Review: "The odd thing about surprises is how likely they are to occur."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 2, 2013
Zachary Alexander Preston, twenty years of age, finds himself in Heaven. He doesn't know it's Heaven, heck, he doesn't even know who he is or how he got here. That is, of course, a normal Heavenly operating procedure; it takes time and help from the local, well-trained "orientation guides," to reconstruct all the brain connections in this new, "spirit" form. However, unlike most, Zach arrives with his eyes open, which requires a hard reboot, loosing the subject in the process, and a lot of bureaucratic headache for both "Judgment Center" and "Emissary Headquarters."Heaven is not what Zach imagined it to be. As probably would hold true for most of us. However, just like the rest of the new arrivals, Zach, "whether he was dead and in Heaven, or alive and insane (or in Heaven and insane), there was nothing to do but go along with it."Beers In Heaven (A Modern Afterlife Novel) by Ford Forkum is a book that skims the border of "tongue in the cheek" metaphysical and then bounces to the modern comedy. There are two intertwining plotlines in this novel: one describes Zach's heavenly education in "enlightenment" and recovering his memories, while the other one is about those memories, that leads the reader to understand how the protagonist ended up in Heaven at such an early age.The language is easy; there is humor, irony, and sarcasm present almost on every page. There are also deeper undercurrents of self-examination and a bit of philosophy and theology to spice things up for those who like to read a story on multiple levels. If I had to compare "Beers In Heaven" to other novels, I would probably say that it's a cross between Pratchett's and Vonnegut's work during the "Heavenly" bits, with occasional excursions to Sedaris' when we learn about Zach's earthly existence. Good read.