I Will Fear No Evil

This book goes like this (according to me). Super wealthy and successful old man, kept alive by machines, is waiting for an untarnished brain so he can go on living. He already has chosen the surgeon, and he is waiting for the organ which finally comes along when his secretary is brutally murdered (aren't all murders brutal?). He wakes up with the brain of a 95 year old man in a young woman's, body.

Wait a second! Isn't 95 around about the age where dementia sets in? Oh well!

He/she/it comes out of surgery incredibly horny, wanting to have sex with everyone she/he/it chooses. Heinlein, who weilds the penultimate (no pun intended) influence in these affairs grants her her wish and she ends up having sex with everyone, down to the lowly limousine driver.

Speaking of limousines and drivers. This takes place in a dystopian future that is characterized by high levels of crime and pollution, overpopulation, and moon travel. Cars are driven by goons under orders "Shoot to kill."

At this time, the first humans are starting to colonize the moon. To make a long story short, she/the old billionaire/it ends up marrying his attorney who promptly dies of a brain aneurism at the end of the book but not before he implants the seed of space travel and living on "Lua" in the young woman's/old man's brain.

What makes this book somewhat confusing, if one has made it this far, is the conversation that takes place between the ghost of his murdered secretary and the new man, er woman, Joan Eunice. Eunice was the name of the secretary and Johann is the the name of the old man. This book is slightly less confusing and just as fictitious as the bible.

I gave this book two stars for the occasional glimpses of the future that are a little frightening and not so foreboding because that time has arrived and passed. I am talking about a world with 7 billion people. I think we reached this figure sometime in the 1990's. In a testament to how bored we have all become, a woman gives birth to a baby while sky diving and manages to give a press conference right after she lands. If this was supposed to elicit laughter or incredulity in the reader it wholeheartedly failed. Flying saucers are seen over Northeastern Brazil, crime is up and the cities are populated by these danger zones called "abandoned areas" where anything can, and does, happen. These are kind of similar to the zones mentioned in O-Zone by Paul Theroux, but why Heinlein does not venture into these hell holes in order to give the reader a better glimpse of life (or non-life) among the marginilized is beyond me.

In all, two stars. Rick says don't go near this book unless you are really bored.

The name "Heinlein" is normally synonomous with "quality" but in this case something got lost in the translation it seems. Not that the premise isn't great, an old man seeks to transplant his brain into another body and it winds up being his secretary, who everyone loved, and as another neat twist, she appears as a ghost and talks to him. Sounds good? I thought it did, however soon after the transplant the entire plot sort of vanishes for an extended exposition on sex and sex and, well, sex. The same points about men and women are brought up again and again to the point of redundancy. Everyone seems to have sleeping with everyone else, or at least thinking about it, which would be okay normally, Heinlein has done that before, it's just that any other plot motivation just sort of evaporated. And then someone else becomes a ghost in his head in one of the more ridiculous "plot" developments (I won't say who so as not to spoil the book for any new readers, you deserve that surprise at least). There are good points though, the conversations in his head are often entertaining when they're not obsessed with sex and the ending is fairly moving. And, really, if you drop any notions that the story is going to go anywhere (you're better off, since it doesn't) and just sort of go with the flow, you might find yourself interested at some point. All in all not the best Heinlein book to start with, go back to Stranger in a Strange Land or Time Enough for Love (the latter is almost the same thing only more interesting by far), and then once you've tried that, come over to this one. You'll be better prepared.

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)

