{{Short description|1990 anthology by Frederik Pohl}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} [[File:The Gateway Trip.jpg|thumb|Cover of the first edition, published by Del Rey Books. Art by Frank Kelly Freas.]] '''''The Gateway Trip''''' is a collection of science fiction "tales and vignettes", including a novella,<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/frederik-pohl/the-gateway-trip/|title=The Gateway Trip |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=24 November 1990|website=www.kirkusreviews.com |publisher=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=30 December 2019 |quote=}}</ref> by the American writer Frederik Pohl. It was published in 1990 by Del Rey Books. It involves one of Pohl's recurring creations, the Heechee universe. The Heechee are a fictional alien race which developed advanced technologies, including interstellar space travel, but then disappeared.

The book consists of nine new short stories published in the first three 1990 issues of ''Aboriginal Science Fiction'', and "The Merchants of Venus". It is illustrated by Frank Kelly Freas.

==Contents== The book includes anecdotes and "...meditations on planetary and stellar physics, evolution, sociology, and the future of the human race" that "fill in the background of his Heechee novels".<ref name="auto"/> The story ''The Merchants of Venus'' is about Audee Walthers, an "airbody driver and tour operator", who scams Earth tourists who visit Venus. He needs a new liver, so he is seeking a rich client to profit from. He is pleased to meet the seemingly well-off Boyce Cochenour. However, Walthers finds out that Cochenour also needs money.

==Reception== ''Kirkus Reviews'' states that the book is "[m]ore history text than story", as the "...characters of the vignettes are barely seen shadows, a background for pure speculation."<ref name="auto"/> ''Kirkus Reviews'' states that "[d]espite the one novella and interesting science, ...this is only the skeleton of something better".<ref name="auto"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{ISFDB name|820|Frederik Pohl}}

{{Heechee-saga}} {{Frederik Pohl}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gateway Trip, The}} Category:1990 American novels Category:1990 English-language novels Category:1990 science fiction novels Category:Novels by Frederik Pohl Category:Del Rey books