| Title | : | The Gateway Trip (Heechee Saga, #5) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0345375440 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780345375445 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 245 |
| Publication | : | First published November 14, 1990 |
The Gateway Trip (Heechee Saga, #5) Reviews
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This is a collection that includes Pohl's terrific novella The Merchants of Venus and nine other shorter works set in his Heechee universe. Cynics may argue that he was simply cashing in on his notes and notions, which may in part be true, but what's wrong with that? It was one of the richest and most imaginative set-ups of modern science fiction at the time. It was fun to get a viewpoint other than that of Broadhead's or Sigmund's perspectives, and I really enjoyed the book, which is lavishly and delightfully illustrated by the great Frank Kelly Freas. It's not necessary to have read Gateway or any of the novels to appreciate this volume.
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3,5/5
Este quinto libro de la Saga de los Heechee es más bien complementario, ya que no continúa por donde se quedó el cuarto. No obstante, ha sido el segundo que más me ha gustado de todos, por detrás de Pórtico, claro. Esta última entrega está formada por una novela corta y varios capítulos que sirven para contextualizar al lector en el mundo de las novelas de la saga: la situación terrestre del momento, el origen y las características de los Heechee, las principales misiones que llevaron a descubrimientos de estos seres... Un montón de información en poco más de 200 páginas. Además, cuenta con muchísimas ilustraciones de Kelly Freas, todas con un toque muy pulp y de gran calidad.
Me ha sorprendido gratamente este libro, después del fiasco que supusieron los últimos de la saga. Especialmente destacable es la novela corta Los mercaderes de Venus, me ha parecido buenísima. Hasta aquí llega mi viaje con los Heechee, una aventura que empezó muy bien, pero que pronto empeoró y no logró remontar hasta esta final entrega. -
Cuando nos ha gustado un libro o una saga, siempre hemos querido saber más sobre ese mundo, esos personajes o esas situaciones que se hablan de pasada en la historia principal pero que por motivos de ritmo literario (es decir, no hacer libros de 1500 páginas) no tienen cabida.
Pues Frederik Pohl reúne en esta colección de relatos todas esas misiones de los exploradores de Pórtico que siempre hemos querido saber, cómo fue la primera llegada de un Heechee a la Tierra, o cómo fue el primer contacto con una inteligencia extraterrestre.
Para quien haya leído la saga completa es un buen punto para cerrar todos esos cabos que se van comentando a lo largo de 4 libros.
Para quien todavía no haya empezado, me atrevo a decir que si lo leen podrán sumergirse en la atmósfera que construye Pohl ya que tampoco hay grandes spoilers. -
Although is not a sequel, it contains the journeys made by first prospectors after finding the Heechee ships, stories told by Audee Walthers, known to readers from the previous books in the series. It doesn't really bring anything new - just few more events and consequences of what Heechee meant to humankind.
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My 1991 booklog says: "B, kinda disappointing. Outtakes & story frags.
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Here is my pro tip: Skip "Gateway" and Pohl's idiotic narrator and just read the good parts, ie. this book. Why bother with the tedious psychoanalysis and tiresome lead character when you can simply read about the aliens and that background?
Also, an extra star for Pohl using the word "appurtenant" without any reference to an "easement". Yay! -
7/10. Media de los 13 libros leídos del autor: 7/10
Aunque tiene este y muchos otros libros muy legibles, me quedo con su Saga Heeche y, en menos medida, con la de "Mercaderes del espacio"
Último libro que leí de la saga y bien. No maravilloso, bien solo. -
The Gateway trip is a book split in two. The first half is a decent novel about exploration of Venus. The 2nd half reads like a wikipedia article on the discovery of the Heechee, ie the first four book in this series.
In all this 3 hour read fills some holes from the first 4 books and is worth reading if you, like me, liked those. As stand alone SF its rather standard but at least its not long. -
I'm a Heechee fan from way back but I don't remember ever reading this. Despite the subtitle there is only one actual story here and it is one I've enjoyed at least once in an anthology. Everything else is explanations of all things Heechee, from first hint to where-are-they-hiding, none of which is terribly interesting since all were eventually worked up into longer worx.
