Rating: 
Summary: Horrible book. Did Heinlein really write this?
Review: This book was a rather sordid and ugly look at genders and relationships. Heinlein is so different here than in his good books (Tunnel in the Sky, Starship Troopers, Door into Summer, or Orphans of the Sky) that I wondered who actually wrote this awful work. It seems obsessed with sleezy gender roles and is quite anti-woman. The basic premise is what would happen with a man's brain in a female body. Maybe a good concept, but it is terrible in application here. I just hated this book. I was appalled at some of the slams women take in this work. Please consider avoiding this work. Perhaps every writer deserves some grace, but this work is almost beyond redemption. Maybe Heinlein was ill while writing this, or maybe his editor was on drugs?
Rating: 
Summary: The Body's Memories
Review: Heinlein never lacked for ideas. Many were original with him, such as the multi-generational star-ship. Sometimes he took someone else's idea and added his own fillip to it - which is what he does here.
Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is very old, very rich, very stubborn - and caught in the medical straight-jacket of extensive life support. So he conceives of having his brain transplanted - whether the operation is successful or not, he'll at least escape the straight-jacket. So far, an idea done many times before. Now Heinlein adds his own touch, as the 'donor' body turns out to be that of his young, extremely beautiful secretary, Eunice Branca, who was mugged and murdered. When Johann wakes up after the operation, he finds Eunice there in his head, ready to help him adjust to the new world of being very much a female. Is Eunice real, a product of 'body experience'? Or just a figment of Johann's imagination? Heinlein lays clues to this important question throughout the book, but you'll have to read it and make up your own mind.
Given the scenario above, this seems to be a perfect setup for Heinlein's traditional storming of the taboo bastions adhering to sex and gender stereotypes in American society. And there is no shortage of comments, situations, and happenings about just these items. Unfortunately, there is entirely too much of this material, occupying almost all of the middle section of this book, and after the first few sexual situations that Joan (the Johann/Eunice hybrid) faces, becomes extremely repetitious. Joan is not very believable as a woman (female characters were never Heinlein's strong point), nor do her actions really jive with what a 95 year old man would do. The internal conversations between Johann and Eunice are interesting and well done, though here again it becomes somewhat repetitious in the later stages of the book.
When Heinlein leaves Joan's intimate life for a broader look at his envisioned world, it gets much better. The book is set in what he described in other books as "The Crazy Years": illiteracy is common, people need to live in armored fortresses, drive in the equivalent of tanks, court decisions are just as crazy as the one's you read about in today's newspaper, homosexuality is actively encouraged as a way to limit population growth, some areas of cities have been completely abandoned by the police as impossible to enforce. Heinlein's description of ordinary living amongst the youth of the times, his depiction of Eunice's husband Joe as a real artist, his satirical snapshots of the headlines of the day are all excellent, and his headlines are far too close to today's reality to be easily dismissed as 'impossible'.
Heinlein became extremely ill just as this book was going to final edit, and his wife ended up making some of the decisions about the final form of this book. I think that if Heinlein had been well, a large portion of the middle section of this book would have been cut, and some tightening up done on the rest of it. As it is, it is far from his best, even making allowances. But the idea and situation are intriguing (who hasn't fantasized at least once about what it would be like to be the other sex?), in places Heinlein's power to engross and change your world-view are in full flower, his believable world-building skills much in evidence, his messages important and relevant to today's living. Heinlein on a down day was still better than ninety-nine percent of the other material on the racks.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating:
Summary: Great premise, terrible execution
Review: This book is offensive to at least one of the two genders, though it's hard to say which. It suggests that a man whose brain was transplanted into that of a sensual woman would become a wanton harlot, more or less. Whether that's more insulting to the male brain or the female body, I'm not sure, but the book portrays neither gender realistically.
I like Heinlein, and the first 100 or so pages of this book show a lot of potential, but after that the book descends into vapid sexual morass, and it's not even particularly good at being that.
The gender-swapping theme has been a common one in fiction and film in the last 30 years or so, but Heinlein joined the ranks of the many authors and directors who treated it as a chance to write pseudo-enlightened erotica instead of literature. More's the pity.