This is far, FAR from being Heinlein's best book, but it is interesting and worth reading for several reasons. First off, let me make something clear: this is NOT science fiction. Now, Heinlein was never one to emphasize the hard SF elements over the human aspect, his books ultimately focused on the human condition, or were at any rate, comments on society, sex, or religion. The only part of this book that relates directly to science is a brain transplant! Yes, a brain transplant. This is, of course, aside from the fact that the book is set in the future. This is probably as close to mainstream literature as RAH ever got. Okay, so with that out of the way... why is it worth reading, you ask? For one, it has a very interesting premise: a man has his brain transplanted into the body of a woman. This sounds simple, but think of all the complications that would arise. Here Heinlein has a pulpit for the differences between men and women, and he covers just about every conceivable area. Ask yourself this... if you were and old man who had his brain transplanted into the body of a woman, would it be heterosexual to have sex with a man or with a woman? There are countless other questions like this you could ask yourself for just such a situation, and they are all addressed in this book. Another thing about this book is that it is the most sexually explicit thing Heinlein ever put out. It doesn't have the incest factor that Time Enough For Love does, but it is more generally explicit, and downright preachy in spots. On the surface the book may seem sexist, but if you delve deeper you can see this is not the case. Indeed, this book was, after release, adopted by the Women's Liberation! Though the book is long and winding (and takes even longer to read than even lengthier novels due to the heavy amount of dialogue and witty banter that you will want to re-read), you want to keep reading, not for the suspense factor (which is more or less non-existent, as indeed, are conflicts of any kind) but just to see what shocking thing Heinlein will come up with next. Okay, so with all these neat points in tow, why only four stars? Well, for one thing, the book suffers from a lack of editing. Some speeches go on and on and on (the book consists almost entirely of dialogue-indeed, a good portion of it is the main character talking to theirself) and many catchphrases are repeated several times, thus diminishing their apparent wit. However, the book is still worth reading for the reasons outlined above, also because it is that rare book that will leave you questioning your values and mores, Heinlein treads here places that most authors wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. And it's put over in a thoughtful way, without constantly bashing you over the head like later Heinlein efforts. Also, the ending is rather nice and poetic. This is a truly "novel" novel that Heinlein fans will definately want to read, but if you are new to the Dean, I suggest you read some other works of his before tackling this one.

Oh yeah! I read this book some years ago. It was pretty entertaining. High in sexual content. It would make a darn good triple X movie. When you consider the fact that adult movies truly lack any production values in terms of writing, directing, and storytelling in general, this book can offer some smart genius out there an opportunity to finally make an adult movie with a real plot and quality production values instead of just another junk movie worth throwing away and not much more. An adaptation of this book as a XXX film can be a major breakthrough in the adult film industry. And it doesn't even have to be a parody!

The book it self is very good and one day medical science may do this. Heilein has be very forward thinking and things have come to pass. Only if Heinlein himself was selling this book for $700.00 Would I consider buying it. I have the paperback book and it does me fine.so will it's replacement when I need a new one. Good choice of a book and good luck in selling it for this amount.

Heinlein is a fantastic author and one who has often made some pretty adventurous tours into the sci-fi genre. I have often been taken with his willingness to push the envelope and tackle some interesting questions with a unique and, at times, disturbing angle.

The basic theme of cheating death by having your brain transplanted into another person's body is weird enough in its own right. However, add that the main character, Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, is male and he wakes up to find he is now a she in the body of Eunice, his personal assistant. The book basically follows his struggles to cope with the new identity, and also deal with the residual presence of Eunice in the body.

Action-packed sci-fi this is not, but it is interesting in the ethical issues that it raises. The questions posed about prolonging life by the use of another's body are interesting and distasteful in some ways.

The association of a name carrying heavily religious and musical connections with such a selfish man as Smith adds something of a commentary on the book's central premise and the issues connected with it.

"I Will Fear No Evil" is not a bad book, but certainly one for select tastes and only hardcore Heinlein fans. Those readers who have some philosophical interests in ethics might also enjoy the book. For those looking for more conventional sci-fi novels, treat this one with caution.

... is not to arrive. Ponder this before you pick up this book: do the books you read have to be action-packed (defeating evil villains, fighting battles in space, encountering extraterrestrials) or is a story of human interaction equally compelling?
This is definitely a dialogue-driven book. After the protagonist wakes up and learns that he is in the body of his secretary, and that his secretary's mind is still in her body even though her brain was removed and his was implanted in its place, there is little of what might be called "action" except for a mild courtroom drama.
I've had little exposure to Heinlein; one of the first SF books I read was _Space Cadet_, which I enjoyed, although at ten I wasn't particularly discriminating. Two or three years ago I tried to read _Stranger in a Strange Land_, and was bored by it; I couldn't make it through to the end.
This book, however, was a completely different animal. The dialogue is compelling, and its frequently sexual nature challenges us to examine our notions of love and gender.
Near the end there is a surprise twist: Was Heinlein playing with our minds, leading us on, throughout the entire book? Is Joan/Johann crazy? Did s/he snap? When I finished the book I was inspired to read it again, immediately, to try and find an answer to this question.
This is one of the most intellectually stimulating, mentally engaging, and challenging science fiction books I've ever read. Judging by the reviews here, you either love it or hate it, and there isn't much middle ground.

