Why call them back from heaven?

[Tez]

Anyone else read this book?

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Call-Them-.../dp/0380505754

I read it a long time ago, while I was still a kid (and a believer).

Somehow my recollection of the fundamental message is different from that of this amazon reviwer. The review starts:

Quote:

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Physical Immortality or Spiritual Afterlife?,, June 3, 2004
By OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I had thought that I had read every single published work of my favorite science fiction author, Clifford D. Simak, and then I found this one. A faulty reference lists this as an alternate title to one of his other novels. It is not, this is a totally original work. It is also the work where he perhaps gives human society, and human existence, his most profound examination.

Imagine a world where cryonics, the preservation of the human body by freezing, has become not only the norm, but also the primary reason for human existence. Imagine that one single corporation is in charge of freezing and preserving every single person in the world, until either a cure for their disease- or outright immortality- is discovered. Imagine that people work their entire lives to scrape together the money that the corporation demands for the trust fund to look after their bodies after death. Imagine that some people choose "early death" so that they can be frozen before they eat into their trust fund. Now, imagine that this is all one giant scam- that no one has ever been revived and no one ever will be. Finally, imagine that you have unwittingly stumbled over this fact- and the corporation knows that you know!

Ok thats a pretty fair synopsis of the plot. Now, this corporation sounds a lot like organised religion: promises eternal life after a resurrection, and people have totally bought into it - they are spending their whole time in this life storing up riches for the next one. So to me the book is a profound reflection on the damage that such belief system can inflict on a society (it really is worth a read).

However this is how the reviewer saw it:

Quote:

Simak does no less than examine the fundamental obsession of western society with the cult of materialism, science, and progress. The belief in eventual immortality and "paradise" through freezing is analogous to the average westerner's unshakable belief in physical science. In Simak's tale the vast majority of mankind have abandoned any belief in God or an afterlife because with scientifically induced immortality they feel that they don't need it any more. That is except for a few mavericks and rebels on the fringe of the corporate mega-state- and the system does everything it can to either round up or eliminate them.

A frightening look at what Simak saw coming- a world totally run and ruled by the Corporation.- a world where God and heaven have been eliminated because they stood in the way of increased corporate profits

It was so long ago that maybe my recollection is faulty and Simak was advocating an anti-science, pro-religion POV. Anyone read it more recently?