Job, Eh?

[Mahrya]

Mostly, I love the cover of this book and Job's facial expression. Pretty much says it all, I'm betting. Still, bible stories retold intrigue me, so maybe I'll give it a go this summer some time.

[NumberLord]

I wouldn't call it a Bible story retold, so much as a quirky look at religion. The main character is a Christian, who, after living in a few alternate realities, finally ends up being raptured to Heaven. However, it's not quite what he imagined.
Not Heinlein's best, but it is kinda humorous.

[Dan]

Well, a central event in the plot is Satan suing God for unfairness in some sort of galactic court.
Or, at least, that's what I remember.

[Lindsay]

It definetly adds an intersting light to the Bible story when Heaven is very boring and heriarchal and Hell is where you can get jobs and pay off debts, make friends, and basically go on as if nothing ever happened to you except for a change of scenery.

[Jason Z.]

As I remember it, it's great. I still have a lot of other Heinlein I like more, though.

[Bill]

Heinlein's humor is always a bit forced, but here the satire plays to one of his strengths: taking a premise and extrapolating it out with very precise logic. In "Stranger," he plays out the Christ-as-beyond-human idea. Here he takes the Job story and plays a (self)-righteous God against a rationalist Satan as witnessed by their human pawn. The Rapture, in which the souls of the Elect are lifted up to Heaven, is rendered literally. But Satan has stacked the deck by having our hero fall in love with a pagan who is, by the logic of that reality, perforce condemned to Hell. One is left with the same sense as his SF novels: Well, of course that's what it would be like. Delicious!

[Robb]

This book was hard for me to get into initially but well worth it in the end when it switches from proto-Quantum Leap to funny religious satire.

[Mia]

This is one of my favorite Heinlein's.

It may be couched as a quasi-religious story but I think the main point is that there is nothing more important to man/woman than love and that nothing should get in the way of that.

[A.J.]

I love the irony in this book. Its not a book to be taken too seriously. I always thought the original Job at some point should yell at God more and complain.

[Michele]

I liked this book and it is one of the ones I re-read often. It struck me as a very anti-religious book and the main motivation was Alec's love for Marga and how he even accepted her belief in the Norse Gods and Ragnarok etc despite being a devout Christian fundamentalist because he loved her so much. I think anyone deeply religious would find this book quite difficult to accept.

[Patty]

one of my all time favorite books and one i give as a gift to people that i believe will appreciate it... one of the things i like best is that it shows all beliefs are valid for those who truly believe and that even gods can become complacent over time

[Theresa]

This is one of my all time favorite books. It immediately pulled me into the "What if?" scenario of are we just pawns in a game. While I don't really think that, there have been times in my life where I have wondered. Ever watched an ant hill? Are we the ants? Interesting food for thought. I pull this out and re-read it about every 4 years.