Escape from Heaven (Hardcover)

by J. Neil Schulman (Author) "There's an old saying that everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die..." (more)
Key Phrases: ballot line, celestial realm, Uncle Nimlash, Party of God, Manchu Ellins (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Just plain fun ... a romp ... behind the pure fun, has the serious Miltonic purpose of justifying God's ways to man." -- Jerry Pournelle, Byte

"Wild, irreverent, a hoot. Any other civilization would have burned Schulman at the stake. Did they know something we don't?" -- David Brin, author of The Uplift Saga and The Postman

Product Description
"This is Duj Pepperman and you're on 680 K-TALK."

"Duj, this is God, calling from Heaven. I can't believe I got through. I'm one of your biggest fans!"

With this first-ever call-in from God, an L.A. radio talk-show host is sent on a mission from God that takes him to Heaven - then back to earth - on a rollercoaster adventure that includes meetings with the most famous celebrities in Heaven and on earth. Along the way he learns the origins of our universe, the meaning of life, and how the War between God and Satan will turn out. A comic journey that is bound to be compared to Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Shaw's Back to Methuselah.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Pulpless.com (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584451920
• ISBN-13: 978-1584451921
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,038,320 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Old Diety Peddler, December 16, 2002

By	"ssandfort" (Republic of Panama) - See all my reviews

I read the first part of ESCAPE FROM HEAVEN for free on line. That's the way J. Neil Schulman hooks you in. You're reading along, enjoying the story, getting into it, than right at the most exciting part, he cuts your water off. Sort of like Tom Lehrer's "Old Dope Peddler":

He gives the kids free samples,
Because he knows full well
That today's young innocent faces
Will be tomorrow's clientele.

I'm not complaining, though. I just had to read the rest, because it was such a rollicking good story and funny as, uh, hell. I especially appreciated the little inside jokes and references for science fiction fans, libertarians and gunnies. It kept me glued to the screen until I had read it "cover" to "cover."

A couple of caveats; if you think you don't like anything but "hardcore" science fiction, this is probably not the J. Neil Schulman book for you. (Though I strongly recommend you give it a chance--hey, it's free.) Ditto, if you take your religion too seriously. (Schulman seems to agree with Heinlein's observation "One man's theology is another man's belly laugh." ESCAPE FROM HEAVEN has something to offend everyone's religious sensibilities, therefore plenty of belly laughs.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Madcap, Manic, Midrashic, and Fun!, February 2, 2003

By	Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This amazing--and FUNNY--book begins with the last earthly hours of radio talk show host Duj (rhymes with judge) Pepperman, as he receives an unheard of call-in from God, and is summoned home to heaven. There he receives an unexpected assignment and learns some surprising things about God, including the fact that God looks just like him. And that's just for starters.

Soon Duj is involved in the climactic battle of God and Satan, conducted as a political campaign, with assistance from some of the greatest minds in history, not least of which is a man author Schulman has always admired--Robert Heinlein. All this is related in snappy, irreverent dialogue that will keep you laughing. But there is more.

In fact, there is lots more, and I won't spoil it for you. Schulman turns all the major religions upside down and shakes them. His ideas about God, Jesus, Satan, Adam and Eve, are totally unorthodox. What is he doing? It sounds a lot like midrash--a kind of teaching story that Jewish scholars use to teach theological principles. What is he saying? That God is really, really good. That God took a tremendous risk in creation, and in giving us free will. That God wants us, his children to be free and creative and--well--godlike.

Is Schulman a mystic, teaching us Kabbalah or Gnosis? Is he doing midrash cloaked in outrageous humor? Or is he just having fun? You will have to decide for yourself. And I hope you will. This is a marvelous book and I hope you will read it. Maybe more than once. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Schulman's first novel in twenty years is a wow!, May 21, 2002

By A Customer

I first ran into J. Neil Schulman when I came across a used paperback of his novel, Alongside Night, in 1985 -- and I've been a fan ever since. Alongside Night read like one of the better Heinlein juveniles but took place in contemporary times. Not a bad start for a first-time novelist, huh?

My next trip to the used book store (Acres of Books in Long Beach, CA, for true aficionados) found his second novel, The Rainbow Cadenza -- and as much as I liked Alongside Night, this one was heads above it. It was as crammed full of new ideas (a future art form based on Laserium, drafting women into public brothels, how all art is based on dialectics, and the ethics of cloning and "cerebral abortion") as Heinlein's later novels -- but without being as self-referential or talky. And it had a great plot and a young heroine worthy of Ayn Rand.

Then Schulman stopped writing novels for two decades. Bummer.

(Not that he stopped writing. He wrote one of the best episodes of the New Twilight Zone, "Profile in Silver" -- the one about the JFK assassination -- and some nonfiction, notably a book about gun rights and a book about the O.J. Simpson case -- and even though I think he's crazy about Simpson being innocent, it's a more-fun read than any other book about the Simpson case.)

He's back. Escape From Heaven is the new Schulman novel I've been waiting for.

For one thing, it's crammed full of as many new ideas as Rainbow Cadenza, but it's less than half as long. For another thing, there was always wit and sarcasm in Schulman's writing, but he outdoes himself this time: the book is fall-on-the-floor-and-roll-around funny. Especially chapter 13, where he lets Hollywood movie stars have it with both barrels.

Then there's the theology, which is enough to make an atheist believe in God (I think he's actually answered all the technical objections to belief in God that George Smith raises in Atheism: The Case Against God) but it's also enough to make a fundamentalist Christian start wondering whether the Bible might not have gotten the straight story. For the first time in my life, the character of Jesus made sense to me. I also love where the viewpoint character makes a good case at convincing Satan that she (yes, SHE; that's not a typo) is, in effect, making an existential error: looking for a reason behind her own existence instead of figuring out how to enjoy living forever.

Listen. You haven't read anything like this before, not even if you're a fan of Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice, or Victor Koman's The Jehovah Contract, or C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.

Well done, J. Neil.