"I Will Fear No Evil" is, possibly, Robert Heinlein's oddest novel. A very old multi-billionare male has his brain transplanted into a young body. What might be the consequences? Read this novel and find out some of them.

This is not Heinlein at his best and it is not Heinlein at his worst. It is not a good choice for someone new to Heinlein. Read his "juveniles" first. However, it is a good read for an adult.

At the time this was published organ transplantation was still in its infancy. So, I can claim that this is "hard" science fiction. As for the consequences of the transplantation, the main character, Johann, is an old WASP male. His brain is transplanted into the beautiful, young,body of a black (Afro-American) woman. After recovery, there follows a period when the newly renamed "Joan" (sounds like Jo-Ann) has a fair amount of fun with his/her body.

I could wish for a little more restraint by "Joan", but that is not how Heinlein wrote the story. Fortunately, Heinlein does manage to fit a bunch of other fascinating material into the story, partly as background. Unfortunately, the main plot does bog down a little as we pass the middle of the story. Nevertheless, the development of the Johann/Joan character is somewhat fascinating.

Eventually, there is a resolution and end to the story. All things considered, it is not a bad ending.

I, mostly, enjoyed the story but had to work a little to keep from being distracted by the sexual stuff.

After having time to digest the novel, I decided that there was plenty of really good reading material in it. So, I am giving it a good rating.

However, please read a bunch of Heinlein books first. Be sure to include "Stranger in a Strange Land" in that bunch. You will be less happy with this novel if you do not take the advice.

. . . and this opinion coming from a person who truly enjoys much of Heinlein's material.

Actually, the premise of the story has a great deal of potential. The problem is, is that potential is never realized. The book is a poorly written, poorly edited hash. Other reviewers have noted that Heinlein was desperately ill when the book was being written and edited, and I suppose that provides some excuse -- for Heinlein. But not for his publisher!

Other reviewers have noted Heinlein's, shall we say, unconventional views of sexual relationships -- a theme which plays out in many of his later novels -- but even in the later novels, there is a coherency and a consistency -- even when he is at his most unusual. ("Time Enough for Love" has some truly tender moments.) But sexual behavior in "I Will Fear No Evil"? -- Just bizarre.

If you are a Heinlein fan who wants to read everything the Master ever wrote -- then read this -- considering the perspective of Heinlein's health at the time. But if this had been the first Heinlein novel I had read -- I probably would never have read any others -- and that would have been a great tragedy.

A Mr. Smith is very old and not far from death, however, this Mr. Smith is extremely rich, so he pays to have his brain transferred to a young body whose previous owner died of massive brain damage. So starts this novel, with several surprises in store for the reader, which I will not mention here so as not to spoil them. There is much banter back and forth between a couple of the main characters which I found enjoyable and well done. A lot of this book, in fact most of it, explores man/women relationships, some may not like this and want a shoot-em up space opera, which this is not. This book is the near equivalent of a university course, say, Human Relations 101, expertly written. Heinlein was always great at looking at the human nature side of things. Another of my favorite authors, William Barton, also writes in a similar style and if you like these types of science fiction novels I do recommend him.

This is Heinlein's weakest novel, which still makes it better than 80% of the stuff available today.
(Rumor Has It that this book was actually ghostwritten by Virginia Heinlein, possibly from Bob's outline. Interesting speculation, given that the treatment of women in the book is one of the major criticisms.)
The central question in the book is about identity, are we our bodies, our brains, or Something Else, possibly our souls? This is never really resolved, we don't find out for sure if Eunice has survived her murder or if Johan is just delusional.
Coupled with this is the question of sexual identity. When this was written having bisexual characters was very controversial, cutting edge stuff. Now it's badly dated, and the Kinesian hypothesis that everyone is bisexual to some extent or another has largely been disproven by subsequent research. Still it's an interesting question. If someone you loved suddenly became a person of the opposite sex, how would that change your feelings about them?
It's not essential Heinlein or essential Science Fiction. It is a good thought piece. Read Heinlein's other books first, then let this one challenge your preconceptions.

