The Boy Who Would Live Forever by Frederik Pohl

Take two young people, Stan and Estrella, from different places on Earth, under educated with little hope for the future and give them each a small windfall of money that enables them to travel to Gateway in search of even greater fortunes. Watch them travel to the black hole center of the galaxy to live with an alien race known as the Heechee. Then observe how the rest of the galaxy changes, since for each day inside the core, 40,000 days passes in the rest of the galaxy. Finally, see the role that Stan and Estrella play in saving the universe from the madman Wan Enrique Santos-Smith, who's sole purpose in life is the destruction of the Heechee race.

This is the latest Gateway book and perhaps the strangest to date. Unless you're a fan of Pohl's Gateway series, I'd avoid this book as he pulled many of the characters from his earlier novels with little or no explaination about them. On the other hand even if you're familiar with the series, prepare to be confused as Pohl leads you through what appears to be a couple of dozen short shories set in the Gateway universe. By the middle of the book, you'll realize that there's a point to this meandering tale and by the end of the book everything will make sense

Details: TOR, November 2005

Bottom line: A very good book