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A review by silvae
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
4.0
TW: death, grief, domestic abuse, (internalized) queerphobia, parental death, medical horror (not graphic)
less serious TWs: extreme capitalism TM, questionable Freud appearance
My story with the Heechee Saga begins in middle school, so well over a decade ago. My science teacher was talking to us about space, and somehow came to talk about the scene that takes place at the end of this book - a scene that I wish I hadn't known about while reading this book (as it took quite of the punch). Frederik Pohl does a great job of navigating two parallel storyline with the same (unlikeable) character: one storyline chronicles his time on Gateway and the appalling conditions that society's greed has forced people into, while the other one sees our protagonist profiting from this greed, as he is swimming in cash, has regularly rotating sexual partners and seems to go to a robo-Freud psychiatrist out of sheer obligation. Something is obviously wrong and so the reader's interest ping pongs between "What happened that made him retreat so far into himself and dodge questions in therapy?" and "What exciting thing did he find that made him so rich?".
An all in all, it's a character-driven story. The Heeche are a distant memory, and hard to understand artifacts, strange space stations and spaceships with minds of their own are all that are left of them, stripped bare and impossible to comprehend. As someone who couldn't care less about universes that are so well thought out that an author needs to tell you this with every second sentence, I really enjoyed this approach and how it allowed us to focus more on the dynamics within Gateway and later in the spaceships.
There's a currently trending question that goes as follows: "What is something that is both gay and homophobic?" and I think Frederik Pohl's writing of Bob Broadhead fits into that category perfectly. There's a weird focus on homosexual men in this story (with Bob sharing a spaceship with gay throuples more than once, if I remember correctly), especially when it comes to Bob himself. The explanation for his conflicting thoughts that he gives his psychiatrist is... incredibly odd. It came completely out of left field, though, and caught me off guard, so I have to give Mr. Pohl that. This scene, as well as one that can be summarized as "PTSD trigger: blowjob synonyms", are the perfect out of context screenshots to send to your friends, accompanied by a caption of "this is 1970s scifi, btw".
I loved Gateway a lot. Bob is incredibly unlikeable, especially in the latter half of the book, but I loved astrology-obsessed and strong-eyebrowed Klara (who would be adored by lesbians everywhere today) and Sigfrid von Shrink. It was so readable that I think I might give scifi from this era another shot, though I did have to deduct one point for Bob's actions in the latter half of the book and the really weird focus on homosexuality that I couldn't quite pinpoint as encouraging or discriminating.
less serious TWs: extreme capitalism TM, questionable Freud appearance
My story with the Heechee Saga begins in middle school, so well over a decade ago. My science teacher was talking to us about space, and somehow came to talk about the scene that takes place at the end of this book - a scene that I wish I hadn't known about while reading this book (as it took quite of the punch). Frederik Pohl does a great job of navigating two parallel storyline with the same (unlikeable) character: one storyline chronicles his time on Gateway and the appalling conditions that society's greed has forced people into, while the other one sees our protagonist profiting from this greed, as he is swimming in cash, has regularly rotating sexual partners and seems to go to a robo-Freud psychiatrist out of sheer obligation. Something is obviously wrong and so the reader's interest ping pongs between "What happened that made him retreat so far into himself and dodge questions in therapy?" and "What exciting thing did he find that made him so rich?".
An all in all, it's a character-driven story. The Heeche are a distant memory, and hard to understand artifacts, strange space stations and spaceships with minds of their own are all that are left of them, stripped bare and impossible to comprehend. As someone who couldn't care less about universes that are so well thought out that an author needs to tell you this with every second sentence, I really enjoyed this approach and how it allowed us to focus more on the dynamics within Gateway and later in the spaceships.
There's a currently trending question that goes as follows: "What is something that is both gay and homophobic?" and I think Frederik Pohl's writing of Bob Broadhead fits into that category perfectly. There's a weird focus on homosexual men in this story (with Bob sharing a spaceship with gay throuples more than once, if I remember correctly), especially when it comes to Bob himself. The explanation for his conflicting thoughts that he gives his psychiatrist is... incredibly odd. It came completely out of left field, though, and caught me off guard, so I have to give Mr. Pohl that. This scene, as well as one that can be summarized as "PTSD trigger: blowjob synonyms", are the perfect out of context screenshots to send to your friends, accompanied by a caption of "this is 1970s scifi, btw".
I loved Gateway a lot. Bob is incredibly unlikeable, especially in the latter half of the book, but I loved astrology-obsessed and strong-eyebrowed Klara (who would be adored by lesbians everywhere today) and Sigfrid von Shrink. It was so readable that I think I might give scifi from this era another shot, though I did have to deduct one point for Bob's actions in the latter half of the book and the really weird focus on homosexuality that I couldn't quite pinpoint as encouraging or discriminating.