Friday

Rating:
Summary: Heinlein takes you for a very long ride
Review: I can't say I really hated this novel. It just didn't really seem to be going anywhere. The main character didn't really have a clearly defined objective, and the book just sort of meanders episodically, rotating supporting characters in and out throughout the novel like a revolving door. He does keep the action moving, though. The free-love world Heinlein seems to idealize is a given in his later novels, and so I wasn't as shocked by it as some of those who reviewed this book before me. There are a couple preconceptions one must be prepared for in the Heinlein universe: sex is fun and everybody likes to do it as much as they can; and nobody ever gets jealous or hurt by their lovers having sex with other people.

Even expecting that in a Heinlein novel, it was still a bit of a shock when the main character, the narrator, gets gang-raped within the first few chapters, but doesn't really seem to mind. Although the book isn't erotic in the least, Heinlein's casual acceptance that everybody is sleeping together can be unsettling to an unprepared reader.

Friday is a genetically engineered human (not a cyborg, as one of the above reviews states), although for some reason the society she exists in does not recognize genetically engineered humans as real people. To me, it was hard to swallow the idea that people would hold this prejudice, because there wasn't anything that was specificlly non-human about her. Since much of the things that happen to her depend on accepting this premise, the book was a little less enjoyable for this reason.

If you're looking for a book which doesn't offer any real deep thoughts, but just takes the reader on a winding path of near-constant action, then Friday fits that bill nicely. There is not much more to recommend it, though.

Rating:
Summary: she seems to come out of the page and shout "I am real"
Review: This SF novel has a special place for me. The first RAH story I read was a novelette entitled "Gulf", in which we first meet his concept of the super-human, and in which we first meet those from whom Friday was genetically constructed. In the present novel RAH takes the concept a stage further and creates a remarkable heroine, at the same time human and more than human. The novel has its fair share of human characters, many of who are rounded and credible in their humanity. Plenty of sex and violence too, but none the worse for that. Two further comments: the subject of this SF novel is nothing other than the nature of the human being itself ... and following recent developments in genetics (popularly reported in Time Magazine) it is more topical now than ever.

Rating:
Summary: memorable character, aimless plot
Review: The first-person protagonist is memorable, but what is the point of the narrative?

Rating:
Summary: A provocative character, and a very rich background.
Review: In Friday, Heinlein presents a character that I find more compelling than Lazarus Long. Friday is a courier, and she is quite frank and jovial about anything but social rebuffs. While the presented story is compelling enough, the true appeal of this book is in the deep, rich background story. It is barely noticeable in the book proper, but when you look, you find a story rich in intrigue and depth. Five stars is the only possible category for this masterpiece, which is quite probably Heinlein's best.

Rating:
Summary: Meandering and less idea-filled
Review: I have read 3 Heinlein books, Stranger In A Strange Land, Farnham's Freehold, and Friday. Both of the others were much more interesting to me for their ideas, and their plots seemed much tighter as well. Friday was OK; the other two are truly great reads.

Rating:
Summary: FRIDAY IS THE FUTURE
Review: The world we know as Friday is soon to be the future. Engineered beings will walk the earth, dogs shall talk with the help of boosted intelligence, and we shall roam space. Friday is a great book, definately on my top-ten Heinleins. Definately a grand work of Art.

Rating:
Summary: Too surreal to never be real!
Review: I read "Friday" in the Spring of 1988 as a Sophomore in College. I played Queensryche's "Sanctuary" continuously as I read, and have desired to see a film version with Queensryche doing the soundtrack. If anyone does the movie, please don't butcher the story as with "Starship Troopers!" Friday is such a real protagonist, which is uncanny as she is, by the very nature of her being, "unreal." Strange how life imitates art in that the issues of engineered life i.e. cloning are now a reality. While possibly Heinlein's attempt to allegorize racism, Friday's dilemma of not quite being human by someone's measured standards could well play a legitimate role in the very near future. The setting of a collapsed Federal government broken into various city-states brings to mind the Pandora's box of extremist groups and conspiracy theorists who all predict a fall of the U.S. As a soldier in the United States Army, I see all of these issues in a somewhat muted form, but as probabilities too likely to be ignored. Heinlein was, to borrow the cliche, ahead of his time.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best RAH books...
Review: I'm a big fan of RAH, and this is one of my two favorite books of his. Friday is one of the most compelling protagonists ever put on paper, and her cunning contrasts perfectly with her naivete (sp?) in regards to human reasoning. An absolute must have for any SF fan.

Rating:
Summary: "Friday" is Top-Notch Heinlein
Review: "Friday" is a wonderful SF novel with believeable characters you only wish you could get to know intimately! Despite the Balkanized world she lives in, Friday Jones manages to survive and enjoy herself. The extended family concepts are marvellous and worthy of emulation today; both women and men today could learn a lot about sexuality and relationships from this book--this is a future that would be VERY exciting to live in, at least for the wonderfully open, loving hetero- homo-, bi-sexuality and nudity; also nice to see that organized religion may have finally been extinguished and one of the 10 Commandments--specifically the insane one regarding the stupid social custom of monogamy--have been revised to fit human reality! I could live without the violence and revolution! This novel does reference a character from a previous Heinlein work--The Boss, aka Hartley Baldwin--Friday's partial genetic father--appeared in an RAH 1940s novellete (collected in "Assignment Earth"). It was nice to bring him back and flesh out the Boss' secret organization (the Mr. Two Canes also appears in similar shapes in other Heinlein works--I wonder if it is intentionally the same character in disguise?). I like all Heinlein works, but this is near and dear to me. (Find the excellent book-on-tape version narrated by a very SEXY Samantha Eggar!) Also, the "Shipstone" concept of atomic power is fascinating; what a world it would be if such a marvellous power device existed. I also love the "pioneering" theme of this, and other, RAH works. Friday leaves Earth for a better tomorrow; the old planet is a real mess today as it is in Friday's distant future (all the more reason to abandon it NOW to the anti-science luddites and eco-heads and have the smart, visionary folks-LIKE ME and YOU--head out for the stars!). Just thinking: This would make one hell of a motion picture if done well!!

Rating:
Summary: Proof: the right hand doesn't watch the left hand in gvrnmt
Review: This is an excellent book that tells of tails of corruption in the corporations that grow bigger and bigger and almost take on the job of government. And then become government to make them powerful by taking over bits and pieces across the country. With the constant that there will always be an undergroud group of people who will resist and be rebels against the regime. These rebels will not be told how to do their jobs. What class of people they can be whether as an artifical person born as "My mother was a test tube, my father was a knife" or those that are born with a mother and father should not be considered anything but equal.