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Nov 23, 2011

Stephen rated it:

Robert Anson Heinlein…shame on you, sir. W…T…everwomanhating…F were you thinking when you wrote this drivel?

Friday is, in my irritated opinion, the most offensive and childishly ridiculous female protagonist since Russ Meyer and Roger Corman teamed up to co-direct Planet of the Nympho Bimbos Part II: Attack of the Soapy Breast Monsters.**

** Not a real film, so don’t bother searching Amazon for it.

Pardon my soap boxing, but this is a despicable pile of mis More...

53 comments like (70 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Owen rated it:

The first few pages had me thinking "Wow, when the old goat isn't preaching his agenda of communal polygamist living and actually TELLS A STORY, he makes you remember how good he is at it!" Then he promptly settles in for about 100 pages of agenda and leaves most of the potential that this character had to fizzle. Even though Friday is just another incarnation of Heinlein's typical horny-bimbo-with-a-Ph.D. dream girl (and there's nothing wrong with that), her artificial person status, More...

3 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2008

James rated it:

This book is an old friend of mine. I originally picked it up after seeing the cover art and reading the description in Michael Whelan's "Worlds of Wonder" - a book of his art. It was the first Heinlein I'd read.

When I first read this book, Friday was among the first female action heroines I'd run across. She was smart. She was sexy (er... almost to excess), she was tough, and, I thought, still feminine. Subsequent readings dimmed that a bit. Friday is a good attempt to cre More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lafcadio rated it:

I have my suspicions about Heinlein's women. Friday seems the embodyment of them all.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2011

Terence rated it:

I read this in high school (the cover really helps these star ratings). If I were to reread this today (which I have no desire to do), I would give it 2 stars, mostly for the ending (<spoiler>which reduces the eponymous Friday to a barefoot-and-pregnant housewife of one of the men who raped her in the first chapter</spoiler>).

Addendum (11/22/11):
Upon further reflection and in light of the comments below, I'm revising my rating to 2 stars: Get past chapter one and ig More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Rachel rated it:

(written 5-05)

Yyyyyyeah! Loved it. Heinlein sure knows how to write a good story, even if his female characters are always bi-curious sex maniacs in favor of free love with multiple partners. For an artificial person, Friday seems pretty damn human. I liked the mystery in the plot and just how bad-ass she was.

"I did not offer to pay the Hunters. There are human people who have very little but are rich in dignity and self-respect. Their hospitality is not for sale, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2007

Mike rated it:

Not my favorite Heinlein book, and not his best, but certainly not the worst. After The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, much of his works started becoming a little redundant in their characterizations ('good' women are always super smart and sexy and love to fuck, 'good' men are always brave and strong, both have frontier ideals and want a free society of people just like them who all fuck each other without jealousy and live in group marriages) and a little slower in their plot machinations (they sp More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Monk rated it:

For the guy who wrote Starship troopers, I expected a lot better.

It seems apparent to me that Heinlein was stuck in the sixties and didn't really seem to like women all that much or really think much of them.

The story had a lot of aspects worthy of liking, but I found the main character to be somewhat irritating. The book contains several merits that are worth noting. The concept of the creche children, artificial persons made for myriad purposes, was interesting. Though More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 30, 2008

Jake rated it:

Heinlein's age really shows in this one. The most noticeable things about Heinlein's later works are his twin obsessions with free love and breakfast. This book features several pointless sexual encounters and equally pointless detailed descriptions of breakfasts. While the sexuality can come off a bit "creepy old dude" the breakfasts are entertaining, well described slices of an old man's true joys extrapolated into his story. I really would only recommend this one for those with More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

Asking me to pick my favorite Heinlein is like asking me to pick my favorite friend. My favorite changes depending on my feelings, my life at that moment, and probably a heap of things I don't even notice.

I loved science fiction and fantasy from an early age, but the heroes I found were almost entirely male. Females were either supporting characters or props.

Friday is tough, independent, brave, and makes things happen. She wrestles with insecurity, but it never keeps her More...

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Mar 14, 2011

Pikachu rated it:

If this book had been written by a different author, I think it could have been very good. And at first, it was pretty good--but then Robert Heinlein, being Robert Heinlein, had to start in with nonconsensual sex, polyamorous relationships, Freudian matriarchs, and all this other crap that totally bogged down the storyline, and made me go WTF. Are you for cereal??!

Friday is the kind of woman most nerdy guys seem to fantasize about: she doesn't take any crap, she's super strong and ca More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 10, 2010

David rated it:

This is one of my all-time favorite Heinlein novels. Friday is a wonderful heroine - not one-dimensional, and so on.

The world that Friday lives in was echoed slightly in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (another all-time favorite novel of mine). In Friday, the protagonist is an artificial person ("AP") with enhanced reflexes and intelligence. She is a highly trained courier: "it WILL get through."

There is one rape scene which can set one off a bit, but I f More...

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Jun 08, 2010

Cynthia rated it:

Let me begin by stating clearly that this book should only be read by adults. There is no graphic sexual scenes, but rather an attitude of permissiveness that should be carefully managed for younger readers. Mr. Heinlein wrote this book back in the early 80's, and he was seeing clearly the way things just might one day be, if we are not careful. I really did love this book and its heroine. She is a powerful protagonist. I really did come to love her. And I particularly loved what she came to More...

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Jan 19, 2012

Kylie rated it:

I just couldn't get into this book. I sort of started reading it because so many other people had said they were shocked by the content. I can see why people would be turned off this book based on its content - but honestly, I just found it to be really ... boring. I couldn't get into the character and I didn't really enjoy the writing style. Maybe I'll try and finish it someday, but for now it's going on the 'will not finish' shelf.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 19, 2009

Quinn rated it:

First off, I want to say that I read this book in Spanish so it had a bit of a different impact on me than it would in English. That being said, I loved this book. A cyborg living in a world with anti-cyborg bias, Friday's adventure is more about her compelling inner journey of self discovery than any of the adventures she goes through.

