Portico (novel)

Gateway (original title Gateway, 1977) is a science fiction novel written by Frederik Pohl, the first of the Heechee Saga. winner of the Nebula awards in 1977, Hugo and John W. Campbell Memorial in 1978. The work is the first part of a tetralogy about some mysterious extraterrestrial beings: the heechee.

Tells the story of the discovery and early exploitation by humans of alien technology found inside an abandoned space base inside an asteroid (christened Gateway), in particular, small spacecraft capable of transporting small groups of humans to other parts of the universe.

Plot Summary

The novel narrates the experiences of a former explorer of the future in retirement named Robinette Broadhead, just as he recalls them during his psychoanalysis sessions. Her analyst is a computer program, which was named Sigfrid by Robinette. Fragments of what happened in the past are interspersed in the novel, when Robinette was a prospector in Pórtico, and of the "present", when in his sessions he brings up his numerous traumas despite itself.

This novel describes in detail the spirit of pioneering shared by the prospectors (those who embark on the Heechee ships), since the crew of the ships have no certainty as to where they will arrive, as the ships are headed on automatic pilot to different destinations that cannot be predicted before going there (heechee writing is incomprehensible to humans), nor the kind of objects or dangers they will encounter once they arrive.

Due to the high rate of deaths and missing persons on voyages that never return to the Gateway, prospecting missions are run on a system of rewards and royalties, which can be large if an important discovery is made. However, it is made very clear that being a prospector is a luxury that few can afford, because to begin with, to be able to do so, one must be able to pay for the space trip to the asteroid and the onerous taxes for daily air, water and food. In such a way that prospectors are under great pressure to discover something that will even allow them to stay.

The future society described in the novel is in many ways a dystopia with certain anachronisms, a product of the image of the future that many authors had at the time this novel was written. For example, it is postulated that due to overpopulation, arable land is already insufficient to feed humanity, and the vast majority of poor people have to eat unappetizing synthetic food made from oil shale. Being the United States and Canada two of the main producers of said material at present, the author extrapolates that North America would be "the granary" of a world on the brink of Malthusian collapse (as well as the setting from which the protagonist emerges, or rather escapes). Although it can be said that social analysis is not the main theme of the work, the background deals with the depletion of the Earth as a cause of impoverishment that forces resource explorers to engage in risky missions that allow them to earn the necessary money to access a technology that offers those who can afford it the expectation of a long life. In a world of wide freedoms (the multiplicity of sexual and affective relationships that are taking place in the described society is interesting and current), economic inequalities are very marked and determine extreme behavior in individuals. The strong feeling of guilt that the resolution of that urgent need to get out of misery provokes in the protagonist is the triggering element of the narrative.