Customer Reviews

THE GATEWAY TRIP

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(3)
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Mostly dry and repetitive narrative, but does fill in some detail in the history of man's investigation of the Heechee, and does include at least one good short story. A fairly light and quick read.

This book is an overview of how the discovery of Heechee artifacts affected human history. If you've already read the Heechee novels, the only part of interest is a single short story; the rest is mere repetition. If you haven't read the Heechee novels, pass this over and start with Gateway

This book is not a continuation of the Heechee saga. However, it does provide a wealth of background material. Much of the book will already be familiar to readers of the Saga. Two bonuses are noteworthy. There is a long short story (around 100 pages) detailing the life of Audie Walthers when he was an airbody pilot on Venus. This story is pretty engrossing, and gives further insight into the goings on on Venus in the world of Gateway. Also, for those curious after reading Gateway as to the adventures of the other prospectors, there is a section that deals with the successes and disasters encountered by these people. If you are a [big] fan of Gateway, this book should be obtained. Otherwise, the short story about Audie and some additional background material might still convince you to get the book.

The first part of this book is really good, the story of Audee Walthers will keep you reading and maybe you will learn something about Venus, the rest of the book is going down and down as you read, it doesn't have any punch to keep it reading, I can tell you that when you finish the story of Audee Walthers close the book and you will be very happy, if you decide to finish it don't expect to much from it.