TSJ’s Blog Life After Gateway — A Retrospective and a Primer
Welcome to Life After Gateway, the blog I’ve been running for the past eight years. In some ways this is a ‘retrospective,’ meaning a look back at the past. In other ways it’s a ‘primer,’ for those new to my books, my site, and my love for the Sci-Fi / Thriller / TechnoThriller genres.
The first post was on 22 November 2017, and it was a “Welcome” post, introducing visitors to the blog and what to expect. I immediately began to stretch my creative energies with posts about Science Fiction, Thrillers, movies, video games, books, famous genre directors, technology, science, television shows, and all things relevant to my genre. You see, I love my genres in all forms of media. They keep me writing my own novels. They sustain and inspire me, and they have done so for five decades or more. They even kept me going during the tough teenage years.
My first posts were about Horror and Sci-Fi Influences, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and The Terminator. I’m sure you have an idea about the genres I love just from those first three posts. Movies and books that had a deep and meaningful impact on me still resonate, decades later. Regarding the films, I remember so much about them. I remember where I saw them, who I was with, what I felt before, during, and after. I wrote a great deal about that in the first Terminator post. Since then, on this blog, I’ve written at length about James Cameron, John Carpenter, Star Trek, Isaac Asimov, Michael Crichton, Agatha Christie, Spielberg, and so many others. I’ve reviewed video games and movies. I’ve written about my own work, where my stories originated, and what inspired me to write them. So far, in addition to nine books, I’ve written 279 blog posts here at Life After Gateway.
I have loved writing for this blog; it allows me a sense of creative freedom to tell people how much storytelling, in all media, means to me, and in particular, its importance and how it got me through the toughest times. I have written before that I believe a great story can solve great problems … and that a great story can heal the world. I truly believe that. Stories bring people together. They are our shared histories. They are used to pass important morals and messages to new generations. They erase our fears, they temper our anger, and they quench our thirst for knowledge and information. They are delicate tendrils stretching backward in time, encompassing both entire cultures as well as past eras.
Something I’ve been wanting to write for a while is the meaning behind “Life After Gateway.” What is gateway, exactly? Why is it important to me? Why is that the name of the blog?
Early Books
I was fifteen years old, in Grade 10 at a wonderful high school in London, Ontario, Canada. (Coincidentally, around the same time I saw Terminator.) I read a lot of books when I was young. I wouldn’t say I was a voracious reader, but I tried for a book a week or perhaps two a month. I found them escapist. They took me away from my troubles and transported me to other places and times. I was hungry for new books, but I was having trouble finding them. I’d read Jaws two years earlier, along with Poltergeist, Cujo, The Amityville Horror, and The Exorcist. It was mostly horror at that point in my life. I’d discovered Edgar Allan Poe, and my favourite stories were The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. I was still a year or two away from discovering Asimov and Heinlein and Crichton, and likely five years from reading Ender’s Game by Card, so my Sci-Fi experiences by this point were mostly TV shows and movies, though there were indeed many childhood books ten years earlier, like the Choose Your Own Adventure series when I was a child.
Back to Grade 10. I was in the library, hunting around for Sci-Fi books in that shelf (that’s how we found relevant books back then), and had already noted a few. One was a collection of short stories by Heinlein, called The Green Hills of Earth. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke was in the stacks, and I read both of these in the following months. One, however, caught my eye immediately. It was Gateway, by Frederik Pohl.
Pohl’s Gateway
The jacket copy was fascinating. It spoke of people gambling to win big, but gambling with their lives using ancient alien technology. The “Rich Man, Dead Man” was interesting, and the references to horror tweaked my curiosity. The hint that it was told in flashback didn’t really occur to me until I started reading. You see, during the narrative, Robinette Broadhead is in therapy, speaking to an AI called “Sigmund Freud” about his past. He’s reluctant to explain what trauma haunts him, and what happened on his mission years earlier. As a reader, it’s very compelling. You quickly realize that Rob was on some incredible mission that not only left him scarred and traumatized, but wealthy beyond anyone’s dreams. What could it have been?
The only way to find out is by reading the book and making it to that incredible climax … and discovering what exactly left Rob so emotionally crushed.
Then there is the cover, which is now notable in Science Fiction. It’s also an iconic book cover in any genre, which I’ve written about on my blog. The art is by famous SF artist Boris Vallejo.
I signed it out, writing my name on the card in the little sleeve in the front of the book, borrowed it for four weeks, and never looked back.
I have never experienced anything like it before. It was written in first person, which I now prefer because it brought me right into the story. It became experiential. I was Robinette Broadhead. I was on those missions from Gateway, the alien station filled with pre-programmed alien vessels, experiencing the mystery and the horror, not knowing what was around the next bend. It was captivating I couldn’t put it down and I learned at that point the power of Science Fiction.
