Science fiction is often accused of stealing the basic plots of cowboy stories and other pulp fiction genres, then simply transferring them to outer space. What is Dune , according to this perspective, but a story of uprooted settlers finding a new home in the untamed and inhospitable open spaces where few other cowpokes dare to go? The protagonist Michael Valentine Smith, in Stranger in a Strange Land is quaint and provocative with his different ways . . . just like Owen Wister’s The Virginian , huh? And who hasn’t seen the similarity between the final chapters of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War , and that great John Wayne movie The Alamo ?
Well, maybe not. . . .
But Frederik Pohl makes no bones about what he is up to in Gateway . His characters are all prospectors searching for hidden riches in remote and dangerous locales – just like The Treasure of Sierra Madre , but expanded to galactic proportions. Gateway , a pear-shaped rock in space, is the last safe outpost before heading off into the unknown. Some prospectors come back rich, but many never come back at all.
But Pohl has created an interesting twist to give new flavor to this old tale. The prospectors in his novel rely on nearly one thousand small spaceships left behind by the vanished Heechee civilization. They don’t know much about the Heechees, but their spaceships still seem to work . . . more or less. No one knows how to steer one of these contraptions, but if you fiddle around with the controls it will take you to one of the Heechee’s “pre-set destinations” and back home again. (Think of these destinations as akin to the stations you program into your car radio – push a button and you’re off!) The pre-sets were created eons ago, and sometimes they just take you into a black hole or some other ugly cosmic disaster zone, from which you will never return. But occasionally they bring the prospectors to a place where there is cool Heechee technology that can be brought home and commercialized.
With this elegant and clever concept serving as a foundation, Pohl tells the tale of Robinette ‘Rob’ Broadhead, an aspiring prospector who is sometimes cowardly, sometimes greedy, often evasive and defensive, but never dull. We follow Broadhead on a series of adventures, all in search of that big gold vein that will make him fabulously wealthy.
Some of the trappings of this story – especially the recurring parodies of Freudian psychoanalysis played out by Broadhead and a ‘virtual reality’ shrink – have not aged well. But in other ways, Pohl is quite daring. The use of flashbacks and unexpected shifts in the chronology are very deftly handled. Pohl takes a huge risk in letting us know toward the beginning of his story how it will end, but still keeps us on tenterhooks by leaving us guessing the reasons and specifics, which only are revealed toward the close of his narrative. Pohl’s use of sidebar exhibits throughout the course of the novel is also effective and amusing.
Just a space western? Perhaps. But this is one of the better examples of the genre. Gateway is smartly paced and written with just the right touch of parody and light humor. Just as movie lovers still cherish The Treasure of Sierra Madre , sci-fi fans will continue to enjoy this space-age prospecting tale for decades to come. Certainly the sci-fi establishment gave it the thumbs up. Gateway sweeped the major honors, winning the Hugo in 1978, the Nebula in 1977, and the John W. Campbell Award in 1978.