There's
no doubt Robert Sheckley counts as the joker in the deck of 20th century
American science fiction. When it comes to the most laughs per page,
this Brooklyn born author wins every time.
Turning to the book under review, Immortality Inc
is a very, very, very funny novel. Sheckley frames his tale thusly:
Thomas Blaine is killed in a car crash in 1958, his body mauled, and
wakes up in 2110. What! Impossible, you say. Nay. In this future world,
the Rex Corporation can pull off a bit of time travel and mind
transference so that tall, thin Blaine now inhabits the body of a stocky
professional wrestler. All this is explained to the crash victim
including that Rex did what it did to him for marketing reasons.
Understandably,
Thomas Blaine is appalled he was used in this way but, hey, guy, at
least you're alive. However, there's a news flash just in: the old
gezzer who's the CEO of Rex decides their initial marketing plan wasn't
such a hot idea in the first place and the corporation has absolutely no
use for a 1958 man. Thus Blaine is invited to leave the Rex building –
now.
So there he is: a man from 1958 with a new body and new set
of clothes walking the streets of New York City in 2110. And Blaine is
in for a series of shockers: this is a world where down-and-outers stand
in line to enter suicide booths, a world where not only do corporations
routinely pay donors for their youthful bodies (sold as receptacles to
the old and wealthy for mind transfer) but there's also a black market
for donor bodies, a world where some men and women live in a bodiless
transitional state between life and the hereafter but can still
communicate with the living, a world where zombies and poltergeist
exist, and, most dramatically, a world where corporations sell
immortality to those who can afford it (immortality of the mind thanks
to science; immortality of the soul is still within the domain of
religion).
If all of the above sounds positively bonkers, please
keep in mind Harlan Ellison said Robert Sheckley did for literature
what the Marx Brothers did for film. Oh, yes, Sheckley used the
conventions of science fiction to create zany, comic adventure tales
that highlight the foibles, silly aspirations and cockeyed dreams of
modern humans, all with a light, sardonic Loony Tunes touch.
Oh, the places you'll go and the people you'll see in the 22nd century, Thomas Blaine. Here's a sample:
Big
Apple Acid Trip – Welcome to your new New York, 1950s man: “At first
glance, the city looked like a surrealistic Bagdad. He saw squat palaces
of white and blue tile, and slender red minarets, and irregularly
shaped buildings with flaring Chinese roofs and spired onion
domes....With relief he saw skyscrapers, simple and direct against the
curved Asiatic structures. They seemed like lonely sentinels of the New
York he had known.” Blaine experiences future shock on a colossal scale
but as humans we have this thing about adapting to change when it means
our survival.
Reincarnation Room - “On the raised stage, under
white floodlights, the reincarnation apparatus was already in place.”
Blaine looks on in stunned disbelief as an old man's mind in his old
man's body is about to be shifted to the body of a young man. But, wait,
this technology doesn't always work as planned. One possible result: a
newly created zombie. As readers, we shouldn't look for hard SF answers –
this is soft SF Sheckley-ized.
The Old Ultra-Violence – Sure, in
Burgess' near futuristic Clockwork Orange world we viddy droogies
smashing gullivers but in 2110 violence goes haywire: gladiators fight
to the death in Madison Square Garden, berserkers go on murdering
rampages on crowded city streets and rich guys bored with life can face
death in grand style: take on the role of Quarry in a battle against a
band of Hunters armed with axes and spears. With his new muscular pro
wrestler body, Blaine can join seasoned Hunters out for blood. What fun!
A
Frank Talk About Frank – Turns out, Blaine's burly wrestler's body
belonged to a guy by the name of Frank Kranch who sold it to the Rex
Corporation. Between heartfelt tears, Frank's grieving widow Alice fills
Blaine in on the story of Frank the glorious Hunter and then treats
Blaine (as Frank, sort of) to an even more glorious round of sex. Ah, a
woman's love! Among the more humorous episodes in the novel – thanks
Robert Sheckley.
To Live On and On - Blaine has a chance to seal
the deal for his own afterlife that lands him in a very dangerous 2110
soup. How to escape? A series of mindswaps reminding readers of
Sheckley's Mindswap. Outrageous! Would you believe in the end
this novel is actually a love story? Pick up a copy (or listen to the
audiobook) and find out for yourself.
American SF author Robert Sheckley, 1928-2005
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