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Title: The Robert Sheckley omnibus by Robert Sheckley ISBN: 0-575-01677-9 Publisher: Gollancz Pub. Date: 1973 Format: Unknown Binding

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: An Action-Packed Metaphysical Satire
Comment: This is Sheckley's first novel and one of his best. He was writing his most famous lean-and-mean short stories at the time, and he is in rare form telling this bold tale of death, the afterlife, time-travel and ressurrection.

Sheckley is one of the greatest unsung storytellers in science fiction. Some if the greatest sf and fantasy writers are his biggest fans. This book is a great starting place, along with his three masterpieces of modern satire, DIMENSION OF MIRACLES, MINDSWAP and JOURNEY OF JOENES.

Rating: 5
Summary: Immortality, Inc.
Comment: I haven't read the entirety of the book, but I read the first story, a novel, which I haven't seen printed anywhere else, called immortality, inc. The book blew my mind. I discovered it from the movie "freejack" with Emileo Estavez, which is (loosely) based on it. I found the Sheckley compilation book "The Robert Sheckely Omnibus" with the story, wanting to see how well the movie represented it. While the movie had some redeeming value, the book was much more intense, both intellectually and emotionally.

Thomas Blaine, your average Everyman, is driving down a lone highway at night. He sees in the distance another car. His car suddenly swerves over to the other lane, right in front of the approaching car. As hard as he tries he cannot turn the steering wheel over. Moments after the fatal crash he finds himself in 22nd century America on an operating table, with a completly different body.

The story delves into many metaphysical concepts dealing with the mind (and as a philosophy major, this intriqued me). The future holds, as always, high technology in which the society discovers the means to immortality. They discover, scientifically, a hearafter, and a way to master it. Without paying megabucks for a treatment to guarantee an afterlife, only one in a million minds can hold themselves together. Another option is near physical immortality, with reincarnation, a body transfer in which one person can opt to sell his/her body for money for their family and a guaranteed afterlife. Another, rich person, can then possess the body and be reborn.

The book also delves into the possibilities of the supernatural, how ghosts, doppelgangers, poltergeists, werewolves, vampires, and zombies relate to this scientific spirituality.

And finally, the book approaches the possible moral implications with such technology. All mixed up with an intriguing plotline, suspense, mystery, and stinging social commentary.

The moment I picked up this book, I could not put it down. It completely engrosses you. I was saddened to find the book out of print, which it shouldn't. If you have the chance buy it, express interest to the publisher to reprint it, anything. This is definitly a book well worth reading.