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Sci-Fi Great Frederik Pohl Passes Away At 93
damnbunni writes "Frederik Pohl, one of the last Golden Age science fiction authors, passed away on September 2nd of respiratory distress, as reported on his blog. Pohl is perhaps best known for his Heechee Saga novels, beginning with Gateway in 1977, but his work in pulp magazines in the '30s and '40s helped give rise to science fiction fandom."
I've enjoyed many of his books over the years.
Another master will be greatly missed.
My personal favourite. Amazingly prescient.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Thanks, Frederik, for learning so much in your time with us that you were able to teach, through your example, some of us how to write. Enjoy Heechee heaven, and if you ever figure out how their ships work, come back and see us sometime. (Thanks again. I just realized how the ships work. You pick up a book, you open it to page 1, and *poof*, you're there.)
He's alive and well and will live into his 120s. Meanwhile, in another universe, he never lived and no one lives on this planet. Ah The Coming of the Quantum Cats, such a great introduction to him. He will be missed.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
"Outnumbering the Dead," one of the best science fiction novellas I ever read. But the guy had so many greats. He was one of the greatest modern serious science fiction writers ever, and active almost right up until the end. I don't think he ever had a slump.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Gold at Starbow's End (also sometimes sold as Starburst) is one of my favorite science fiction novellas, or maybe science fantasy, of all time.
In typical Pohl fashion it includes lots of sex. But the basic plot is that civilization is collapsing, and someone devises a plan to send six of the world's top scientists, three men and three women, on a multi-year space journey to a planet near Alpha Centauri with nothing to do during the voyage but scientific research. With nothing else to do but research on the ship and chemicals in their food to suppress sexual desire, they hope the crew will make new breakthroughs in many fields. They do.
Unfortunately, the logical, mathematical, and scientific breakthroughs by the crew swiftly move them beyond what the humans back on earth can understand. They create their own language and mathematical notation. They redesign and reconstruct their space ship while it's in motion. They manufacture their own chemicals to nullify the mechanism that was negating their sexual desires and have all sorts of sex, and even raise children on the ship. In the end they manifest psychic powers and figure out how to live disembodied.
The story takes everything you might have liked about the movies Phenomenom, Limitless (and the book it's based upon, "The Dark Fields"), and Lawnmower Man and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Nth Degree" and takes the ideas far further. (Except for killing John Travolta, which cannot be improved upon.)
Verne was a fave as a kid, but not the first - it started with Homer, and then Zeke and Johnny's sci-fi in the bible.
Verne, however, made it much easier for the reader to suspend disbelief, which is a good quality measure for fiction.
Pohl will be missed. There aren't a lot of the old style masters left now. Brian Aldiss, Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. LeGuin, Silverbob, Cherryh, Joe Haldeman, and (no matter how much he protests writing SciFi) Harlan Ellison.
The last few years have been hard:
Robert Jordan
Fred Saberhagen
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Robert A. Wilson
Robert Asprin
Arthur C. Clarke
Michael Crichton
P.J. Farmer
Phyllis Gotlieb
William Tenn
Anne McCaffrey
Harry Harrison
Ray Bradbury
Jack Vance
Iain M. Banks
Frederik Pohl
The times spent as a kid reading under the blanket with a flashlight will never be forgotten. May there be more authors of the same caliber to come, for future generations, and not just parasmut and angst books.