The Boy Who Would Live Forever
by Frederik Pohl

Description:
The alien Heechee, who constructed the gateway through which humans have explored space, have retreated to the galactic core. There, they live in peace-- both the living Heechee and those whose physical bodies have died, but whose minds live on, stored in electronic memory.

Living among the Heechee are people from Earth, both living and “stored,” some who want a life in space, and others who fled Earth in the aftermath of a catastrophic natural disaster of massive proportions. But the galactic core is threatened by the alien Kugel. And there’s a greater threat: Wan Enrique Santos-Smith, a human whose insane hatred of the Heechee drives him to plot destruction on a scale so vast that it could destroy the entire galaxy. Pohl is masterful in weaving an exciting, compelling adventure on a grand scale.