Edited Synopsis from Amazon: Fifty-seven year old Robert Malone is the CEO of a successful clothing store chain and married to a former model. When his doctor tells him he is dying of cancer, he chooses cryonics. His frozen body will be stored in liquid nitrogen for the next seventy-five years, and then he'll wake up in the future. That is, if technology develops a way to bring him back. What he doesn't realize is that he won't lie in some dreamless state all that time. His soul will be very much awake. As Robert begins a new kind of life outside his physical body, he discovers that he can ride in the cockpit with the pilots, but he can't turn the page of a magazine. He can sit in the oval office with the president, but he can't prevent a child from dashing in front of a car. He doesn't work, or eat, or sleep. He can't smell, or taste, or touch. These obstacles make it difficult to experience love, and virtually impossible to reconcile with the living. Over the next several decades, Robert Malone will have plenty of time to figure out The Ups and Downs of Being Dead.
My thoughts:
This is a strange, imaginative and different take on being dead. Funny (ha ha) at times, thought provoking and serious at other times, and a little tedious in places as well.
This is NOT serious science fiction. So if you're looking for that, don't disappoint yourself (as a few reviewers have commented). This is the story of how one person evolves into a better person even though he's dead.
SPOILER ALERT!
Near the end I lost some of my suspension of disbelief. I personally don't believe the world will ever reach a state of nirvana, meaning no crime, no death -- things like that. And, sorry if this offends anyone, but I don't believe we should get to the point where there is no death. I believe we are suppose to move on to other experiences. No death would be the opposite of what we as people should strive for. It would be hell.
Anyway, in terms of this book, if the world did get to that point where there was no illness, no death, no crime, then why would old-men in prison be left to suffer and die with all the worst bodily happenings of old age? It just wouldn't be that much of a hardship or cost to at least keep them from being in pain. I didn't buy it.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.
My thoughts:
This is a strange, imaginative and different take on being dead. Funny (ha ha) at times, thought provoking and serious at other times, and a little tedious in places as well.
This is NOT serious science fiction. So if you're looking for that, don't disappoint yourself (as a few reviewers have commented). This is the story of how one person evolves into a better person even though he's dead.
SPOILER ALERT!
Near the end I lost some of my suspension of disbelief. I personally don't believe the world will ever reach a state of nirvana, meaning no crime, no death -- things like that. And, sorry if this offends anyone, but I don't believe we should get to the point where there is no death. I believe we are suppose to move on to other experiences. No death would be the opposite of what we as people should strive for. It would be hell.
Anyway, in terms of this book, if the world did get to that point where there was no illness, no death, no crime, then why would old-men in prison be left to suffer and die with all the worst bodily happenings of old age? It just wouldn't be that much of a hardship or cost to at least keep them from being in pain. I didn't buy it.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.
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