Frederik Pohl

Platinum Pohl is the first collection to collect all of the essential works of Frederik Pohl. First and foremost, Pohl is a master of the science fiction short story. For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction.

Now, for the first time, he has gathered together the best of his many stories. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world . . .

Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people you’ll love, some you’ll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. That’s some trick. Not everyone can do that . . . but that’s why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, “Fermi and Frost” and “The Meeting” (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful “The Gold at the Starbow's End” and “The Greening of Bed-Stuy,” and stories such as “Servant of the People,” “Shaffery Among the Immortals,” and “Growing Up in Edge City,” all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other tales, like the wonderful “The Mayor of Mare Tranq” and the provocative “The Day the Martians Landed” and many others.

Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats!

A Triumphant New Gateway Adventure

Twenty-five years after the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning bestseller Gateway, Frederik Pohl returns with a new Gateway novel. Filled with excitement and the sense of wonder that made Gateway a huge success, The Boy Who Would Live Forever is a memorable journey into the unknown.

Stan and Estrella, two young people from Earth, journey to the Gateway asteroid looking for adventure, and discover each other during a flight in one of the ships the alien Heechee left behind when they explored our Solar System. Stan and Estrella settle among the Heechee on a planet in the galactic core, never suspecting that the two of them may be the last, best hope to save the humans and Heechee in the core from destruction by a crazed madman.

Wan Enrique Santos-Smith, a man full of loathing for the Heechee, will stop at nothing to destroy the Heechee and their human friends. But Stan and Estrella, with the help of a fabulously wealthy philanthropist and the unique machine mind Marc Antony, are determined to thwart Wan’s terrible plan. At stake is nothing less than the fate of all life in the galaxy.