Johann Sebastion Bach Smith is a self-made billionaire tycoon, surrounded by an obscenely huge mansion and a small army of servants. And fancy medical wiring is holding his body together. At 95 years old, Smith schemes to be born again by having his brain placed in a corpse, 20-40 years old with his rare AB blood type and no damage except in the brain, thus beings 145 pages of the most amazing, medical science fiction imaginable. Through Heinlein's excellent story-telling, the reader is brought into Smith's strange state of unconscious between life and death as mad scientist and fugitive, Dr. Boyle successfully completes an operation thought impossible and unethical and then disappears into the shady night. Smith slowly reemerges to be startled at the identity of the body's former possessor and to find that she has not completely left yet. It is spine tingling, stark and terrifying. So why the 2 stars? Because the book is 512 pages and what remains is embarrassingly frivolous. The rest of the novel explores such subjects as kissing, menstruation, shopping and female orgasm. The characters have a lot of sex, spend a lot of money, act nauseatingly rich and call each other stomach-turning nicknames. The last two-thirds of the book is mush at best, smut at worst. A return to its original quality, themes and intensity appears in the last chapter, far too late to save this tedious novel.

To begin with, this novel started out as a highly intriguing idea. A man is going to die, and wants to try a radical idea of a brain transplant. Fortunately for the main character, he has his brain transplanted into his FEMALE secretary following the gnag related murder of the secretary. Up until this point, it was a rather interesting read about how money CAN buy you anything you want. But then we go downhill fast.........
Once the main character Johann regains his consciousness, he realizes that he is in a female body. However, he is not alone. It seems that the "spirit" of the secretary is still housed in this body. This is where it gets interesting...........
Heinlein does his best to blur the lines of heterosexuality and homosexuality in this novel. The "man" in a woman's body literally goes around kissing both memebers of the sex and sleeps with both members of the sex. Twisted around the constant sex drive of the individual is the debate about identity. In this novel, it is found that the brain is the identity of the human, not what the individual looks like.
The novel was not interesting because it was centered around sex...............the whole time. Therefore, I feel is fails to qualify as a real good science-fiction novel Yes, it is in the future, and yes it had an interesting pretense. But the basis of the story deals with individual ideas based around who the main character is sleeping with next. I won't even bring up the issues that are raised with pregnancy covered in this book. The best bet is to avoid this novel and pick up some of the other novels that Heinlein has written, because this book does not do justice to the author's ability as a creative writer.

"I Will Fear No Evil" by Robert Heinlen is a dramatically woven story of the potential pros and cons of performing brain transplants. Johann Smith, the main character, is a man who is extremely wealthy but only has a limited time left to live on earth. In the story Mr. Smith mentions that he constantly heard the saying "You Can't Take It With You." He was determined to get around that phrase by undergoing a brain transplant with a willing and healthy body between 20-40 years old. He ends up unexpectedly having a brain transplant with Eunice Branca. Mr. Smith is very familiar with her because she was his favorite secretary. The only reason why I gave this story only three stars is due to the fact that I was expecting more spontaneous action plot elements similar to what are seen in the Star Trek and Star Wars movies. This book is more for those who are looking for a book that is centered around the conversation dialogue of characters describing their feelings on life and what they are going to do.

The idea is a throwaway one anyway, but the author has more fun than any of us do with it. A brain transplant has some potential as a device for physiological and pscyhological exploration, but this text won't give more than a few pages in that. Rather, the intracicies of just how a person in a new body would come to terms with their new skin are put aside in favour of the patient's new inter-personal relatioinships. These, at best, are dull; mostly they are annoying and tasteless in their childishness.

