Jem

An excellent story that looks at the constant drive for competition in our society and looks just that little bit in the future to show it's logical ends. Does for unbridled competition what 1984 did for authoritarianism and surveillance.

Simply a remarkable book, even better than Gateway and probably one of the top 10 scifi books I have ever read (as of March 2012). The contributions are both anthropological and political. I also always enjoy Pohl's futurology settings, taking place at the beginning of the interesting part of the Space Age. Also, the main character is very accessible, a lot like other space inclined people without a real valuable trait that would earn them a spot in space. There is so much more...
Will be reading the rest of his work soon.