ABANDONED. Sci-fi; protag hunted by assassin after uncovering fraud

[Stuart]

In this novel the main character starts out by thinking that he was brought back to life by charitable organisation, but discovers that this was not the case. He is hunted by assassin(s) after he considers exposing the fraud, as the organisation has become one of the richest on the planet. No idea who the author was. read the novel about 30 years ago. Grateful for any ideas

[Kinsey]

A World Out of Time This might be it, and it was published a little over thirty years ago. The first part of the book deals with the main character waking up in the future, finding out this his memories have been implanted in someone else's brain. (So the real him never actually woke up.)

[Shane]

Possibly Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick? The main character is female though, IIRC.

[Stuart]

Could be "A World Out of Time"

[Stuart]

Definitely not Vacuum Flowers as the main character was male

[Lisa]

Stuart, Please return and let us know if it is A World Out of Time, or not. Thanks!

[Stuart]

Lisa wrote: "Stuart, Please return and let us know if it is A World Out of Time, or not. Thanks!"

I think it may have been A World Out of Time, but time has clouded my memory. I may resort to re-reading it just to check

[Mir]

Hmm, I read one with a plot something like this where the guy who is killed is brought back in a woman's body (with a prehensile tail) because her body was available at the right time. I don't remember what was important about the guy that he was brought back for, though. And there was a doctor who had been put in the body of a little girl.

[Stuart]

Miriam wrote: "Hmm, I read one with a plot something like this where the guy who is killed is brought back in a woman's body (with a prehensile tail) because her body was available at the right time. I don't reme..."

Sounds intriguing and in fact sounds a better book than the one I read (I gave it up about three quarters of the way through)

[Stuart]

Still not sure of the identity of this novel. Will probably try researching it myself as the details are so hazy.

[Mir]

Unfortunately I haven't remembered the name of the one I suggested, either. Sorry. I think the cover was a woman, facing out toward the viewer.

[Andy]

It's not thirty years old yet, but take a look at Muddle Earth. It kinda matches your description.

[Slinkyboy]

Didn't mean to get your hopes up by posting, because I don't know the name of your book.

But... I can tell you the book Miriam mentioned is Beyond Rejection.

[Andy]

This sounds like Joe Haldeman's "Buying Time" http://www.amazon.com/Buying-Time-Joe... - the Stileman Foundation will give you medical treatment that gives a person 10 more years of youth and health, in return for all the money the person has (minimum - $1 million). The Foundation turns out to be evil though. Do you remember scenes in the Florida keys?

[Tess]

World Out of Time sounds right to me.
Or could it have been a short story?
I'm remembering a story where the main character, some crazy-good musician, has had his mind saved every several months? and keeps getting killed by someone. It turns out the killer is a previous version of himself who knows he's going to be deleted if anyone realized a previous version was still alive. Or something like that.

[Dawn]

That's a John Varley novella- it's called The Phantom of Kansas, Tess.

Published in several of his books or collections.

[Tess]

Dawn wrote: "That's a John Varley novella- it's called The Phantom of Kansas, Tess.

Published in several of his books or collections."

-Thanks so much, Dawn, for that one. Probably not the one the main thread was thinking of?

[Andy]

Miriam wrote: "Hmm, I read one with a plot something like this where the guy who is killed is brought back in a woman's body (with a prehensile tail) because her body was available at the right time. I don't reme..."

Miriam - I think this is Beyond Rejection

[Dylan]

If the details in the original post are at all accurate, it's not A World Out of Time.

(view spoiler)[The protagonist in A World Out of Time is awoken by the government, not a private organisation, and promptly sets off to the center of the galaxy, after which he returns to a far far future Earth. There's no fraud plotline and there are no assassins. (hide spoiler)]

[Andy]

Dylan wrote: "If the details in the original post are at all accurate, it's not A World Out of Time.

[spoilers removed]"

Yeah, I really think the OPs book is "Buying Time" (mentioned above)

[Dylan]

I haven't read Buying Time, but when this query was originally posted, it was only 20 years old, so unless the "30 years ago" estimate was pretty far off (which it might well have been), I'm not sure about that either.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Sent the OP a PM. He's still active in GR, so he might return and let us know if he's found it or not.

[Andy]

I sent Stuart and Miriam PMs.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Ok, that's 2 PM's sent to the OP. If he doesn't reply soon, then the next Mod to read this can move it down to Abandoned

[Andy]

Miriam confirmed via PM that Slinkyboy and I were right about her book, anyway.

[Mir]

I don't recall anything about a secret organization and assassins, though, so it may not be the book Stuart was looking for. In case he comes back to the thread I'll add the end of Beyond Rejection under spoiler tags.

(view spoiler)[After a long interstellar trip with the old scientist lady who is in a little girl's body, it turns out that all the adventures were in some sort of virtual reality in the main character's mind, in order to acclimate him to his new body. (hide spoiler)]