Anon. (April 2014). "Remembering Frederik Pohl, 1919-2013". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 134 (4): 31. Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna (The Poetry Corner)". Thewaythefutureblogs.com. January 30, 2009 . Retrieved September 8, 2012.

Other collaborations included a novel with Lester Del Rey, Preferred Risk (1955). This novel was solicited for a contest by Galaxy–Simon & Schuster when the judges did not think any of the contest submissions was good enough to win their contest. It was published under the joint pseudonym Edson McCann. [47] He also collaborated with Thomas T. Thomas on a sequel to his award-winning novel Man Plus. He wrote two short stories with Isaac Asimov in the 1940s, both published in 1950. [48] I can easily see why I did not finish the book in my younger days. Bob Broadhead is not a terribly sympathetic, or even likable, protagonist. The psychology sessions can be painful to read. And Bob has very little agency; he is more victim of circumstance than action hero. As someone who likes to read about people who fight their way out of a fray, successfully engineer a solution to a problem, or cleverly deduce the truth of a situation, the story is not one that I would have sought out on my own. I also tend to prefer romances that have a bit of wish fulfillment in them, rather than an unflinching portrayal of the ugliness that is often intertwined with passion in human relationships.Gateway took this initial concept one step further by postulating an asteroid, overlooked because of its orbit outside the plane of the ecliptic, filled with Heechee tunnels and artifacts as well as hundreds of faster-than-light spaceships, equipped with landers, which could depart to random destinations. An international corporation is established to manage the exploration and whatever treasures are found, and human “prospectors” from Earth who can pay the price to travel to the Gateway are sent out to explore.

Congratulations to Britannica Contributor and 2010 Hugo Award Winner Frederik Pohl | Britannica Blog". Britannica.com. September 8, 2010 . Retrieved August 10, 2014. The book opens with a chapter in the present tense, as we find the protagonist, Robinette (or Bob) Broadhead in the midst of a grueling session with a cybernetic psychologist that he dismissively calls “Sigfrid von Shrink.” We learn that Bob lives in comfort with the wealthy under the Big Bubble in New York City, and has a summer place on the Tappan Sea. He is wealthy enough to afford Full Medical coverage, which includes not only basic medical care, but also life-prolonging treatments and transplants. But he is not happy; he is miserable, in fact. His relationships are shallow and meaningless. Somewhere in his past lies not only a discovery that brought him great wealth, but a trauma that scarred him deeply.

Through a trial and error process where more prospectors are lost than survive, missions sometimes discover great treasures, habitable planets, scientific knowledge, and most importantly, Heechee devices that can lead to new technologies. The Heechee ships are of various types and sizes. There are ships that can hold one, three, or five prospectors, which are named for their capacities. There are also armored versions of these ships that can take more punishment than others. And while the destinations are mostly unknown points in space, each ship carries a lander that can be used to explore upon arrival. Some prospectors die because the length of the random journeys exceed their food and life support capabilities; others are killed by radiation or other dangerous or extreme conditions at their destinations. Some die in attempting landings; some are killed by technologies they don’t understand. Others simply never return. A belated sequel, The Merchants' War (1984) was written by Pohl alone, after Kornbluth's death. Pohl's The Merchants of Venus was an unconnected 1972 novella that includes biting satire on runaway free-market capitalism and first introduced the Heechee. Reginald, R. (September 2010). Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature - R. Reginald. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 9780941028776 . Retrieved April 29, 2013.

His works include not only science fiction, but also articles for Playboy and Family Circle magazines and nonfiction books. For a time, he was the official authority for Encyclopædia Britannica on the subject of Emperor Tiberius. (He wrote a book on the subject of Tiberius, as "Ernst Mason".) [31] Hal Clement: Major Harry Stubbs". The Way the Future Blogs. March 1, 2011. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012 . Retrieved September 8, 2012. Ashley, Mike, Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970, Liverpool University Press (2005), ISBN 0-85323-779-4, p.207. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth…"

Publication Order of Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

For example English pyre and fire are doublets. Modern words with similar meaning but subtle differences contribute to the richness of the English language, as exemplified by the doublets frail and fragile (both from the Latin adjective fragilis): one might refer to a fragile tea cup and a frail old woman, but never frail tea cup, whilst fragile old woman adds a dimension of meaning by implying emotional infirmity rather than physical." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet... It might be interesting sometime to develop whole vast theories based on deliberate acceptance of probable typos & misprints as not accidents. EG: the above Beyond the Blue Event Horizon quote from p 45 re Gosh numbers begins "“Ph, well,” said the Dead Man gloomily" w/ the "Ph" presumably intended to be "Oh" (as Pomeroy quotes it in his article). Exploration in one such planet brings a Heechee 'computer' which makes him rich; however, after being analyzed by the Gateway Corporation, it reveals that a hostile alien race, dubbed the Assassins threatens all advanced civilizations in the universe, and the Heechee managed to evade them. Leonard Worden, the deputy chief of the exploration program, informs the player that even after all those years, reactivation of the Heechee technology by humans would only make them detectable to the Assassins. However the same computer provides coordinates to an interplanetary shield device. Az első szembetűnő különbség, hogy a narrátorok megváltoztak. Legalább fél tucat elbeszélő szemén keresztül látjuk a történetet, ami önmagában nem lenne gond, de egyes elbeszélőket az író később egyszerűen „elenged”, és többet nem látunk a fejükbe. (Ilyen volt pl. Wan, a könyv elején még szorgalmas narrátor, míg az utolsó harmadában már nincs egyetlen fejezete sem). Én ráeresztettem volna a könyv szerkezetére egy baltával dolgozó szerkesztőt, és a végeredmény megfaragását bíztam volna az íróra.