[Some spoilers included.]
The story is set in 2110, but actually starts off in 1958. Thomas Blaine ends up getting in a car accident but then wakes up in a future in the wrong body. It was an illegal time travel experiment where a person's soul can be ripped out of the past and into the future, placed in an entirely new body. From here, Thomas experiences the very strange world of 2110 which is not really as much of a dystopia as it seems at first.
Humans have colonized other planets. Hilariously the Chinese has taken over Mars. People can buy bodies to switch into if they are going to die. Zombies are a thing, although they live down in the sewers of New York and keep to themselves. Also the afterlife has been scientifically proven. All sorts of crazy stuff has happened in all that time!
The whole thing with the afterlife is the main aspect of the book. Because people found out that there was life after death, people became a lot more cavalier with their lives. Suicide became more commonplace. But as it turns out, you have to train your mind to be stable enough to pass on to the other side, which is why they actually sell insurance for it: Hereafter Insurance. I'm not joking.
You can actually buy insurance that will insure that you will go to the other side when you die. This story has almost nothing to do with how Christianity is presented, by the way, but it does leave the question as to what is actually on the other side of life. People know it exists but they don't know what form it exists in. Very interesting.
This book also takes some beats from the 1924 story "The Most Dangerous Game." Because some people know they are going to have an afterlife, it becomes legal to murder them. Hunting humans is actually a sport in this world. It's not considered real murder because they technically keep living. Crazy, right?
Aside from taking inspiration from a different story, this book also seems to have inspired other things as well. Remember the suicide booths from Futurama? That was pulled directly from "Immortality, Inc." There was even a line leading up to one that Thomas accidently stands in.
The zombies also seem to have inspired Futurama as well. Zombies are just dead bodies that spirits are "driving" after they die. It's like if a poltergeist jumped into a body and began wearing it like a suit. Nobody likes them, so the government allows them to live in the sewers of New York, which is very similar to the mutants of Futurama.
Another thing that this book may have inspired was Stargate: Universe. Universe had this annoying thing where people could exchange bodies with people on earth. They even had a scene where someone would use the host's body to have sex with someone. Very inappropriate, but a similar thing happens in this book as well. Who knows? They may have been inspired by that scene.
Oh, and if any of you are curious... Yes. This book was made into a movie in 1992. It was called Freejack, and it is a great film. The movie does, however, do its own thing. It is mostly a loose interpretation, but I still loved it.
I would warn you however that this book does deal with a lot of dark themes, mostly of the suicidal variety. Life has very little meaning to the people of 2110. You got to prepare yourself for that, but it still somehow all works believably as a work of fiction. I liked it.
I recommend "Immortality, Inc." It'll knock you around with all kinds of drama and action. There's murder, mystery, chase scenes, and all kinds of philosophical content to keep you interested from the first to last page. And if anything, you can read this hidden gem which clearly was an inspiration for a lot of other stories we have seen in other places. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm sure you will too.
This blog was written on February 20, 2023.
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Interesting. I remember Freejack. It was a cool movie. It seems this book is an unknown classic, since I never knew about it till this blog yet it inspired MANY things I know about.
ReplyDeleteI liked the movie too. I think the film works fine on its own honestly.
DeleteInteresting that "Immortality Inc." inspired Futurama, I never knew. I remember the movie Freejack, the book should be a fascinating read even if the movie was loosely based on it. The fact that we are not our bodies rings true, but we should leave the mad science to fiction.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is a bit weird that this book inspired so many things, but nobody ever seems to talk about it.
DeleteI suspected Freejack was inspired by an existing work. Though we can perpetuate our physical existence, there does come a point when it ends. What is truly important is what comes after.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that the book doesn't really explain what is on the other side, although some things mentioned are still very inaccurate.
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