Reviews of Frederik Pohl'sThe Boy Who Would Live Forever (New York: Tor, 2004).

SFWA Grand Master Pohl's latest is a pure delight, miraculously combining wry adventure and compassionate satire. Since it began with the novel Gateway (1977), Pohl's Heechee series has been among the most consistently daring of SF's continuing enterprises, and this first book in 15 years does its best to wake readers up. Pohl's characters have a lot to think about, too. As humans spread through space–allying themselves with the alien Heechee and realizing that they now have the option of having their personalities preserved forever electronically in the company of dazzlingly accomplished AIs–they must decide what to keep and what to give up. A young man and woman begin, tentatively and convincingly, to explore the possibilities of their relationship in this complicated universe. At the same time, though, selfish and super-rich Wan Enrique Santos-Smith refuses to surrender any of his childish anger and sets out to take revenge on all the adults who've frustrated his desires. Pohl flips nimbly from character to character, star to star, inside and outside the black hole where the Heechee and many humans are learning to live maturely together. Surprises abound, but readers will feel that they could have seen them coming if they'd been a little more ready to trust their imaginations. Pohl believes we can learn to live with extraordinary challenges; his tempered, hard-won faith in humanity makes this book especially satisfying. –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

After an absence of 14 years, Pohl returns to his Heechee universe (The Gateway Trip, 1990, etc.) with a grab-bag yarn that updates many of the previous themes and ideas and adds a few new ones.

At the Gateway asteroid, loyal readers will recall, humans embarked hopefully in Heechee ships toward preprogrammed (but, to the occupants, unknown and random) destinations of which there was an equal likelihood of finding immensely valuable Heechee artifacts, tragic disappointment, or death. Two young prospectors, Stan Avery and Estrella Pancorbo, endure a disappointing, unproductive voyage, returning only to find that the guidance problem has been solved–hence, prospectors are superfluous. Their single option is to join a mission to the black hole at the galaxy's Core, where the Heechee themselves are hiding in dread of the Foe, the life-destroying Kugel. Numerous other narrative strands fill out the big picture. A Heechee named Achiever leaves the Core to discover what the Kugel are up to inside their Kugelblitz. Superrich Gelle-Klara Moynlin, using advanced Heechee science, observes the explosion of the Crab Nebula and the fate of its sun's inhabited planet. Superrich, insane Heechee-hater Wan Enrique Santos-Smith hatches plots to destroy the Heechee inside the Core. Fellow Heechee-hater Reverend Orbis McClune, stored electronically after his death and sold to Wan, wonders whether to assist the clearly mad Wan or resist him. And artificial intelligence Marc Anthony, the galaxy's greatest chef, roams the spaceways as an undercover agent, keeping tabs on the Kugel and on Wan.

An astonishing eyeful, rich and absorbing, albeit undramatic, leaving scope for at least one more installment: a feast for Gateway travelers. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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