To Open the Sky - Robert Silverberg

This sprawling, episodic novel by the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author is a "tour de force sci-fi outing . . . a wonderful read" (Fantasy Literature).

2077. With Earth reeling from centuries of unregulated population growth and environmental decimation, a new religion has taken root. The Vorsters worship science and the material world over all else, searching for the promise of immortality through new technology and the promise of heaven among the physical stars.

But on Venus, a renegade sect has found its home. The Harmonists find the answers to life's eternal questions in their own spirituality and in their own bodies, which have undergone genetic changes on Venus, giving them paranormal abilities.

With humanity's future at stake, religion becomes a political business, and both groups will have to face their motivations and manipulations when a shocking discovery threatens the balance of power in the universe.

"The absorbing story of an overpopulated and economically depressed world clinging to the outcome of a religious schism for its salvation." -sff180