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I really didn't expect to ever see another Gateway novel, but Fred Pohl managed to crank one out, and a fine tale it is. For those of you who have not read the Gateway saga, let me do a small recap.
An alien artifact was discovered on Venus, and it led to the discovery of another alien artifact out in the asteroid belt, crammed with spaceships. Health care is expensive and work is brutal on Earth, so folks save their pennies and earn enough money for passage to Gateway to become prospectors. They take these ships, set the alien controls, and off they go into the unknown. Many lose their lives, but some make important alien artifact discoveries, and become fabulously wealthy.
They call the aliens that left this stuff behind the Heechee. Eventually the Heechee return, they have been hiding from something called The Foe.
This novel is set at the end of the Gateway prospecting era and the beginnings of the development of Heechee-Human relations. Stan, a 17 year old American kid raised in Istanbul, arrives on Gateway after his dad is killed and he obtains insurance money. Stan's dad was killed during "the crazy time" which was actually caused by a boy named Wan, the son of two Gateway prospectors who was stranded on a Heechee device. Wan would use a thought telecasting couch when he felt lonely, and it effected everyone on Earth. Estrella, a 24 year an old woman that was disfigured from work in a meat processing plant, as revenge for not sleeping with one of her co-workers. The man's family paid her off not to complain, and she used the money to get to Gateway.
At Gateway the two meet. They go on one mission, and come back to a minor science bonus. In the time they are gone, the Heechee have arrived, the food factory has been discovered and is being towed towards a hungry Earth, and the era of Gateway prospecting is over.
Stan and Estrella are invited to go visit the Heechee at the core of the black hole where they are living as the first human good will ambassadors. Stan finds out later that the virginal Estrella had to sleep with the head of Gateway to get that assignment. Nevertheless, the two fall in love and when eventually they are invited to reside on a Heechee world, they accept.
Things are going somewhat well for Stan and Estrella in their new Heechee home, aside from helping the Heechee to rehabilitate Achiever, a Heechee traumatized by prolonged human exposure and trying to figure out how to utilize all of the equipment in their home.
But things don't stay tranquil, enter Gelle-Klara Moynlin a very wealthy ex-Gateway prospector, who ends up being friends with the young couple. And Wan arrives on the scene, hell bent on destroying the Heechees in the Core, with the means to do it. Only Stan, Estrella, and Achiever are in a position to stop Wan.
It's quite a complicated and enjoyable tale, with a nice ending. Everyone gets what he or she deserves in this book, and that's really satisfying. I'm starting to get hopeful that there might be another novel coming from the illustrious Mr. Pohl. He's certainly proved to me that his age certainly hasn't effected his writing ability. In fact, it's made it better.
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