"Gateway to Strangeness", also titled "Dust of Far Suns" and "Sail 25", is a science fiction novelette by American writer Jack Vance.

Despite the many strange and outrageous stories they have heard about him, including his legendary drunkenness, one of them notes that all of the top men in space seem to have trained under him.

Since only six trainees can go on the space journey, Belt first assigns each man the task of building three specific devices using identical piles of assorted parts.

All the while, he makes careful note of their faults (according to his idiosyncratic standards), recording their demerits in his little red book.

No other planet whose gravity could halt their outward flight (their solar sail can only propel them away from the Sun) is within reach.