Forever Pleasure: A Utopian Novel [Hardcover]

Theodore Eastman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2008

In this futuristic novel, John Seeger accidentally travels from 1986 to 2076 and lands in a revolutionary society where he soon manages to blend in with the utopian lifestyle. Seeger eventually discovers that past influences have left all the intelligent life forms of the local universe converted into euphoric machines.Jeso, a euphoric robot housing a human mind, has a grand plan to spread his Hedonistic Expansion crusade over the vast Local Group of galaxies via his vintage spacecraft, La Cielo, built three millenniums ago. Seeger realizes that robots have the capability to devour and reconstruct cities and microbots can take over anyone's emotions in this strange new world where money and property are of no value. After he falls in love with a beautiful woman, Mahea, Seeger inadvertently changes the course of his future in a perfect world as he uncovers a deep secret. Meanwhile, Seeger's beloved sister, Kayla, is still living in 1986, trapped in a bad marriage and in failing health, and Seeger must choose between returning to his former world or moving on with his new life.Jeso and Seeger's paths eventually converge and take them on a collision course that, in the end, will decide the future of their universe.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Theodore Eastman, an automation engineer for the Deep Space Network, is contracted to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He graduated from the New York Institute of Technology. Theodore and his wife have two adult children and live in Southern California. They enjoy snorkel diving, tennis, and tropical vacations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (November 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595499090
• ISBN-13: 978-0595499090
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,175,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Often in error, never in doubt, April 30, 2010

By 

Jane - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forever Pleasure: A Utopian Novel (Paperback)

I have read the other reviews, each one of them awarding the book five stars (that's one of the reasons why I bought the book), and I am astonished.

Maybe there is a cultural difference here? I suppose the reviewers are (mainly? exclusively?) American; I'm European. Why am I astonished and why I'm talking about a cultural difference? In my opinion the book gives the impression to have been written by a teenager for teenagers. The main person, John, shows himself to be an absolute idiot who "travels" through time just by falling in some kind of holes - we're not talking about a scientist. And after landing in the new future time, he's main, or only, interest is to chase women, if possible two at the same time. Our "hero" John, by the way, makes absolutely every mistake one could do. Imagine a barbarian from 5th century A.D. travelling to our time and behaving exactly as he would in his century - that's what our John does. Didn't the American readers notice that? Is this again a cultural difference: for Americans it's normal that an American goes somewhere in the world (not necessarily into the future) and that he behaves exactly like in Boston? Surely there are many Europeans that behave in that respect just like Americans, but the mere fact that I noticed that, but noone of the other reviewers, suggests that the cultural difference is real.


But let me mention one unbeatable passage of the book, without revealing too much of the content (I don't want to ruin the "pleasure"): at one certain moment some people are travelling (this time intentionally) through time, and someone advices the passionate and teenager-minded John not to do it because the consequences could be disastrous and the like. But our John, whose little mind is only occupied by girls (and who is a good example for the famous sentence about cosmologists: "Often in error, never in doubt") says that nothing will happen because he has "experience in time travelling". Goodness! It is as though you would stumble, fall - and declare yourself an expert on gravity and its causes and consequences.

Maybe all this is some kind of at least entertaining literature for American eyes; for European eyes, it's not even that.

You would possibly now ask: if the book is really so bad, why did you read the whole of it?? Well: if I want to criticise something, I ought to be informed about it.

PS: if someone tried to learn a couple of Esperanto words or sentences from the book, let me get this straight: the author doesn't know Esperanto - and he took no effort in looking for someone who could help him. He obviously just consulted an (online) dictionary and translated English sentences word by word, which results in incomprenhensible Esperanto words meaninglessly (un)linked to each other. I often succeeded in understanding the Esperanto sentences only by translating them mentally into English - so bad were they.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL ENTERTAINING BOOK!, August 5, 2010

By 

LIEN TRAN - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forever Pleasure: A Utopian Novel (Paperback)

Forever Pleasure is a real wonderful entertaining book that I have read in my life.
The story headed me to a perfect world;It took me away from the real life which so many chaoses happening nowadays.
I enjoyed reading the book during my lunch hours and felt nothing to worry about anything happening around.
The beautiful world in the book makes me dream about the future life. Expecting if it will be in movie, How amazing! I can't wait.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the tradition of utopian novels, January 12, 2009

By 

Scott E. Fullner "sefnet" (San Dimas, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forever Pleasure: A Utopian Novel (Hardcover)

The story is awesomely original and in the fine tradition of landmark utopian novels. Eastman focuses on what truly startling technology that will be available in the future and the possibilities for benefiting and corrupting mankind. Cloaked in the guise of an almost surreal science fiction novel, the concept of the 'pursuit of happieness (pleasure)' is pushed to its ultimate extreme: You will experience pleasure, there is no other option... There is a lot of humor and the bizarre possibilities of a future society are presented well. I think some of the characters will live on in future literature especially Jenay the thousand year old 'girl' who by choice looked and acted like a 16 year old in some ways and like a mature representative maven of arcane future technology in others. The book left me bemused and wanting to read more.