To Open the Sky — Robert Silverberg

Eternal life. Isn't that what every religion offers in some way? Existence beyond just this? For Noel Vorst, the quest for eternal life is something much more tangible, driven by science, reaching out to the physical stars in place of a metaphorical heaven. For his followers, the Vorsters, that quest becomes a religion, technology their god. Others hold on to the belief that it is these bodies, these genes, that make us one with the universe. This renegade sect, the Harmonists, led by David Lazarus, find a home on Venus, their own agendas in stark conflict with the Vorsters'. In the search for life everlasting, it seems that the only thing eternal is human ambition. Religion is, after all, first and foremost a political business. This sprawling, episodic novel by master of thoughtful science fiction Robert Silverberg weaves multiple lives together across the solar system and over nearly a century. Blind faith, practicality, conflict, deceptionthe more mankind changes, the more it unfortunately stays the same.