Hi all,
Book of the Month:
“Gateway” by Frederik Pohl
I hope you all have been enjoying our journey among the stars. “Revelation Space” was epic! The abrupt change of scenes was a bit jarring but the science is strong with this one. It does feel a bit long, but this novel had it all. Ancient civilizations, cyborgs, massive weapons, ghosts in the machine…what else do you want?! I listened to the audiobook and have to say that it was expertly read. If you have the time (clocks in around 21 hours), I highly recommend it.
For this month, we’ll travel back in published time a bit to 1977 for Frederik Pohl’s blockbuster “Gateway”. This novel was VERY well received, winning the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, Nebula Award, and John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel when it was released. Let’s see what the fuss is all about!
A description from the Guardian’s great ‘Back to the Hugos’ series: “Gateway is the epicenter of an inter-galactic gold rush, a kind of hollowed-out meteor that has been discovered to contain spacecraft left over from…an ancient alien civilization. Humans don’t know much about the controls of the craft beyond how to turn them on – but that’s enough to send them whizzing off to other galaxies, where, if they’re lucky, they’ll find enough scientific booty to garner them untold riches. And if they aren’t…they don’t tend to come back…”
Robinette Broadhead took that chance and walked away a winner. But at what cost? This anti-hero takes us on his journey via his computerized psychiatrist, as he tries to work out what really happened “out there”.
Sounds like another unique look at the human experience in space. A few members of the Club have already read this book and liked it very much. Hope you like it, too!
To join a Book Club meeting, all you will need is YOURSELF. If you haven’t had a chance to finish the book, we still would love for you to join us in the discussion.
