Immortality, Inc.

Robert Sheckley is perhaps better known for his short stories, but he wrote a number of sharply humorous novels, and I've heard him described as a cross between Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. Some of his short stories are simply classical comic, such as the delightful "Untouched by Human Hands," and the satire about consumerism and debt, "Cost of Living." Immortality Inc., his first novel, and an ellaboration on the shorter Immortality Delivered, is less overtly comic.

Thomas Blaine "dies" in a car accident and is surprised to discover that despite the accident taking place in 1958, he wakes up in 2110. It turns out he has been snatched from the past and brought to the future by agents of the Rex Corporation (Freejack, anyone?), a multiplanetary company involved in anything from reincarnation machines to spaceships. The plans that Rex had for him are overruled by the head of the company, and Blaine is turned out on to the streets of future New York, his mind (and soul?) encased in a new, athletic and attractive body. He will discover that the hereafter actually exists but is not accesible to everyone. As with many things commercial, only the rich are able to gain access to extremely expensive hereafter insurance. As in life, there is inequality in death! We find similar overtures in Richard Morgan's skydive rush Altered Carbon, where only the poor die now.

The novel suffers a little from its 1950s origins, but remains a sophisticated examination of the complicated and often contradictory ideas about life, death and immortality. I can well imagine it's appeal to fans in 1959, nominating it for the Hugo.