Line #1 Literature/ImmortalityInc


1	[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/immortality_inc_7.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:220:The cover of the first edition]]
3	''Immortality Inc.'' is a ScienceFiction novel by Creator/RobertSheckley. It was serialized in 1958-9 in the Science Fiction Magazine ''Magazine/GalaxyScienceFiction'' under the name "Time Killer",and released as a standalone novel as its current title later in 1959.
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5	It follows the adventures of Thomas Blaine, a man from 1958 brought to the year 2110 at the moment of his death. He struggles to live in a world where life after death is accepted by everyone, and as a result, life has lost inherent value. As he seeks to find a place in this new time, in a new body, he is forced to cope with a world completely different from his 1958 home.
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7	It won a Hugo award for best novel in 1959. The 1992 action movie ''{{Film/Freejack}}'' is (very loosely) based on the novel.
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10	!!Immortality, Inc. Contains Examples of:
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12	* ArtificialAfterlife: A variant. The afterlife itself is natural, but getting your soul there intact is a MillionToOneChance without an expensive technological procedure.
13	* DeathSeeker: Common enough. Once someone secured the survival of his soul (see OurSoulsAreDifferent), why not go out in style? They even have suicide booths for that.
14	* AGoodWayToDie: [[spoiler: Thomas Blaine, who dies to give the boy he murdered a second chance at life.]] He even thinks about how complete his life in 2100 was already.
15	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: An unusual version: a rich guy, wishing to die in style, hires hunters to hunt and kill ''him''. He can hunt and kill them back. The catch is, there's the scientific (and very expensive!) process to ensure that someone will have an afterlife--and without said process, to have one's soul survive death is almost a MillionToOneChance. The rich guy has guaranteed afterlife and doesn't fear death, while the hunters mostly don't.
16	* NotRightInTheBed: Subverted. The protagonist is in the body of another man (quite legally--long story) and is afraid that lingering traces of that man's personality are taking over his own. When he meets the ex-girlfriend of that man, they have sex, and the protagonist is disturbed by his unusually rough behavior. Subversion comes then [[spoiler:in the morning the woman says that the previous owner of the body used to be very gentle in bed.]]
17	* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The scientists discover that human souls do exist -- but most of them fracture on the shock of death. Those few who survive enter some indescribable place called the Threshold and go to the proper afterlife from there. (Nobody knows whether the fractured souls are DeaderThanDead or if they can recover in the afterlife, but most people assume the former.) Then scientists design the process which can guarantee the soul's survival... for a huge sum of money, of course. Or for selling your young body for a rich old man to use.
18	* {{Poltergeist}}: [[spoiler: Mr. Reilly]] becomes one following his failed body transfer. He haunts Blaine, blaming him for the failure.
19	* SuicideIsPainless: [[spoiler: Thomas Blaine commits suicide willingly in order to allow the teenager he murdered 150 years ago to use his body to live life. Blaine notes he feels no pain in his death.]]

Context Literature / ImmortalityInc