend to read the last few pages of the book, since they are an amazing dramatic ending. However, they would mean nothing without the very slow and boring buildup from the other pages. Now, I can only advise you to be prepared for a long, slow story, which at times feels rather outdated and doesn't feature very likeable characters. However, it is an excellent imagining of how a capitalistic system would handle space-exploration and how an individual person would be valued in that system.
It depicts a very realistic future with scarce resources, where you are either very rich and live a luxury life, or are very poor and live a hard-working life in mines etc. One way to escape the poor life is to volunteer for a possibly very rewarding exploration of the universe in recently discovered alien spaceships, of which nobody knows how they work or where they go. This is galactic russian roulette though: you may come back with riches from another planet, you may come back with nothing, you may come back dead, or you may not come back at all. In the story it becomes clear that life as a space-explorer isn't great: you have to live on a desolate, boring spacestation, you have to pay your bills and food, and the only way to earn money is to gamble your life on an alien spaceship and hope to return with valuables. Otherwise you'll have to gamble your life again and again. The only distractions from constantly living in fearful anticipation of the next (potentially deadly) exploration are sex, drugs, alcohol and gambling.
The story starts off slow, focusing on Bob's lifestory. In one storyline we see his story develop chronological, in the other storyline we see Bob discuss his lifestory in the future with his robotic psychiatrist. From the first page you know Bob is troubled by some experience in his life, but he somehow ended up rich. The chronological storyline and the psychiatrical storyline slowly work towards a combined climax, you can see this climax coming from page one. This helps to drive the point of the author home; life as space-explorer is extremely boring and almost hopeless; hardly anything happens, it only exist out of fearful anticipation and distractions, and like with gambling you know you're probably going to end up pretty bad. The main character isn't likeable, he is just an ordinary egocentric guy, that behaves much like anybody would do in such a situation. Try to make the best of it and procrastinate a lot. All in all, not much happens in the story, it moves very slowly and at times it's almost boring. But since you know (from the psychiatric storyline) that something dramatic will happen, you read on.
Eventually you get to the climax, and by then you'll have an understanding (maybe even sympathy) for the characters, you'll have 'experienced' how boring and hopeless life is for them, you can feel their anticipation; waiting for that one lucky gamble, just as you're waiting for that one moment of climax. And I have to admit that I read the last ten pages three times over, just to try to grasp the "dramaticness" of the climax. This might be the most dramatic ending to a (love)story I have ever read. It is odd to have read 200+ pages without really caring about any of the characters or events, and then to read the last ten pages in absolute disbelief.
If I could, I would only recommend to read the last few pages of the book, since they are an amazing dramatic ending. However, they would mean nothing without the very slow and boring buildup from the other pages. Now, I can only advise you to be prepared for a long, slow story, which at times feels rather outdated and doesn't feature very likeable characters. However, it is an excellent imagining of how a capitalistic system would handle space-exploration and how an individual person would be valued in that system.
yvarg's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
ronpayne's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A sci-fi in which we follow an intensely unlikable character as he escapes an overpopulated earth to join speculators in using abandoned alien tech to travel to other worlds at great risk to find their fortunes. Kind of disappointing for a Hugo/Nebula/Locus award winning novel. The ending had an interesting twist, but overall the book was more about the main character’s outdated Freudian psychosexual hang-ups and therapy than it was about exploring alien worlds.
jodque's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tobyboston99's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Never quite hit its stride for me. Unlikeable characters and despite a really fascinating and unique premise the exposition was really dull. Never really worked for me, never really had me needing to read more or glued to the page, and never had me liking our hero/narrator.
jason_pym's review against another edition
1.0
Promise of exploration of an ancient alien culture swapped out for tedious and dated psychoanalysis of repellent main character. I have no idea why this is a sci-fi classic.
randybaggins's review
4.0
Gateway literally opens up vistas of great imagination, a whole new universe that can be traveled and marveled at. Pohl splits the narrative that makes space for character analysis and opens up a rich, imaginative and thoroughly enjoyable science fiction saga.
dan_at's review against another edition
2.0
Meh, not really scifi, more of deep dive into the mind of an asshole
rogoreads's review against another edition
1.0
“Anyway, that's what life is, just one learning experience after another, and when you're through with all the learning experiences you graduate and what you get for a diploma is, you die.”
Anyway, that's what this book is, just one dragged-out scene after another, and when you're through with all the ~deep~ Freudian therapy, boring scenes waiting around on the ship whining about being too afraid and numbing the fear with meaningless sex with dumb women characters, you finish the book and what you get for a message is, you're really glad it's not the 1970s anymore when this was the pinnacle of science fiction.
Anyway, that's what this book is, just one dragged-out scene after another, and when you're through with all the ~deep~ Freudian therapy, boring scenes waiting around on the ship whining about being too afraid and numbing the fear with meaningless sex with dumb women characters,
Spoiler
and weird "no-homo" sexual tension with the creepy bi guy, and FINDING OUT THIS FUCKING NARRATOR HAS BEATEN UP THE TWO WOMEN HE'S EVER BEEN IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH but Klara is ready to take him back once they get done with just this one more missionarf88's review against another edition
5.0
What a fantastic book. Almost from the start you know the main character is repressing something and there's this slow feeling of dread that keeps amping up to a devastating conclusion.
I've read a couple of one star reviews, and the common theme among them is that the main character is unlikable and whiney and that the therapy chapters are boring. He is pretty unlikable, but entirely human and sympathetic and complex. It's clear from the start that he's dealing with some unspeakable trauma.
As for the therapy bits being boring, I couldn't disagree more. They added so much to that growing feeling of impending doom.
Another bit I liked were the snippets of mission reports, and classifieds, and scientific lectures. Stan On Zanzibar did something similar, but I felt it worked much better here.
There are sequels to this book, but I don't think I'll pick them up. I honestly loved this book just as it is.
I've read a couple of one star reviews, and the common theme among them is that the main character is unlikable and whiney and that the therapy chapters are boring. He is pretty unlikable, but entirely human and sympathetic and complex. It's clear from the start that he's dealing with some unspeakable trauma.
As for the therapy bits being boring, I couldn't disagree more. They added so much to that growing feeling of impending doom.
Another bit I liked were the snippets of mission reports, and classifieds, and scientific lectures. Stan On Zanzibar did something similar, but I felt it worked much better here.
There are sequels to this book, but I don't think I'll pick them up. I honestly loved this book just as it is.