Judy Lesley's Reviews > Deadman Switch

I am so glad I finally read this book. It's been on my Paperwhite for ages and every time I scrolled by it I reminded myself to read it although, honestly, I had totally forgotten what the story was about. What I found is a story that explored questions of faith and belief in a future world where those two subjects were adhered to only by a small number of people who were reviled and even despised. They were only tolerated because they were protected by the law. An even odder factor was that Gilead Raca Benedar was a man who followed his beliefs but he was also so skilled in reading the emotions of other people that it gave him a skill much sought by corporate leaders. Oh, they didn't want Gilead as a friend but as a method of analyzing those they were involved with in business transactions. Gilead may be considered a religious fanatic, but he is still a Watcher.

In order to move from one portion of space to another this civilization uses criminals convicted of capital crimes to man the deadman switch. The execution of the criminal turns that person into a zombi, someone to be controlled by the Cloud to pilot the spaceship through unfriendly space using an ever-changing route to keep it secret. So when or is this type of punishment murder, just of a different type? When is it justifiable to supply the zombies for the convenience of others? This is not a preaching novel but it really does show how far humans can go to make allowances in order to get what we want. Written in 1988, this book does not suffer at all because of its age.