Rating:
Summary: Man becomes woman - as seen in "Penthouse Letters"
Review: There is a well-circulated FAQ on the internet with information on Heinlein. In it, there is a suggestion that Heinlein fans generally consider this book to be one of his weakest. I must concur with that statement. There is very little here of interest, and almost none of the usual provocative Heinlein theorising. (To be fair, in the pre-AIDS 1970's when this book was written, it may have been better received, but today it seems dated and ludicrous).The basic idea - that of a man's brain being transplanted into a woman's body - is good, if not original (Star Trek did this a few years earlier, for example). The man: an ancient, crusty CEO worth billions. The woman: his beautiful nymphomaniacal secretary, who the boss was infatuated with. After a mugging leaves the secretary brain-dead, the boss's brain is transplanted into her body. With a new set of hormones and new sexual equipment, the boss sets out to discover what life is like as a woman. The wrinkle: the "spirit" of the woman is still in the body, guiding the boss on his new journey. There are some good parts: there is the court challenge to the wo/man's identity: is she the boss? the secretary? both? There are some practical and philosphical points brought up, and this is what Heinlein readers want. However, the vast majority of the book is spent on the wo/man's sexual conquests. Unfortunately, everyone in the book behaves as if they are straight out of the Playboy mansion. Worse, Heinlein writes the wo/man's character as a male fantasy of what a woman is: completely unrealistic! Two examples will have to suffice to illustrate the silliness. (1) The wo/man gives a (full-mouth) kiss to everyone that treats her well - her lawyer, her doctors, her (female) nurse, a judge, her bodyguards, etc. Most of these people she also has sex with. Hasn't anyone heard of professional misconduct? (2) In rooms where men are sitting around in comfort, wearing business suits, she will complain about how hot she is and take off her clothes. In my experience, women are likely to be colder than men at a given temperature. Granted, this is a fantasy tale, and such details would not bother me in a fantasy world. However, Heinlein is otherwise careful to make things realistic, so the realism/fantasy conflict is distracting to the point of annoyance. All women in the book, including the main character, are Playboy carricatures. Likewise, the men are all controlled solely by their libidoes, with most people (including a 70-year old laywer) having sex several times a day! Again: silly characters/dialogue are forgivable if there is good action (see Michael Crichton), but that isn't the case here - nothing happens! Take my advice - give this one a miss, especially if you haven't read much Heinlein. Check out Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, or even Citizen of the Galaxy (a "young adult" book) for better written, more thought provoking Heinlein. For those (like me) that have to read it all - don't say that I didn't warn you!
Rating: 
Summary: A Weaker Yet Still Enjoyable Heinlein Story
Review: Robert Heinlein said that he cut nearly 100,000 words from I Will Fear No Evil, but the book itself still drags on at points unlike many of his masterful works. Still, the book presents an idea deserving of the term "novel" and is an enjoyable read on the whole and a must for true Heinlein fans. The basic premise: a wealthy, crotchety old man contracts to have a highly experimental and illegal brain transplant performed to preserve his life; unfortunately, the first suitable donor is his much-adored, beautiful, and spunky secretary who is herself killed in a mugging. Typically good Heinleinian legal shennanegans follow as the sucessful transplantee must prove his identity, and then the meat of the novel (after many thousands of words of set-up) begins as he must adapt to being a "she." Much of the novel from that point is an enjoyable speculative exploration of the idea of having ones consciousness transplanted to another, altogether different body, including passages where the female's "ghost" shares the young body's mind and the reborn old man finds himself attracted to, having a child with, and eventually sharing a body with his old business partner. The latter portions are somewhat below Heinlein's normal standards of tight, well-defined prose--but then again, during the writing of I Will Fear No Evil, Heinlein did suffer a long relapse of tuberculosis that frequently interrupted his writing efforts. Heinlein novices would be advised to read Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and The Past Through Tomorrow (his "future history" anthology) first, but those already familiar with the grand master of sci-fi will likely find this still a fun read--and a requirement for the complete Heinlein library.
Rating:
Summary: Unusual Heinlein work, not his best, not his worst
Review: Johann Smith, kept alive past his years, chooses to undergo a brain transplant. He doesn't consider the possiblity that the first available body might be a woman, and, in fact, turns out to be his secretary, who was killed, unknown to Smith. Smith soon hears the voice of Eunice, the secretary in his head (her head, actually). Eunice guides Johann in what it is to be a woman. OK, the sex is overdone, and frankly, the book could have used a good editor. This is not one of the Heinlein late novels where everyone will live along happily forever with Lazarus Long and his crew (and I mean forever). Remember, this book's title is borrowed from Psalm 23 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." That shadow is never far away in this book, but within it, Johann learns to live, not just exist, as he did before.
Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein's Worst?
Review: I really admire Heinlein's ideas. Many of them are still ahead of their time. Sexual mores are still a hot issue. People judge, they don't accept what is "different," and refuse to acknowledge that sex, for sex's sake is not necessarily wrong. Its unfortunate that these ideas are so much better expressed in Stranger in a Strange Land and especially Time Enough For Love. I always wondered where people's accusations of Heinlein's sexism came from. Time Enough For Love certainly had its fair share of promiscuous (by today's standards) women--but they also loved and were human. Sex wasn't always the goal. But in I Will Fear No Evil, Heinlein basically states that sex is what women are made for and nothing else. Every single women in this book only thought about sex--the men were at least sometimes rational. Let's also not forget Joan's wedding, where she demands to fulfill the traditional, sexist oath of obeying her husband. She insists over the objections of those who have presumably evolved along with the future to realize the awful truth about such an oath. Its too bad Heinlein didn't evolve as well. Heinlein's attempts at accepting homosexuality fall flat as well. His 70s prejudices show through, something that does not happen in Time Enough For Love. Homosexual acts are not the norm. Those who partake in it are walking "Gay Street." Heinlein tries to equalize sexual acts. He declares that there are no sexes, just sex. Unfortunately the book is rampantly sexist and heterosexist. There are some good things here. The premise is fascinating. The future depiction of America through some entertaining newsbriefs, is interesting, if hard to fathom sometimes (a working court system in what is once described as defacto anarchy?) The overpopulation issues are and will continue to be relevant for a long time. The dialouge style between Joan and Eunice is once again confusing, but original. The best thing I can say about this book is that the ideas are all there, but they aren't expressed well in the least. Read Time Enough For Love instead.
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