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The main story about the "merchants"is quite ok, but the other ones are dull and boring. Nothing remains from them the second after you've finished reading...
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SF. These short stories fill in some of the holes left by the Heechee novels. They probably would have had more of an impact on me if the novels themselves weren't mostly one big hole in my memory, but I recognized most of the characters and stories these vignettes allude to. It's basically a clip show. It wouldn't make much sense to someone who hasn't read the Heechee novels, and if you have read them, you probably don't need to read this as there's not much new information in them. The longest piece, "The Merchants of Venus," clocks in at 100 pages and is a reprint of the novella that first introduced the Heechee. Everything else is bite-size and reads like an article in an encyclopedia.
I liked it anyway. C'mon. It's Pohl. "The Starseekers" was my favorite piece, giving background on how the Gateway Corporation, trying to get more prospectors in its ships, devised science bonuses for astronomical discoveries and some of the incredible things the prospectors found.
Four stars. My only complaint were all the foreboding, "If only they had known how important those microwave-sniffing thingies were! But that is a story for another time..." type comments. I paraphrase, but you get the point. That happens about once a chapter. And it gets old fast. OH, and it's illustrated in black and white pointillism, which is cute at first, but then the ladies start wearing their skintight jumpsuits unzipped to the navel and I get a little cranky. It evokes a pulp fiction sensibility, yes, but Pohl's writing is so much more than spacemen with rayguns and dumb chicks with boobs, so it's a little mismatched. -
subió mucho del 3 y 4, no alcanza al primero ni al segundo , pero hace que te den muchas ganas de volverlos a leer.
Lean Portico, tiene de los cierres más canijos que me ha tocado leer -
The Heechee Saga is one of my most favourite space exploration series. As such this paperpack was a re-read for me. It seems I had forgotten most of the action and could find proper enjoyment in rediscovering the heechee universe.
The first story in the bundle, actually a novelette reads most like a Heechee novel. I like the overemphasized capitalist approach of space exploration. Pohl draws up a very harsh and cynical humanity that uses it's citizens as cannon fodder in a macabre high stakes Russian roulette to find out by trial and error how to navigate the new-found alien space ships. I guess when we would do this for real, we would fund them to the max to enhance succes rates. Or would refrain from sending fortune hunters. But where would be the drama in that.
The other pieces are not actually stories but more scketches or alternative history lessons on the exploration of space and the discovery of the aliens. Seems like a string of time-line pieces Pohl wrote in his process of universe building. This is the weakest part of the bundle. I found myself skipping some parts because I already knew the facts from the other novels, or I simply didn't care who died where in what attempt.
Fun part of this paperback are the sci-fi comic illustrations by Frank Kelly Freas. Almost every page carries an illustatrion by this scifi icon. I really love his style, but sometimes I had a hard time keeping my own fantasy view of Heechee undiluted by the Freas imagery. Distracting in more than one meaning of the word, this can be off-putting to some.
All together a nice read, but I do prefer a full novel. This paperback seems a bit of over emphasized capitalist milking of an already succesfull series by the author. I hope it turned out well for him and got him on full medical service... three stars -
This book is subpar compared with the four previous ones. One might get the idea that the five books comprise one story. Actually the four previous books tell the story in sequence and this fifth book is just a later set of isolated stories.
While the grand story of the Heechee saga is a real page-turner and brilliant, this fifth book has none of this. I felt like pushing to read it to the end. I even wondered if I should just give it up, which is rare for me. It contains basically one new story which comprises about half of the book and is kinda-sorta interesting, with a twist of fun in the end. All the rest of the book is tutorial repetition of what was previously mentioned in the other books, so these repeated explanations add no interest for someone who has already read the saga, while they would seems confusing for someone who hasn't read it. I saw no point in these short texts. Even the aggregation of the short chapters in sections lacks meaning.
It feels like there is some goal lacking, some point, or some vibrancy at all. Like after a big success with the four books in the saga, they decide to produce some more literature and just put together a patchwork and rags and whatnot of previous events.