This story may have succeeded as a short, but as novel, we are really own shown one dimension of quite unlikable characters for much too long. A businessman in a nymphet's body may pose confronting ideas, but the author cannot resist in rubbing our noses in really quite adolescent situations. There isn't a single pleasant person in the text - they are all depressingly self-centred. An artist, (who the author hopes to convince us as being truthful and earthy) is actually a stubborn and illiterate fool, easily able to attract the most valued women in the text.

This text really has no clear story arc. The characters exist only as devices to reveal their own frustratingly shallow agendas, and a pregnancy that may of grounded some characters seems to only increase this reader's revulsion.

I'm going to start with a few positives that kept this above 1 star. Heinlein correctly predicted in 1970 that the sexual revolution of the 60's was just the beginning and 40-50 years later, we'd live in a world where the younger generation cares much less about sexual preference and orientation. He predicted that certain organ transplants such as the heart would be virtually routine.
As for the story itself, I'll admit I bailed on reading at about the one 1/3 point because I could just no longer care if Johann or Joan figured out how to adjust to life as a male male 90-year old's brain transplanted into the 25-year old beautiful female body of his beautiful assistant who died tragically just as he needed a body donor for the world's first brain transplant. I vaguely recall reading this as a teenager and finding it very interesting then. As an adult reader decades later, I found the old man discovering life inside a woman's body (and her body has memory of her former life) just weird and creepy.

Heinlein may be one of the great masters of science fiction, but his novels also tend to be oversexed, and this one is no exception. The "Free Love" theme of the 1970's is quite evident here, and gets quite tiring by the book's end.
The book concerns a rich old man named Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, who (in order to live longer), wishes to have his brain transplanted in a younger body. The twist comes in when it gets transplanted into the body of his sexy young female secretary! There's a lot of gender-bending and sometimes thought-provoking questions about male vs. female psyches, but after 500 pages, it gets rather lengthy and dull.
In the author's defense, Heinlein (as always) manages to paint some very interesting and charismatic personalities on paper. If you haven't yet read it (although most people have), I recommend instead Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. While also oversexed, is much more interesting and not quite as droning as I Will Fear No Evil.

Mr. Heinlein has written many, many Science Fiction books, Novellas, short stories and the like. One must remember "SCIENCE FICTION" isn't just Starship Troopers and Star Wars, or DORSAI Novels and the like, its also the study of the Human Condition...like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and many others.
"I WILL FEAR NO EVIL" is humanistic Science Fiction at its best. Its classic Heinlein written in his classic style and prose you will find i his LAZURUS LONG Epics. Basically its the study of a "dying" rich man, wanting to live, and of course, finds out without warning that he receives a WOMANS body. I Will not tell you the plot since that would ruin it, but its safe to say its one of his best.
I will not say its his VERY BEST, since I find it hard to compare "Time Enough For Love" with "Starship Troopers" or "J.O.B.", but its definitly one of his best. Its also very unique to him.
Yes, this IS Science Fiction. Nope no dragons, no elves, no Hans Solo guys. This is a great read....PERIOD. Its also recommend for older readers who would tend to understand it more.

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.

By now you must know the basic idea: old rich guy (Johann) tries to commit suicide by attempting a brain transplant. He survives and ends up in the body of his former secretary (Eunice), who's "ghost" is with him.
Ok, a good deal of the book is about who to kiss or sleep with next (everyone), and some of the dialogue is predicable (example: Johann/Eunice talk about sex, Johann says Eunice has a dirty mind, then she says that it's his mind). Some themes are a little repetitive (let's get Jake to do what we want but have him think it's his idea). But none the less, I found it a good and thought provoking book. In the words of another reviewer, "Heinlein spins a good yarn."
There are plot twists, foreshadowing, symbolism, and the ending should make you think. Were the ghosts (yes, he picks up another) all in Johann head? As well as other unanswered questions.
So in short: It does have lots of talk of sex (not much actual sex though, the chapter ends or there's a break in the text), but if you can deal with that (I didn't find it hard) it's a great book.
-Leon Maurer

This could have been a brilliant book, and I've often wondered if Heinlein had written it in his prime, if it would have been at least a decent one. "I Will Fear No Evil" treads where few science fiction writers, and virtually none of the "hard" science fiction writers, have ever really dared to go-- the question of gender and what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, Heinlein was not equal to the challenge this topic presented.

