A middling, sometimes meandering offering from the Master

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	• Friday Robert A. Heinlein Del Rey, 1983 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 86 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Friday's Random Journys

That's what the book should be called. It wasn't bad, but there didn't seem to be a definite conflict that stayed throughout the book. As a memoir of a future person, it is entertaining and fast-paced. As a futuristic story, it could use some work.
This was the first book by Robert A. Heinlein that I have read, and although I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, it has not put me off trying another Heinlein book in the future.

A middling, sometimes meandering offering from the Master

Ms. Friday is a courier in a world fraught with danger - wars, internal conflicts, trans-national companies operating outside the law, etc. In this world, the courier must be able to think fast, defend herself (with lethal force if necessary), and be very resourceful to get her message through. The twist: Friday is not a real person.

Heinlein takes an interesting premise for the basis for his heroine. She is (what we would call today) a genetically modified organism, and a test-tube baby. She has enhanced physical attributes (stronger, faster, higher libido) as a result. Heinlein's twist is that Friday, and her genetically-modified equivalents, are not granted human status, both in a legal and in a "moral" sense (they are told they don't have souls). However, as these GMO people are not obviously different, there is no way for the average person to tell who is a "real" human and who is a GMO. It is an interesting premise, one that is more relevant today than when the book was originally published. Unfortunately he fails to develop or much discuss the philosophical implications.

The strength of Heinlein is always his thought-provoking alternative worlds. Here we have a fractured North America, wherein Canada and the U.S.A. have split into (at least) the following countries: Quebec, P.E.I., "British Canada" (Ontario to BC), California (including the entire Pacific seaboard), Nevada, Texas (including most of the "Confederate" states), and Illinois. They all have different government systems from raucously democratic (California) to oppressively dictatorial (Illinois). We also have Heinlein's patented alternative family: the group family where several men and women are all married to each other and share themselves around. Interestingly, we have a world wherein homosexuality is irrelevant, yet racism is prevalent.

However, these philosophies and government systems are merely window dressing, without the kind of thought and detail that appears in, say, "Stranger in a Strange Land." I wouldn't mind except that the main story meanders around pointlessly for over half the book. If Heinlein's purpose for Friday's extended tour of North America was to introduce and make commentary on government systems, it would have needed no plot purpose. Instead, we follow the details of Friday's travels with no commentary and when the travel is done (100 pages later), the overall plot has not advanced one step. It's this sort of meandering that irritates the reader and detracts from anything Heinlein is trying to say.

Overall, the story is better and the characters more believable, than Heinlein's other female-narrated work, "I Will Fear No Evil." However, I would still not put this work in the top tier of Heinlein books. It was fun to read, I suppose, but ultimately it is not really worth remembering.

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Define 'human'......

Friday AKA Marjorie Baldwin is a gentetically engineered woman, an Artifical Person. This meant that she is stronger, faster, smarter, than the average human, and was also classified as a
'non-human' by society. Her Boss has chosen to use her as a courier (Friday of couse had no voice in the matter) and in the course of her duties has been captured and tortured. Once rescued and recovered she was on leave when she once again was separated from her employer. As Friday struggled to report for duty she was forced to travel across much of the world and along the way began to question just what it meant to be 'human'. Upon returning to work even more questions arose, questions that required Friday to journey to another world in order to answer.

This novel definitely demonstrates that RAH had finally overcome his male chauvanist attitudes of his early works. Friday is definitely female and in this work it is the men that are rather sketchily drawn. Heinlein had also totally embraced the 'free love' and 'open marriage' ideals of the swinging '60's. Friday rarely turned down an offer to share a bed regardless of the gender, or number, of the other occupant(s). This is definitely not one of RAH's juvenile books but as with all of Heinlein's works will leave the reader with something to think about long after the book has been put down.

For fans of RAH references are made to earlier works/characters. It also fits into the Future History universe but can be read as a stand alone novel and would be a good place to begin reading Heinlein's work. Any fan of RAH's work that has missed this one so far is in for a treat.

