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About 15 years ago, I read a book about a classical musician whos wife (possible girlfriend) dies and he turns to writing commercial jingles (which he feels is selling his soul, but is well-paid) to pay for cryogenic suspension until the end of the universe. The premise is that the big bang started expansion, but as the universe contracts, time would go backward and he would be reunited with his wife.

He is woken up in the future and agrees to work for a government or corporation. One of these jobs sees him visit a planet where small conical creatures live, similar size to dogs. The technology allows his thoughts to be placed in to new bodies, and he goes to see the planet, but the small creatures keep attacking and killing him. He keeps going through this cycle, because he told the ships computer not to tell him if anything bad happens to him.

Anybody got any idea of this books title?

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  • It's the same book, but I am not sure how it is a duplicate. Isn't a duplicate the same question, not the same answer? I could read both of these questions and not know they were related.
    – Karl Gjertsen
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 14:42
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    According to site policy, story-ID questions are closed as duplicates when they both have the same accepted answer. That doesn't mean this is a bad question though; quite the contrary, in fact! (Also, please don't flag a comment just because you disagree with it - if someone votes to close your question, then leave them a comment to say why you disagree [as you did] rather than flagging.)
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 14:59

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Possibly Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield. I also read it back in the late 90s

From Wikipedia:

"Originally, Drake is a professional musician, with minor celebrity. When his wife Ana is diagnosed with an unspecified incurable brain disorder, Drake exhausts every option attempting to cure her. Only then does he decide to have her body cryogenically stored, in the hopes future generations will discover effective treatment. However, Drake is extremely cautious, and in case the future culture doesn't care about her plight, he has himself frozen as well. Furthermore he devotes all his energies for a decade prior to his freezing, in becoming an expert primary source on the musically notable people of his era... Drake is continuously laid dormant and revived, exponentially further into the future. Human civilization alters radically over the eons, but Ana's mangled brain proves an extremely difficult problem. Despite the incomprehensible changes surrounding in each successive awakening, Drake never loses sight of his mission.

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    That's it! Thank you. I remember it being a strange tale, but I keep thinking of it.
    – Karl Gjertsen
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 16:07
  • Happy to assist! Tomorrow and Tomorrow needs more attention. You are the only person I have ever encountered who has also read it.
    – JohnWinkelman
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 16:11
  • I get most of my best sci-fi from Peter F Hamilton these days, but there are still lots of hidden gems out there.
    – Karl Gjertsen
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 16:38
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    Tomorrow and Tomorrow is reviewed by Catherine Asaro at SF Site. It was the answer to this old question and this one.
    – user14111
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 18:08
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    Sheffield wrote three versions of this story: a 1977 novelette "The Long Chance", a 1995 novella "At the Eschaton", and the 1997 novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
    – user14111
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 18:11

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