Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

by Frederik Pohl

This is the second installment in the Gateway series. I was completely drawn in by the first book, and it’s now among my favorite books. So, I was a bit startled/jolted when I started this one and found the style and point-of-view was completely different (the first book was completely from Robinette Broadhead’s point-of-view, whereas this one had a different point-of-view for each chapter).

However, I quickly got over my surprise, and was drawn in by Beyond the Blue Event Horizon as much as I had been by Gateway. This book picks up several years after Gateway, and follows a family’s voyage to a Heechee food factory in the Oort cloud. After three years of travel (they do not take the Heechee ships because the last person who tried, did not return), they arrive, only to discover that they are not alone. They stumble upon a human boy, Wan, who has never seen another human besides his mother who died when he was very, very young). He has been living at another Heechee port, nicknamed Heechee Heaven, cared for by the “dead ones” — machines with the imperfect memories of men and women unfortunate enough to have stumbled into Heechee Heaven.

Pohl does not disappoint. The characters are well-crafted, and the story compelling. I’m looking forward to the third installment.