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Our Girl Friday

I've always considered the novel Friday as the start of Heinlein's `modern' science fiction works. He wrote his novels I Will Fear No Evil (1970) and Time Enough For Love (1973) in the 70's and The Number of the Beast (1980) followed up with characters from his previous works. Friday (1982) started out with new and fresh characters and shucked off most of the 60's and 70's feel of the other previous novels (such as the lovey-dovey talk between bedmates, the oft-used term `dear' (though still used), etc). Although there is still some aspects of it in Friday such four lovers together in one bed. By the 80's, swinging had pretty much ceased to be a social phenomenon.

For anyone that's a red-blooded male, you couldn't help but notice the book cover if you passed it in a book store. On it is a pneumatic woman in a tight jump suit zippered down low. With that though was also a problem, as the term `don't judge a book by it's cover' comes to mind and one then thinks of it as just a pulp novel and not of any good. So come to my surprise where in this day and age where faery handbags and militant lesbianism passes as award winning SF and I look back to past science fiction works to find that Friday was one of six finalists for the 1982 Nebula Awards and one of five finalists for the 1983 Hugo Awards. It's a brilliant cover telling of the novel, the woman has her sleeves rolled up showing that she's independent and tough, and in the background is a futuristic window on what appears to be a space station or space shuttle overlooking a planet. In one brief glimpse one's able to tell that this is a science fiction story. Fortunately the publishers knew this book cover is a classic and have not removed it which they've unfortunately done to other classics, Frederik Pohl's Gateway being one.

It wouldn't be sufficient to say that this novel is about the adventures of Friday because although it is, it uses her actions partly as means to tell of events in the story. North America is broken up into a series of autonomous regions and a series of assassinations and riots occur within these regions and the inner systems and asteroids. Sort of a Tet Offensive for the Solar System. After these events tone down for a while, she's able to meet back up with "Boss", in scenes reminiscent of Charlie's Angels. Talking about television programs, there are strong similarities between Friday and Cameron's former program, Dark Angel. There's a genetically modified and enhanced female courier, young and sexy, set within the future where the United States has disintegrated into several countries.

Although Heinlein does use the discrimination against genetically modified persons, or artificial persons (AP) as mentioned in the book, as an allegory on racism, racism is a bit more complex. It's difficult to consider a male refusing a curvy, sweet, willing woman like Friday whether she's an AP, black, brown, yellow, red, Andorian blue, or Rigelian green. And for other women to be prejudiced against Friday, it's less likely to be due to her color than to her curviness. There's not as much sex in the novel as may have been mentioned, certainly less when compared to other Heinlein novels, I Will Fear No Evil topping the list. Any mature adult should be able to handle the scenes within the novel. Heinlein does rip into religion so some puritans may be offended. As with other Heinlein novels, there are sections that drag on, and if you find yourself re-reading the same section, just plow forward, keep reading, and it'll get better. There are some `hard-core' science fiction sections such as describing that the distances between stars may be further apart than they appear looking up into the night sky on earth. You either already know this from astronomy or you don't really need to know it to read the novel. Categorize this novel under `fun'!

Friday, 1982, 357 pages: 3-1/2 stars

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I Could Fall In Love With This Gal...

Heinlein has long been one of my favorite authors, and I was pleased that "Friday" didn't let me down.

"Friday" is an artificial person. She was bred in a laboratory from the finest genetic material available, and she works for a free-lance intelligence agency as one of their top couriers. Raised to believe she is less-than-human, Friday is constantly assaulted by "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", driven from situation to situation in an adventure that is as much a tale of her discovering her worth as a human as it is a futuristic spy thriller.

My wife takes exception to a couple of items about how "the Dean of Science Fiction" wrote his women, at least in this case. She (my better half) feels that Friday doesn't react as a real woman would to some situations... well, one in particular. Personally, I think he created a character that is interesting, often charming, professionally tough-as-nails, emotionally vulnerable, and quite lovable. And given the premise of her origins, I find I can accept how Friday behaves. (Then, I'm not a woman.)

Heinlein has created a character that the reader can not only cheer but empathise with... highly appealing on a number of levels.

I can re-read this novel every year or two and still be just as effected as the very first time. It's a story that feels like visiting an old friend. That's good writing.

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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