Immortality, Inc. : Robert Sheckley

[Craig Herbertson]

Robert Sheckley's first novel I believe, written in in 1959.The plot device is that in the far future human's consciousness may be transferred into a brain-dead body. And at one Euro a go it had to be bought for the cover alone - it looks a bit like Dark Side of the Moon to me.

Despite the dreaded SF tag this book deals brilliantly with Zombies as the future is full of splendid contradiction - for example, The Hereafter is known to exist, you can transfer your mind into another body which leads sometimes to the creation of zombies who have got into the new host too late and effectively inhabit a dead body., Werewolves and ghosts actually exist as scientifically credible phenomena.

The book lacks Sheckley's famous humour - at least its only beginning to develop, but its well worth a read if only to imagine the zombies living in a kind of ghetto world, unloved and uncared for beneath the sprawling cities.

Many of his ideas were taken up by later writers - I get a real Barbarella feel about some sections (Suicide Booths) Freejack was supposed to be adapted from the novel, and one scene from the story was dramatized in the pilot episode of Futurama.

[andydecker]

I know Sheckley is respected for a lot of reasons and deservedly so, but I always thought him definitly boring.

[Craig Herbertson]

I think he was best in short stories where his dry humour worked. His novels were often quite good and funny but he seemed to have a tendency to dull it up for about a hundred pages. This book has its moments and the ideas are good.

[andydecker]

I forgot he wrote "Seventh Victim" which still gets ripped off today.

[junkmonkey]

He also wrote the novelization of a Babylon 5 TV movie that was so dreadful that I couldn't get past page 4. And I rate Sheckley as one of my top 20 all time SF greats.