A Life and a Half

Search the Sky is a satirical science fiction novel written by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth and first published in 1954 by Ballantine Books. What is the fate of the colonists who went out from Earth to settle the far planets beyond our universe? Space-ships have been unable to evoke radar responses from these planets, and in a novel as well-written as it is ingenious, one man starts out from Halsey's Planet to find the answer. If there is one.

He was a master teacher-respected, successful, his life well rewarded in past accomplishments and rich in the promise of achievements to come.

And yet he was fighting a bitter battle with a savage, bewildering driveto self-destruction.

But when he really began to probe the reasons for his "madness," the battle with himself became a puny thing beside the power him new information could release.

If he could live that long.

They were the heirs of space-flight: They planned to be the first humans to land on Alpha Centauri, but the original Hartnett expedition had been lost and they had to find it first. They followed the signals and found that they led to what looked like a one-way excursion to the screwiest planetoid in the galaxy!

An interstellar trilogy--complete in one volume. Earth in the near future is governed by the Plan of Man--a complex set of laws enforced by a worldwide computerized security network, necessary for the survival of humankind. Or, so the authorities say. But one man knows better . . .

Contents:

"The Man Who Ate the World," 1956

"The Seven Deadly Virtues," 1958

"The Day the Icicle Works Closed," 1960

"The Knights of Arthur," 1958

"Mars by Moonlight," 1958

"The Haunted Corpse," 1957

"The Middle of Nowhere," 1955

"The Day of the Boomer Dukes," 1956

"The Snowmen," 1959

"The Wizards of Pung’s Corners," 1958

"The Waging of the Peace", 1959

"Survival Kit," 1957

"I Plinglot, Who You?," 1959

In a future where medical science has all but eliminated death, vid star Rafiel is faced with his own demise and learns many poignant lessons about life as he struggles with this reality. By the author of *Our Angry Earth. *

**

He was a reluctant passenger on a voyage to save the galaxy...

Butterflylike aliens had brought Earth into the galactic culture. But she was a poor relation, valued only for the living human human bodies she rented out for whatever purposes her nonhuman customers desired.

Then Cuckoo was discovered. Millions of miles in diameter, less dense than air, it had a solid surface that was home to many races - including a species of Man. And that was odd, for Cuckoo was from another galaxy!

Suddenly, one human, a linguist, became very important. If Jen Babylon could solve the mystery of Cuckoo's records he might raise humanity's standing among the older races - but he might also save the galaxy!

In 1977 Frederik Pohl stunned the science fiction world with the publication of Gateway, one of the most brilliantly entertaining SF novels of all time. Gateway was a bestseller and won science fiction's triple crown: the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial awards for best novel. Now, more than twenty-five years later, Pohl has completed a new novel set in the Gateway universe. The Boy Who Would Live Forever has a sense of wonder and excitement that will satisfy those who loved Gateway and will delight new readers as well.

In *Gateway*, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space-station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core where they now lived in peace. Now, in *The Boy Who Would Live Forever*, humans with dreams of life among the stars are joining the Heechee at the core, to live there along with those humans and Heechee whose physical bodies have died and their minds stored in electronic memory so that their wisdom passes down through the ages.

Their peace is threatened by the Kugel, who may yet attack the core. But a much greater threat is the human Wan Enrique Santos-Smith, whose blind loathing of the Heechee fuels an insane desire to destroy them and, incidentally, every living being in the galaxy.

Stan and Estrella, two young people from Earth, went to Gateway looking for adventure, and found each other. They settle among the Heechee on Forested Planet of Warm Old Star Twenty-Four, never suspecting that they may be the last best hope to save the galaxy. But with allies like Gelle-Klara Moynlin--one of the galaxy's richest women, who isn't content to just have money, but wants to use her wealth for good, and machine mind Marc Antony-a wonderful chef to thousands of living and stored clients, they are destined to contend with Wan's terrible plan. Frederik Pohl has woven together the lives of these and other memorable characters to create a masterful new novel.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

### From Publishers Weekly

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.

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### From Booklist

Pohl returns to his Gateway Universe and his most famous creation, the Heechee. A couple of youngsters with no future on earth make it to the galactic core where live the Heechee, both the quick and the dead in body, the latter of whose active minds are stored electronically. Many humans of both kinds also live there. But the core is threatened by another alien species, the Kugel, and by an insane organic human who so hates the Heechee that he is plotting their destruction without regard for consequences. Shifting narrative perspective between the youngsters and their mentors, Pohl brings them all to the right place in the nick of time to save the core. It has been 14 years since *The Gateway Trip*, the last previous novel of the Heechee, so bear in mind that readers may wish to refresh their memories with *Gateway* (1977), *Beyond the Blue Event Horizon* (1980), *Heechee Rendezvous* (1984), and *Annals of the Heechee* (1987), too, to ensure full enjoyment of this book. *Frieda Murray*

When a mysterious alien spacecraft approaches the Earth and demands to speak with the President of the United States, then destroys a large Pacific island to demonstrate its strength and seriousness, you'd expect the President to talk. Problem is, there is no President - not even a United States. China rules the Americas, and to most people "US" and "USSR" are just quaint abbreviations in historical dictionaries. But the aliens prove unreasonable about accepting substitutes...