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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Easy, fun read from a master of SF
Another good book by this autor I have read most of his books and always find them interesting and entertaining
Loved this book since it came out. Was really disappointed in the misspellings still in the kindle edition and the font in this is the same as the paperback,anything ending in rn prints out as m.
The author has been my buddy since I learned to read. He seems to have had a grasp on where we were heading as a culture and kind of made fun of it and that was years ago. I guess that is why it is sci fi
Robert Heinlein was way ahead of his time. Whether you are are reading Red Planet for the first time, or reading Time Enough for Love or Friday,Heinlein is always worth your time and money.
This was perhaps the last good novel Heinlein wrote. It’s strongly reminiscent of
his early adult novels, from the era after WW2. It’s an SF spy-action novel, from an era when Ian Fleming was still fresh.
It’s action-packed by Heinlein’s standards, although also reflective as Heinlein’s
novels increasing were over his career. Some of the conceits seem odd given how society has changed, but they were actually fairly daring for their era. Heinlein could write action and add details which still seem convincing even after all these years.
Not his best, but still worth a look. After this work, his late novels veered off into
wilder and weirder reflection which wasn’t all that interesting when published and will probably seem less so half a century later.
His best work is probably his middle years, with the juvenile novels still holding up well and a couple of his best known, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and STARSHIP TROOPERS still excellent. Oddly enough, those two, published close to each other in time, tended to be favored by almost opposite audiences. The former was often presented during the 1960s as an example of “progressive” philosophy while the latter is, in many respects, the prototypical Military SF, although it was written as a juvenile with a Coming of Age theme.
Heinlein was arguably the most influential SF writer who worked between the late 1930s and the late 1960s, immensely liked by readers and respected by SF writers
of several generations. While some of his work is dated, it’s worth looking through and much of it holds up very well.
Great book with a libertarian bent.
One of his best
Classic sci-fi.
This book is Heinlein at his best and my very favorite. I love the imaginative settings, action, plots and characters. It is one I go back to time and again. My sister introduced me to the writing of this exquisite ctaftsman, and it is fitting that she left Friday for me to find at her favorite reading spot when she passed. Thank you, dear sister, for these gifts.
Heinlein became hopelessly self-indulgent in old age. It shows. This is one of his worst books. The frequent lapses of logic in the plot are annoying, the background/worldbuilding is done poorly, and the portrayal of misogyny and abuse seems grotesque to a modern reader.
Well done vision of a future U.S. w/o all the gloom & doom. No space travel ’til the end; everything on terra-firma. I own this book so I can re-read it whenever I want. Excellent book from an excellent author.
Has not really aged well. Contains rape and sexual violence.
I have read this book many times. It’s great!
Robert Heinlein is STILL the Master @ hard Sci-Fi!
One of Heinlein’s greats, if a bit frightening, in retrospect. He predicted a great many things in this book that have happened, are happening, or may yet happening. In that respect, it’s rather spooky.
A classic by RAH, well worth reading several times.
Great book
One of my favorite of R. A. H.’s ‘adult’ books. I’ve read Friday multiple times in paperback, once electronically, and I looking forward to listening to the audio version.
Yes, the old cliche holds true. I’ve picked up something new or read something differently every time I’ve read it.
Very good story and book for when it was written…. I consider it really aimed at a teenager audience but still a very good book from Heinlein… a giant in Sci-Fi.