The Gateway Trip

Cover of the first edition, published by Del Rey Books. Art by Frank Kelly Freas.

The Gateway Trip is a collection of science fiction "tales and vignettes", including a novella, ^[1] by the American writer Frederik Pohl. It was published in 1990 by Del Rey Books. It involves one of Pohl's recurring creations, the Heechee universe. The Heechee are a fictional alien race which developed advanced technologies, including interstellar space travel, but then disappeared.

Contents[]

The book includes anecdotes and "...meditations on planetary and stellar physics, evolution, sociology, and the future of the human race" that "fill in the background of his Heechee novels".^[1] The story The Merchants of Venus is about Audee Walthers, an "airbody driver and tour operator", who scams Earth tourists who visit Venus. He needs a new liver, so he is seeking a rich client to profit from. He is pleased to meet the seemingly well-off Boyce Cochenour. However, Walthers finds out that Cochenour also needs money.

Reception[]

Kirkus Reviews states that the book is "[m]ore history text than story", as the "...characters of the vignettes are barely seen shadows, a background for pure speculation."^[1] Kirkus Reviews states that "[d]espite the one novella and interesting science, ...this is only the skeleton of something better".^[1]

References[]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "The Gateway Trip". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Reviews. 24 November 1990. Retrieved 30 December 2019.

External links[]

Frederik Pohl at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

[auto-1] "The Gateway Trip". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Reviews. 24 November 1990. Retrieved 30 December 2019.

[1]

v t Heechee series
Books	"The Merchants of Venus" (original novella) Gateway Beyond the Blue Event Horizon Heechee Rendezvous The Annals of the Heechee The Gateway Trip The Boy Who Would Live Forever
Video games	Gateway Gateway II: Homeworld

v t Works by Frederik Pohl
Undersea Trilogy (with Jack Williamson)	Undersea Quest (1954) Undersea Fleet (1956) Undersea City (1958)
Heechee series	Gateway (1977) Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980) Heechee Rendezvous (1984) The Annals of the Heechee (1987) The Gateway Trip (1990) The Boy Who Would Live Forever: A Novel of Gateway (2004)
Eschaton trilogy	The Other End of Time (1996) The Siege of Eternity (1997) The Far Shore of Time (1999)
Mars series	Man Plus (1976) Mars Plus (1994) (with Thomas T. Thomas)
Saga of Cuckoo (with Jack Williamson)	Farthest Star (1975) Wall Around a Star (1983)
The Starchild Trilogy (with Jack Williamson)	The Reefs of Space (1964) Starchild (1965) Rogue Star (1969)
Space Merchants series	The Space Merchants (1953) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) The Merchants' War (1984) Venus, Inc. (1985 Omnibus) (this is a two-in-one volume containing The Space Merchants and The Merchants' War)
Other	Search the Sky (1954) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Gladiator-At-Law (1955) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) (1955) (with Lester del Rey) Slave Ship (1956) (1958) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Wolfbane (1959) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Drunkard's Walk (1960) A Plague of Pythons (1964) The Age of the Pussyfoot (1965) Day Million (1970) Jem (1979) The Cool War (1981) (1981) Starburst (1982) The Years of the City (1984) Black Star Rising (1985) The Coming of the Quantum Cats (1986) (1986) Chernobyl (1987) (1988) (with Jack Williamson) Narabedla Ltd. (1988) Homegoing (1989) The World at the End of Time (1990) (1990) Stopping at Slowyear (1991) (1991) (with Jack Williamson) (1992) (1994) (1998) The Last Theorem (2008) (with Arthur C. Clarke) (2011)