Save for some savvy and humorous insights here and there, related to the author's ability to imagine what would happen in face of future technology, the text is just a patchwork. Maybe here lies the real secret of the text, as these occasional insights discuss human character and make suggestions in a lighthearted form. -
This is a unique volume in the Gateway saga. It’s comprised of 10 short stories – prominently, “The Merchant of Venus” (1972), which was the first published story in the Heechee universe. The other 9 are vignettes detailing particulars of the Heechee mythos.
It works great as a summary of the 4 previous books, a kind of encyclopedic reference of the interesting exploratory, technological and societal elements that frame the other novels. They spoil a surprise or two of the preceding books, without revealing too much. As a bonus, this book is profusely illustrated with drawings that range from adequate to funny to downright weird.
All in all it’s a nice companion that reminds the reader of all the cool parts of the Gateway novels, without a single mention of that pesky protagonist that ruined the last two volumes. Its only fault is that it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and by now we all know how the story went. -
It's good that I took the time before reading this one, I wasn't sure if I'd get back to it and remember things after several years passed since I've read the previous books. But it's actually mostly a recap book - so it worked out well enough. If I would have read it back when I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it and it would have felt too reparative to previous books. As it is, it was nice if not very good.
There isn't really any new world building here. Previous books already took all the tech and alien culture ideas to their extremes. Instead it starts with a nice story on the already established surrounding. But then the following stories are just a list of things that were told or mentioned in previous books.
Again I find myself thinking that 2 stars seems too little, but the semantic rating of "it was ok" is more correct than "liked it". -
A great companion reader to the first four Heechee saga novels. I feel like this could be a pretty good guide to how technology could be used to actually serve all humanity. Pohl, like others before and after has written a wonderful and exciting series of human trial and ultimate conquest over social ills using the theme of utopic or semi-utopic technological advancement. I would say definitely the latter in Pohl's case. Semi-utopic because in his future society while might poverty be eliminated, there is still crime. So there were some things he wasn't able to envision technology wise and there were ideas that he broached but didnt really expand on. He also doesn't seem to question the ideas of property, hierarchy or wy there should be any sort of inequality at all.
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Este epílogo de la saga de portico, es un libro independiente donde a través de diferentes narraciones , Pohl entra en detalle sobre algunos aspectos de la historia que en los libros principales quedaban un poco de lado.
Si bien , en líneas generales no parece aportar mucho, me queda la sensación de que si Pohl hubiera malgastado menos paginas en la disquisición psicológica interminable de su infumable personaje principal, en contarnos lo que se cuenta aquí, la saga hubiera ganado enteros.
Nota:6/10 -
Companion collection to the Heechee saga, this collection is just another excuse to re-print the decently good novella "The Merchants of Venus" where the first mention of Heechee appears.
The remaining "stories" in this collection hardly read like fiction, they are more like summaries of the books in the "main sequence", or meta-fiction if you will, and can be happily skipped. -
This book took a little time to get into with the old computer language mixed in with therapy. I ended up loving it. This was thought provoking looking at the year it was written and amazing that it stands the test of time. This is a good read.
Mr. Joe -
Short stories connected with the gate (maybe novelettes), but I was unable to find anything new - a few stories and consequences of what Heechee presence and technology, impacted the humankind.
I was unable to find the Heechee saga juice into it. -
I enjoyed this revealing collection of stories. The Heechee are a mysterious alien race who apparently were "uncontested rulers of the, disappeared." But are they really gone? The black and white illustrations of Frank Kelly Freas, were great. I enjoy Pohl's style of writing.
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Kind of like reading a well written wiki for a series I’ve already read—I bet this would be best suited to people who had been away from the series for years but wanted a fast-ish primer before reading The Boy Who Would Live Forever.
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If you've hesitated to pick this up because you think it might be a lot of rehash and fluff, don't worry. It's well worth your time.
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My rating: ★★★
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Interesting background if you've read the rest of the series. Otherwise, avoid.
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4 out of 5
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Collection of short stories. With the exception of one they read like a history text book.
