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From: Alfke.PASA@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Here's the plot . . . #23
Message-ID: <13260@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Sep-84 14:51:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13260
Posted: Fri Sep  7 14:51:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 03:20:53 EDT
Lines: 19

Whee!  The book is GATEWAY by Fred Pohl.

The "thing" that is sending ships out at random is a space-station left
by an extinct (??) alien (??) race called the Heechee; there are many
ships at the station, but no one knows how to set the destination
controls properly, so the places the ships go to (and automatically
return from, after a period that may be longer than one's air supply . .
.) are unpredictable.
What the hero and his crew find is in fact a black hole of enormous mass
-- the other pod is still falling into the event-horizon, which it will
never reach.

Gateway is a real good book.  The sequel, "Beyond the Blue Event
Horizon", is a real real good book.  There is a third (new) book,
"Heechee Rendezvous", which I have not read yet.  Enjoy!

						-- Peter Alfke
	"If I spoke prose, you'd soon find out
	 I don't know what I talk about."