Rating: 
Summary: Porn Trash without the Porn
Review: Interesting idea in this one, but there were a couple of flaws- the main, of course, being that the book is a 400 page ramble about WHO HE IS GOING TO HAVE SEX WITH. And (correct me if I'm wrong here, but I checked pretty thoroughly) every single person we know the name of he/she kisses. I found this to be one of the most boring books I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Long, but Worth the Trip
Review: Heinlein's fat 1970 tome tells the tale of a powerful tycoon adrift in his private lifeboat (not a literal boat, but rather the opulent, gun-encrusted enclave that only a man of great wealth could afford) somewhere just after the turn of the millenium, in an America swollen with bodies, riddled with violence and insanity. CEO of his own Gatesian empire, Smith has reached his nineties and plans to retire, but has little left to look forward to. Mind youthful but body senescent, he sits wheelchair-bound, swaddled in life support equipment--costly health care gone wrong, for it does not permit him to die. How, then, to shuffle off his mortal coil? In true bullying, billionaire fashion, Smith finds an expensive, ingenious way to dodge doctors, heirs, accountants and other obstacles to his desired suicide: he will have a pioneer surgeon transplant his brain into another body. But what he never counted on was that the operation would succeed; Johann wakes up in a borrowed body. What is more, the body is that of a friend. A reader can treat I Will Fear No Evil as the exploration of what it might be like to have one's brain transplanted into another's body--that does indeed comprise a large part of the story. Still, there is another powerful aspect to the book: the glimpses one gets of the society Johann Smith has barricaded himself against. Johann's turn-of-the-millenium America has grown into a sprawling urban wasteland throughout which the have-nots wage gun battles in lawless Abandoned Areas. The haves venture out into this war-torn turf only in armored cars with armed guards riding shotgun, and return home to fortified enclaves. It is an America which has dismissed Horace Mann's dream and routinely shunts poor students into "illit" tracks in its public schools, and in which children can be prostituted in the aforementioned abandoned areas. It is an America held spellbound by television and sensa! tional news headlines--classic "Crazy Years" items. Does all that sound a little familiar? As a dying old man, Johann Smith had no cause to embrace that new society. He once comforted himself with reminiscences about the Roaring Twenties, when both he and America were young and vibrant. But after the transplant renews his youth, he begins to sample the society he had turned his back on, and does so with hedonistic abandon. Beyond the momentary idylls he encounters, Johann concludes that human culture on Earth has entered into its agonal throes and now has only one hope: the transport of its best and brightest to another seat--in this case, the Moon. Thus a metaphorical transplant shadows the real one, and if a reader is looking for "message Heinlein" in I Will Fear No Evil, it resides in that metaphor. I Will Fear No Evil is customarily panned by the critics for having a number of flaws: too great a length, too little action, arch dialogue and a fantastic premise. While the book is a departure from typical Heinlein material, it remains entertaining, readable and thought-provoking. Heinlein fell seriously ill with peritonitis after wrapping up the first draft of the novel, so the manuscript never got the cutting and tweaking that Heinlein usually gave a book before it hit the presses. Nevertheless, the book is still in print, selling well, and highly regarded by a good proportion of readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Make This Your First Experience with RAH!
Review: Heinlein has always had a problem with fleshing out his female characters (particularly in his early works). Either they are strong and souless, or weak and mushy - there has never been a perfect balance. I commend Heinlein for attempting the impossible journey into the mind of a female, but in the end you wind up with no more than you came in with. This is very unlike Heinlein. I differ from the rest of the detractors who have posted their reviews in that I actually liked the book. It was an interesting and fun read - a good little bit of 'fluff'. However, it is a poor representative The Master's work - it reads more like something he wrote to pay the bills. If you have read everything else by Heinlein, or you want to read one of his works that doesn't make you think so hard, by all means read this one. On the other hand, if you are a First Time Heinlein reader, induct yourself with Stranger in a Strange Land (the book that got the majority of us addicts hooked). You should also read Time Enough for Love (still amongst my favorites) and Job: A Comedy of Errors (an atypical Heinlein experience, but well worth it - it's a top contender for the title of My Favorite.) However, if you are indeed a reader of Danielle Steele, and you want to dabble in Sci-Fi... |8^D --Adam Selene--
Rating:
Summary: If you want to respect Heinlein, don't read this book
Review: This is the worst of Heinlein's books. Don't bother with it.
Rating:
Summary: THE BOOK THE EDITOR FORGOT ABOUT
Review: I am really proud of myself because i have read every heinline book and short story ever. I am completely serious about this. I really must say that this book along with "the rolling Stones" is his worst book of all time. It belongs in the romance novel section. The begining had me intrigued, i thought i was in for another great Heinlien, but it goes downhill fast. After johan gets a brain transplant into the body of his beutiful young secratary, he looses all of his gall, and all of his will. I also found the sections devoted to describeing an excersise regemin absurd. After i finished this book i laughed. I do have a conspiracy theory about this book though. Henlien wrote the first chapter, and Daniel Steel interceded and wrote the rest. I guarentee you thats what happened. I bet the editor droped his draft somewhere and he didnt have the heart to tell Robert A. Think about it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise, but not executed
Review: So many of the reviewers here enjoyed this book. It was the fifth RAH book I have read, and I found it extremely disappointing. It started with an excellent premise, but it just did not deliver. Moments were interesting, but you could ignore this book and not lose much of the Heinlein experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Should be required reading in the third grade
Review: I just won a bet with a Heinlein fan. He thought He had seen all the books there were writen, but I remembered this one from early in his career. I am sorry that I had to give out part of the plot to interest the man, but he was intriged and is looking for it, even as you read. I'll have to e mail him with the information that the best bookstore in the world is only a keyboard away.
Rating:
Summary: this book is sooo awsome
Review: I read I Will Fear no Evil in 2 days I could not put it down. I think it is one of the best of Heinlein's books. Up until this book all of the others were slightly childish not bad but just more adventure than anything else this is his first book where he explored the whatif's of science fiction and just the aliens and badguys. I am not saying I do not like his other books but so far this is my favorite of them all.
Rating:
Summary: Explores questions many men have wondered for years.
Review: Explores the sexual differences between the sexes. Anyone else ever tackle that one? On a completely unrelated subject - His predictions about cities, pollution and crime seem to be well on their way. Not bad for 30 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: He struck pyrite in a gold mine.
Review: The novel was a good novel, but, in a sense, it wasn't. The storyline was interesting, but all was predictable. Also, you could tell a lot come from Stanger in a Strange Land (my personal favorite). The end got off from being that compelling sci-fi to this mush, sick, deluded world of a personal fantasies.
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