Reddit reviews Gateway (Heechee Saga)

• Neuromancer - William Gibson
  
• Dune - Frank Herbert
  
• Gateway - Frederik Pohl
  
• Halting State - Charles Stross
  
• Eon - Greg Bear
  
• Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
  
• Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga, starting with Gateway, is about humans finding, using, and trying to understand ships and artifacts left behind by a mysterious alien civilization. There's no initial attack, but humans use their tech to explore space (to try to get rich).

Here are the titles that I believe are possible to be adapted nicely to film (however I'd still have my pitchfork on stand-by):

• Rendezvous with Rama
  
• Across Realtime series
  
• Takeshi Kovacs series
  
• Gateway
  
• Ringworld

Gateway by Frederik Pohl.

The Player of Games by Iain Banks.

Startide Rising by David Brin.

Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh.

A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy can easily fill that void and might answer a lot of questions you didn't even know you had about what terraforming Mars would be like.

Frederick Pohl's Gateway/Heechee Series has some of the same gritty feel of The Expanse.

I haven't read the book, but it sounds like Gateway to me.

I would suggest Fredrick Pohl's Heechee Saga starting with Gateway:

http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Heechee-Saga-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0345475836

They are available in audio book format and do revolve around journeys to unknown of deep space, alien discoveries and more.

I read them as a youth some 35 years ago and they along with the Adventures of the Solar Queen by Andre Norton helped shape what I hope and expect exploration in Star Citizen to be.

I should also suggest The Solar Queen (comprising the first two books Sargasso in Space and Plague Ship under one cover) by Andre Norton.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Solar-Queen-Andre-Norton/dp/0765300559

Found the first book (Sargasso in Space) in audio format at:

http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=7360

They are considered classics of Space Opera SciFi.

Gateway. I loved it. Its a whole series.

Eon by Greg Bear

Maybe Neverness by David Zindell. Though the "mysterious artifact" in it isn't exactly an artifact. Still, it's a crime that this novel has been out of print for over a decade.

Frederik Pohl's Heechee series, beginning with Gateway. Pulpy, but enjoyable.

Ringworld of course, but I'm sure you've already heard of that one.

edit: Whoops. You mentioned Pohl already.

There is Baxter's Xeelee Sequence, or you might enjoy Pohl's Heechee Saga...

Definitely enjoyed meeting the Ones Who Came Before so far, good chapter, and the accompanying message about not using insulting terminology for other races. Felt very realistic.

Also, I'm sure it's been noted before, but I thoroughly appreciate the additional roles that this organization has, "Pragmatist," "Ethicist," etc. in hindsight they seem like a perfectly obvious thing to have aboard. When you look back at Star Trek or similar series, how much easier would their lives have been with those roles, or a dedicated linguist, etc.?

But I feel like this series is starting to drag with respect to the Reshapers' plot, which is unfortunate because that's possibly the most interesting part of the story, and also the speed and scope of their efforts were really giving the story weight to me.

On a side note, has anyone read Gateway by Frederik Pohl? [Spoilers](#s "The main adversary is literally trying to reshape the universe into something that is more amicable to their form of life; it's one of the biggest scopes I've ever encountered in a sci-fi story.")

First I'll tackle your query regarding one of my favorite novels:

>Read The Forever War, thought it was O.K. I've heard the sequels were bad, would like confirmation on this?

There's one sequel to Forever War, and it's Forever Free. It goes in a weird direction and has an unsatisfying ending. There's a short story that tells the end of the forever war from Mary Gay's point of view, called "A Seperate War". It's pretty good if only for the fact that it just retreads the novel.

Haldeman has a book called Forever Peace, published in 1998, which tackles the same basic concept of never-ending war... But in no way is it actually connected to The Forever War in a narrative sense.

Second:

Some books that I read and enjoyed are...

• Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
  
  
• Gateway by Frederik Pohl
  
  
• Armor by John Steakley. When it comes to military science fiction, in my head there are three books that complete a trilogy of three different takes on the subject matter. Starship Troopers, which holds that service is noble. Forever War, regarding the pointlessness of war. And then Armor, which is about the human spirit in such a horrific space war.

Book of the New Sun. Dense, awesome allegorical sci/fi-fantasy. Its my first read through and I'm already hooked.

Before that I read Pohl's Gateway and American Gods. Cannot recommend Gateway enough.