It wasn’t my first exposure to Sci-Fi, just to be clear. I’d been watching Star Trek for more than a decade at that point. I watched Doctor Who and Space: 1999 and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. By that point I’d seen the entire Star Wars original trilogy and the first three Trek movies. I also loved the Sci-Fi movies of the 1970s, which I’ve written about here. I had been reading many YA and juvenile SF books by this point. But Gateway was explosive in its themes and morals and how humanity can be a major part of the genre. If you’ve read the book, you’ll understand what I mean. Pohl was a powerhouse in SF, one of the greatest writers, and easily mentioned in the same breath as Asimov and Heinlein. He was actually friends with Asimov in their early years, even bouncing ideas off one another. Pohl continued the Gateway story in The Heechee Saga, which now encompasses six books and two older video games.
The book made a massive impact on me, along with all the other films, television, and video games around that time as well. It’s why I named my blog. I have revisited the book many times since, and it never fails to surprise and impress me. It’s a master class in both SF concepts, futurism, and psychology, not to mention story structure and the power of narrative. I decided then to be a novelist. Gateway was the book that did it to me.
In the years since I started the blog, I have written nearly 300 articles. My favourites might include the following, but there are so many others as well:
The Best Movie Sequels of All Time
Horror/Sci-Fi/Suspense Influences on TSJ Before the Age of Ten
The Most Iconic Book Covers in the Thriller/Suspense/SF Genres
John Carpenter’s Contribution to Speculative and Science Fiction
Why Underwater? Ten Important Reasons I wrote The Rise of Oceania, and a Message for the Future
Stopping Climate Change Should Not Be Our Goal by Timothy S. Johnston
Decoding THE IMITATION GAME: Fact and Fiction in the Film and Alan Turing’s Place in the SF Genre
An Interesting Note
Remember I mentioned writing my name in the little card when I borrowed it from the school library? They looked like this, and there would be a bunch of names scrawled on it along with a stamped return date:
You could actually see who had read the book before you. A year or so after borrowing Gateway, a friend of mine approached me in the school hall. He said, “Have you read Gateway by Frederik Pohl?” I blinked when he asked, because not many people really knew about it. There was really no reason why he would have asked me about this obscure book from out of the blue like that … but then I realized that he must have seen my signature in the loan card. He proceeded to go on for several minutes about Gateway. He’d read it because he saw my name on that card. He knew my genres and we often talked about Star Trek and other Sci-Fi properties. He truly loved Gateway, and he even recommended I read the sequel, which I knew nothing about! It was Beyond the Blue Event Horizon. There was no mention of it in Gateway, we didn’t have the internet, and the only search I could run was in the Dewey Decimal System of organized index cards in our school’s library files to see if we had any other Pohl books.
I quickly found the sequel in a city library’s stacks and read it. Over the next several years, I also read every book Pohl released in The Heechee Saga.
The “Interesting Note” that I mention in the sub-heading is the person who approached me in the school to ask me this. The person who also read Gateway, and whom I assume was also inspired by writers like Pohl to himself become a writer: It was JJ Martin, writer of Father Sweet, and still a great friend of mine to this day. We went to school together, we loved the same genres, and we talked about the same books. Those incredible SF writers and movies obviously had a tremendous impact on both of us.
That is the power of great writers like Frederik Pohl.
That is the power of Gateway.
And that’s why the blog is called Life After Gateway.
More than any other writer, movie, director, or TV show, that one book started me on this journey. If you haven’t read it, seek it out and dive into it. It changed my life.
— Timothy S. Johnston, 13 March 2025
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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel
“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop
“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite
“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories
“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest
“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels
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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!
WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.
Book Cover & Jacket Copy:
AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!
A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …
Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.
Taunting him.
Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.
If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.
But the assassin could be anyone …
Watch your back, Mac.
A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:
The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007
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TSJ’s Awards
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THE WAR BENEATH: FIRST PLACE 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Action / Adventure Category Winner, 2019 Silver Falchion Award Finalist, 2018 CLUE Award Semi-Finalist, 2019 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist, & 2019 CYGNUS Award Shortlister
THE SAVAGE DEEPS: FIRST PLACE 2020 CYGNUS Award Winner, 2019 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards Finalist, 2022 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist; 2019 CLUE Award Shortlister
FATAL DEPTH: FIRST PLACE 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Award Winner, 2022 Silver Falchion Award Finalist (Best Action Adventure), 2021 CYGNUS Award Semi-Finalist
Praise for THE WAR BENEATH
“If you’re looking for a techno-thriller combining Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and John Le Carré, The War Beneath will satisfy … a ripping good yarn, a genuine page-turner.” — Amazing Stories
“One very riveting, intelligent read!” — Readers’ Favorite
“If you like novels like The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising,
you will certainly enjoy The War Beneath.” — A Thrill A Week
“If you’re here for thrills, the book will deliver.” — The Cambridge Geek
“… an engaging world that is highly believable …” — The Future Fire
“This is a tense, gripping science fiction/thriller of which Tom Clancy might well be proud . . . When I say it is gripping, that is the simple truth.” — Ardath Mayhar
“… a thrill ride from beginning to end …” — SFcrowsnest
“… if you like Clancy and le Carré with a hint of Forsyth thrown in,
you’ll love The War Beneath.” — Colonel Jonathan P. Brazee (RET),
2017 Nebula Award & 2018 Dragon Award Finalist
“Fast-paced, good old-fashioned Cold War espionage … a great escape!” — The Minerva Reader
