Gateway

7 hrs. 27 min.

Language Russian

Author Frederik Pohl

Narrator Kirill Golovin

After leaving for space, humanity finds the Gate—a celestial body, an asteroid, on which starships of an alien civilization called the Hichi were stationed. Beginning to study the ships, people discover that they’re incredibly easy to control, and that each ship already had a pre-set course with no way to change it. Some daredevils went star voyaging and returned with a rich haul; some didn’t return at all, while others came back dead or dying. The incentive for new adventurers—prospectors—was that an international Corporation offered a substantial monetary reward for any alien discovery.

By this time, Earth has become too overburdened: the population has reached 20 billion, and almost all natural resources are nearly exhausted. Roinet Broadhad works in food mines—hopeless and grueling labor. After winning the lottery, he decides not to spend his life in the mines, buys a ticket to the Gate with his winnings, and prepares to become a prospector.

1. Gateway 1. Gateway (narrated by Andrey Novokreshchenov) 2. Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (narrated by Kirill Golovin) 3. Heechee Rendezvous (narrated by Kirill Golovin) 4. The Annals of the Heechee (narrated by Kirill Golovin)