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."

Farewell

[meerling]

I've enjoyed many of his books over the years.
Another master will be greatly missed.

Graduated with honors.

[Tackhead]

"That's what life is, just one learning experience after another, and when you're through with all the learning experiences you graduate and what you get for a diploma is, you die."

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.)

In another universe

[aitikin]

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 [wikipedia.org], such a great introduction to him. He will be missed.

Re:In another universe

[RabidReindeer]

I loved that book. Also The Space Merchants, and pretty much anything of his I've encountered. One of the greats.

I'm going to have to number The Space Merchants among the classics of SF. Lesser-known and much later came the sequel The Merchants War, which points out the problem of going to extremes and ends with the perhaps unsatisfying, but very true-to-life conclusion that there Is No Perfect Answer.

Pohl was good at keeping himself fresh. Every couple of years, long after you'd have thought he'd retired and passed on, something new would pop up on the bookstore shelves. All good things must come to an end, alas.