CORRECTED TEXT (TYPOS)“His best since The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” Jerry Pournelle“A charming protagonist in a story as sleekly engineered as a starship. This one should fly.”—Publishers Weekly“One of Heinlein’s best, which is to say one of the best in all of Science Fiction—terrific story with a superbly realized heroine and world.”—Poul AndersonFriday is a secret courier and ardent lover. … secret courier and ardent lover. Employed by a man she only knows of as “Boss”, she is given the most awkward and dangerous cases, which take her from New Zealand to Canada, and through the new States of America’s disunion, all the way out into the stars and the new colony of Botany Bay.
Thrust into one calamity after another, she uses her enhanced wits and very many skills to evade, seduce or even kill her way out of any sticky situation she finds herself in. For she is both superior and inferior to the average human.
As an AP—artificial person—the best humanity has to offer has been written into Friday’s DNA. Yet she is often treated like a second class citizen—if she were ever able to claim citizenship. Her mother was the test tube and her father the knife, as the saying goes, so she has less rights than the biologically-born human, and no soul, according to the church.
But in Friday Heinlein has created one of the most enlightened, warm, engaging and humane characters in the science fiction field, gifting us a novel of female empowerment that was well ahead of its time.
“One of Heinlein’s best, which is to say one of the best in all of Science Fiction—terrific story with a superbly realized heroine and world.”—Poul Anderson
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Heinlein at his powerful Best. Gad, could that man write! Excellent story line, great characters, beautifully presented. A must read.
Classic Heinlein sci-fi
One of my favorite Heinlein books. I’ve read it numerous times so couldn’t pass up adding it to Kindle. Like many of Heinlein’s better works it’s entertaining while making you think.
Excellent read, one of his best.
What’s not to love about Friday? Sassy, independent, strong, ferocious, needing to be loved….. wonderful adventures!
It’s Robert Heinlein. What else do you need to say.
I really wanted to like this book. I have read many of his books and am a great fan. I read up to 70% of the book, but it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere, when I dread having to read another chapter, I feel it is time to quit.
If you ve ever read RAH s work, then you know that while a fair amount of his books can be part of a continuous storyline, they also read well as standalone novels.
This novel brings up some thought provoking ideas and some unique solutions that the heroine devises for herself.
A story about a young woman trained as a combat courier for an ultra secret quasi government agency. But most of the story is about the young woman (Friday) and trying to come to terms with her own personal “coming of age”. She was a designer fetus, raised in a creche with no mom or dad, trained from an early age to do her job. Society looks down on the designed people, who try to hide their identity to avoid bigotry. With this background, Friday tries to find a family and a life to fit into, while trying to survive her unusual background and job.
This is a typical late life Heinlein novel. A bit heavy on the social and sexual elements (families can be two or more people of various sexes), and light on the political elements. A lot of action, something is always happening. It ends a bit abruptly, with a “and years later” epilogue.
I found it an interesting, simple read. The character is likeable. However, it’s slightly dated these days as genetic engineering is the norm, and not as “sci-fi magical” as it once was. Some characters come into (and go out of) the story quite quickly, which in some cases is a shame.
One of the classics, though I still don’t like the ending.
You didn’t want to put the book down. Look forward to read more from Heinlen.
Loved it
If you like Heinlein, its a must read.
Heinlein looks at the human conscience in detail in this book, and how it relates to the rights of those whom we have a hand in bringing into this world. In a world where creating life out of a test tube becomes possible fear of what that means for naturally conceived people means taking rights away from those who are artificially conceived and this reality could happen eventually. It a cold look at the human conscience and soul. Heinlein strips away our prejudices and makes see ourselves for what we are, while entertaining us at the same time. And throws in polyamorous family building into the twist too. Amazing. I love this book.
You can’t go wrong g with Heinlein
The truth is hard to believe that this for real humans it is. But if you are ready to have an open mind and ready for a action – packed adventure then picking up and reading this book is a good one to read.
Friday may seem to just be a normal spy – courrier, but you would be very wrong. She has beauty, smarts, and moves … but she also has the cunning and guile to use it all to help her finish what she has set out to do.
The one thing she did not expect was to find love and caring from an unknown person on her mission.
Dated concepts. Short on plot. Short on character development. I realize Heinlein was before his time on social issues but this story is now more of an historical curiosity than a great science fiction novel l.
love Heinlein. This is lesser/later Heinlein.
I appreciated having a female main character in a very strong and independent role. More current authors have taken this farther but this was not the time period when this would have been received as well, so it was interesting to read it again.
Classic Heinlein. Great story, wonderful read