Partly this is because he wrote "I Will Fear No Evil" when he was famous, and I'm guessing that no editor was willing to take the book to task for its many failings, including its length, the fact that the main female character isn't even remotely convincing as a female character, and the generally shoddy prose (a far cry from Heinlein's earlier, tight work).

The other big problem is that Heinlein really never seems to have seen women as being in any way different from men, and his understanding of men was pretty simplistic too. There are, as is the case in most of Heinlein's later works, a lot of Mary Sues here-- the good characters are perfect, and the bad ones are entirely bad, etc. In this novel, men are Heinlein's idea of men, or the opposite, and women are props who act like men. And that's a shame, because here's the thing: if you're going to write a book about crossing gender, it only works if you highlight some of differences between men and women. "I Will Fear No Evil" doesn't do that.

I read this many years ago and decided to reread. I'm glad I did. It's a great story about the way men and women think and how they see the world. It does drag in some spots, but still interesting.

Just like the synopsis on the page says, a 95-year-old man has his brain transplanted into the body of a 20-something woman. Lots of possibilities with a premise like that. Heinlein chooses only one to explore—sex. I don't want to give the wrong idea—there are no graphic descriptions here, but sex in all its combinations is pretty much the only thing talked about here. For more than 500 pages. Very boring, very narrow. I kept waiting for something of substance, like maybe a 30 year old with Alzheimer's or something, but nothing. This is a one-trick pony ridden so long that it became a nag. Not recommended.

Maybe its just my upbringing clouding my mind, but I find it hard to veiw Heinlein's characters as realistic. The men for example; This old guy, 100+ just got his brain transferred into the body of this young lady. It boggles my mind how no one has the slightest inhibition towards sleeping with her.
And the women, there's scene where Joan( Yohann's female persona) is talking to her maid, and the maid says something along the lines of 'Concraception is the woman's responsibilty'. Being a man raised by three generations of women I guess I'm just imdued with a femenists minsdset. Barring the unbeleivability of the charcters its a good story though. The dialougue is a little chessy at times and its a bit drawn out, but compared to some of the true drivel thats being plied today its a pretty good.

As a huge fan of Heinlein's work, I was more than a little dissapointed with 'I Will Fear No Evil.' While many trademark Heinlein-type characters and moments can be found, it was definatley one of his slower moving novels with not much payoff at the end. The premise, though, is intriguing. A wealthy man dies and is still-living brain is placed in a females' body. If you are a fan of Heinlein and know what to expect from him, you might very well enjoy this novel. But if you are new to Heinlein, may I recomend 'Starship Troopers' or 'Revolt in 2100.'

I've been a big Heinlein fan since my first encounter with "Job: A Comedy of Justice," but this book surpasses even his usual excellence to produce a truly stellar reading experience! I liked the provocative discussions of gender and sexuality throughout that I feel are becoming ever more reflective of today's diverse society. I also like that these discussions fit right in with the plot without feeling like people are breaking character to preach to the reader. His futuristic society is realistic without being as grim as 1984 or other dystopian fiction. His characters become people you know well and care about by tale's end.
This book is the epitome of speculative fiction and will hold you until the last breathtaking page!

the best science fiction is gedanken experiment, and so this is. So how far are we away from brain transplants? still a fair way, and with monstrous ethical issues. Heinlein's physics exceeds his biology, a field currently yielding rich insight, while his space program is taking shape, albeit much slower than envisaged, and as yet, lifeless.

the premise that brains can be cross-gender transplanted is flawed; male and female brains are now generally accepted as having different wiring. However, with that assumption given, the premise that "Eunice" is still active might be borne out by experiments on the body's nervous system showning that the neurons in the body can have some cognitive function.

The partnership of Eunice and Johann to present the resulting person as sane, competent and responsible is the best part of the book for me - the continuation of two lives who would otherwise be dead.