Reading some of the other reviews, I noticed a lot of people critique Friday's overt sexuality and polyamory, but I think it's refreshing to see a More...

0 comments like

Apr 16, 2009

P. rated it:

Fairly typical Heinlein I think. One passage described fairly convincingly a system like the internet (although not THAT visionary since the book was published in 1982 and the early nets were already running at that time).

The story's protagonist is an "artificial person", which seems a rather quaint way to describe someone who was born of a genetically engineered ovum. I don't quite understand how in a world where religion has seemingly been banished to off-planet, ther More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 16, 2009

Jacqie rated it:

Friday is one of Heinlein's later works. Some of those works can be kinda weird, with Heinlein taking way too much time to explore his feelings on how much more uninhibited human sexuality should be (shades of the swingin' sixties). Friday does explore sex to some extent, but is also an adventure yarn with a female protagonist far ahead of most of the female characters written in the early 80's (the book was published in '82) and poignantly explores what it means to be human and to belong. Th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 11, 2009

Manny rated it:

Not as good as Saturday.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2010

Morgan rated it:

Heinlein's Friday has a similar tone to Stranger in a Strange Land. His underlying theme of peace and love and against the military-industrial complex and totalitarian states is present in this book. A dystopian future in which the public is subject to constant surveillance and at the mercy of the government's whims is where we find our protagonist, Friday. Friday's status as an AP (artificial person) is especially interesting to think about in our modern age of IVF, surrogates and gene thera More...

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Sep 25, 2007

Deodand rated it:

Oh Mr. Heinlein, you are a flaming sexist, and crazy as a shithouse rat. But I love you anyway! I can't help it.

Please read any Heinlein novel with your eyes WIDE open. His ego was huge and he liked to pretend he was every character in his books, including the females.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

Sean rated it:

There was such a difference in style between Heinlein's earlier and later works that without a chronology to hand it's very difficult to know quite what you're going to get. I enjoyed this one as an adventure story, and of course there are links to two of my favourite Heinlein works (Gulf, a story from Asignment In Eternity, and The puppet Masters.

I often find myself wondering just why his female characters are so willful sometimes, and occasionally in this book particularly I wondere More...

0 comments like

Aug 23, 2011

Ron added it

This was a fascinating novel about a "woman" (Friday) who is a courier in a secret organization on a future Earth. The story begins with her return from a mission in space as she tries to get back to her base of operations. On her return she is snatched and tortured by persons unknown. She is rescued, gets back to HQ and we find out that she is an AP (artificial person). She has enhanced reflexes, both physically and mentally, which are beneficial in her line of work; what she carr More...

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Jun 21, 2009

Eric rated it:

Heinlein's best, as far as I'm concerned. It deviates from his previous habit of portraying all women as universal "Bond girl" sex kittens, and gives his lead character borderline superhuman intelligence and strength. He also deviates from his previous patterns by NOT using sex as her greatest asset, though he couldn't resist making her sexy.
She is just plain capable on a level superior to anyone, man or woman. The premise is that she is genetically engineered. Fortunately he did More...

0 comments like

Sep 15, 2010

Dick rated it:

I haven't read much Heinlein but the stories I have read always knock my socks off. FRIDAY is even better. Heinlein not only flips you on just about every convention known to our society but he seamlessly threads you into the world as only he could create.
Friday, a very special kind of woman and I'll say no more, is incredible. Naive and wise, soft yet extremely dangerous, she takes us on a trek that made me ponder the nature of our politics and social mores. And on top of that it is a grea More...

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Sep 30, 2010

Eric rated it:

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Sep 30, 2010

John rated it:

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0 comments like

Sep 09, 2009

Jamison rated it:

The was an unwaveringly silly book. The main character is some sort of tube baby uber-womensch. It is filled with threeway sex obviously written by a geek. Heinlein stories are filled with futuristic explorations of sexuality, multiple partner relationships and communal families. Usually he manages it in a strangely tasteful manner that doesn't make you think of ren faire fatties at all. ok well maybe a little.
One really interesting thing: it has a fascinating description of an enormous in More...

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Aug 05, 2010

James rated it:

I liked it. Well written (easy reading). Somewhat interesting story but I think he missed a trick - there's a big anti-climax 2/3rds of the way through after the Red Thursday build up and new leadership of Friday's company at which point it flat-lines until the last three or four chapters instead of getting back into the action, which felt sparse considering the rather brutal beginning. Plus some really obvious plot holes, which leaves me wondering how on earth it got nominated for the nebula an More...

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Oct 13, 2011

Nick rated it:

Very high 4. Awesome book. The pacing is weird, in that the first ~65% of the book is one arc, then the next ~20% is another, and then the last ~15% is another. The middle arc is a bit slow, but the other two are top notch. The subjects of artificial presonhood, balkanization of the Americas, air and space transit, currency, polyamory, etc. are all well done. The universe is well built. Friday's character (aside from the horniness which I couldn't take seriously) is pretty damn cool. She's an ar More...

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Oct 13, 2011

***Dave rated it:

"Friday" remains, I think, my favorite Heinlein novel (though "The Puppet Masters" is a close second), perhaps because the protagonist is so (ironically) human. Sure, Friday, as a genetically manipulated Artificial Person is ubercompetent in what she does, with reflexes and strength and speed and training that puts ordinary mortals to shame. But, unlike so many RAH protagonists, she's got emotional feet of clay, a starving for acceptance and a low self-esteem in the face of More...

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