Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #705730 in Books
• Published on: 1982-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

About the Author
Robert A. Heinlein was one of the greatest science fiction writers of the century and won the coveted Hugo Award on several occasions. He died in 1989.

Customer Reviews

Ahead of its time but missing the point?
Meet Friday, a futuristic vision of the world might look like. Prejudices are still abundantly apparent with some directed in quite familiar directions (the racism shown by Friday's extended family) and some in more novel ways - prejudices against artificial persons, and unfortunately that is exactly what Friday is. Born in a laboratory and raised in an crèche Friday is a courier, arguable the best at what she does, she operates in a world where sexual freedom has reached a crescendo but unfortunately this liberation has not quelled the natural human bloodlust but in this world the enemies aren't always countries, the major corporations have a lot to answer for.

The story line of the book itself takes the form of Friday's memoirs as she seeks to make sense of the actions that have occurred both around her and too her. She seeks to justify her humanity - or indeed lack of it - as she fumbles through the world on a seemingly hyper efficient wave of energy that is drastically undermined by the lack of faith Friday has in her seemingly perfect abilities.

Underneath it all Friday is an insecure as the next man.

I wasn't overly enamoured with the actual thread of the story as although it is impressive that Heinlein saw all these technological advances in communications would come about but as I am someone who is living in an age where these are more ever apparent that element of the story had little effect. As well as this even though I was fascinated with Friday I did also struggle with her - to me she is almost an attempt at the perfect female from a male point of view, she is attractive, athletic, feisty yet deeply insecure and almost in need of "saving". The paradox Heinlein puts forward is blamed on her upbringing but I didn't really buy that.

Yet for all that I found the book utterly fascinating, it wasn't that I cared what happened to Friday per se I just wanted to enjoy the ride of how ever she would get there. I wouldn't call this a masterpiece but it is certainly interesting and it may very well drive me to explore more of Heinlein's books.

Un-Person or Super-Person?
Genetic engineering is one of the hot buttons of today. Part of the debate about it centers on just how much tinkering should be allowed on the human genome. Heinlein, writing this long before such tinkering was physically possible, tackles some of the ethical questions such capabilities bring to the fore.

Friday Jones (aka Marjorie Baldwin) is just such an `enhanced' person. Her parental genetic makeup was carefully selected from some twenty donor parents, mixed up in a test tube, and was raised in crèche for such `artificial people', or APs as they are referred to throughout this work. This careful selection and manipulation means she is stronger, has faster reflexes, enhanced vision and hearing, and is more intelligent than `normal' people. Does this bring her acceptance and respect as one of the best of humanity? Far from it. For in Heinlein's envisioned future, APs and their cousins, Living Artifacts (people modified to be obviously different from normal humans, referred to as LAs) are declared `un-persons', relegated to the absolute bottom of the social pecking order, forced to work as effective slaves, subject to summary `elimination'.

Which leads to what this novel is really all about: Friday's search for acceptance and love. As such, this is a character driven novel, and the plot seems to wander around quite a bit with no clear objective, though each step along the way shows more and more of just who Friday is. Friday's world seems to be part of the `Crazy Years' of the Future History (though it's not directly connected), where nations have been Balkanized, multi-national corporations have at least as much power as nations, and wars between various factions, even those that use nuclear weapons, are taken as just another fact of life. This background provides for plenty of action, as Friday, as a secret courier, must wiggle her way past these conflicts. It also allows Heinlein to get in some of his typical satirical cracks at some of the idiocies he saw around him (though there's less of this pontificating here than in almost any other of his late period novels) - most interesting to California residents is his depiction of San Jose, it's government, it's obsession with the people's initiative process, and the frequent incompetence of elected government officials (or, for that matter, corporation executives who forget that customers pay their salaries). Along with this are his comments on various forms of marriage partnerships, some of which will make blue-noses very uncomfortable, and one depicted gang-rape scene might violently upset quite a few.

Right alongside these items are his technological predictions - he does a pretty good job of envisioning the internet and interconnecting web of just about everything from financial transactions to digging out the dirt on anyone. But his major point of departure is the Shipstone, apparently a really enhanced version of a battery, which has helped solve a lot of the world's energy problems. But I found his prediction of the return to the horse-and-buggy for in-city transportation unrealistic, most uncharacteristic of Heinlein's predictions, as such means simply cannot support the population density of today's cities.

As some have remarked, even with these technological improvements, this is a more depressive outlook for humanity's future than Heinlein normally presented. Here he thinks it's so bad that there is no saving Earth, that the only place humanity can really grow and achieve its potential is on other planets, free of the all the cultural and political baggage that encrusts this world.

Friday is very charming and believable for most of this book, though a decision she makes late in the book doesn't ring quite true. The obstacles she faces should make people do a little soul searching about just what it means to be human and about prejudice in all its forms. And the world she has to live in might make people realize that if they don't do something to change some current societal trends, it could become our future. This is not his greatest book, but with its high action quota, its very personable protagonist, and its strong relevance to the world of today, it's a most worthwhile read.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Thoroughly absorbing
Friday Jones is a combat courier... and an artificial person. That is, she was conceived through genetic engineering. In the world in which the book is set this makes her a second class citizen, and allows some interesting parallel thoughts about slavery. But mostly this is the story of an insecure but very strong woman through dangerous missions, world upheaval, divorce and personal revalations all the way through to a surprise happy ending. I read it again and again because the character appeals to me for some reason.