Interesting though, is the premise of complete sex change with no compromise as today's transgendered individuals have to put up with. Less believable is Johann's change to be sexually attracted to men after being clearly heterosexual, he should be then lesbian.

Heinlein is my favorite author, hands down, but to me this was a thought experiment gone out of control. My main critique was the lack of plot. It really seemed like he couldn't be bothered to care if the reader was having a good time as long as he was.

I love all of Heinlein's books but this is one of my favorites!
I love his strong beautiful women and the men who love them. This one is just amazing when Rich old Mr. Smith gets his brain transplanted into the lovely and nubile Eunice! What rollicking good fun they have - and it gets even better when Jake joins them!

What could this have been had RAH been well enough to edit and rewrite it? As most fans know, Heinlein suffered periods of sickness. I think this time it was peritonitis, but I am not really sure. He did not get to edit or rewrite to his standards, and it shows. What you are reading is one of his rough drafts, not a finished product. That makes a big difference, and for that reason, I can't really recommend this except to die-hards. However I am surprised at the number of people who are not die-hards who seem to enjoy it. I would just hate for this to be someone's first or second experience with this wonderful author. May I suggest Citizen of the Galaxy? Time Enough for Love? Even To Sail Beyond the Sunset? This should be one of the last books Heinlein competists like myself should read.

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!

I first read Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, and upon finishing the book, immediately went out and bought 5 more by him. This book, unfortunately, was in the pile.

I don't know much about Robert A. Heinlein but I did find out that he wrote this book while he was dying, so I'll cut him some slack, but this book is definitely not his best.

This story (as the other 20 reviews you've probably read have told you) is the story of a wealthy but old man transplanting his brain into the body of a younger soul. Little does Johann know is that he has transplanted his brain into a female body! (and through this very odd and convenient sequences in the book) we know have a story, that of a very confused man trying life out in some new and definitely female trousers.

I would definitely say that the idea behind the story is a FANTASTIC one, that of what will happen if the earth population gets to the point where we can buy new bodies, and what will that do to identification of such peoples?

The most dissatisfying part of this book was probably how much R.A.H. focused on just everyday life of the new Johann gone Jaon Eunice. I don't want to tell much about the story but in a jist he gets the body of his ex-secretary and turns out that even though the brains gone the soul's still there and now Johann has someone to help him out in the ways of women. He/she then marries his/hers lawyer and thats about it.

I would think that this book would have been a lot more promising if, even though focusing on the small stuff in this book like now going to different bathrooms and dressing differently and even thinking differently is important, it had focused a little bit more on what this would mean in the economical would (eternal life?) and human body farming and less on a old mans witty one liners and his very sexual and diverse life.

All in all, a big disappointment even though it sounds promising.

I'm not going to talk about the book itself, but more the impact it had me.
This book was given to me by a friend when I was 15 years old. It was my first true "sci-fi" book, and I am very fond if this novel as it opened my eyes to a whole new genre of novels (I discoverd Asimov shortly after) and stories. From the very beginning of the book I was hooked, and found it absolutely amazing. From the moment that I finished it I endevoured to get hold of a copy of every RAH book available. I am very surprised at some of negative feedback that this book has had, as I found it extremely thought provoking. I was so incredibly dissapointed when, on a bright Saturday morning, I turned the final page and had got to the end of the book that I sat in my room stunned, not knowing what to do with the rest of the day. I can still remember the long walk I had on that day... I somehow felt very alone, as if I had seem a glimpse of another reality that I had no chance of explaining to my friends, my imagination had truly been kicked up a gear. For a long time I held this book as "The best book I had ever read", not so much for it's "literary" content, but for the emotions that I had felt while reading it, the likes of which I had never before experienced from a book. By comparison I found "Stranger in a strange land" (my next Heinlen) very difficult to read, and did not appreciate it until I read it (Stranger in a strage land) again some years later, it reminded me of when I tried to read Tolkien's "Silmarillion" after "Lord of the Rings". I think "I will fear no evil" remained my favorite book for several years, until I read "Number of the Beast" which *really* blew me away.
So, there you go, I hope I havent bored you, and I sincerely hope that you feel the same way as I did after reading this novel, especially if it's your first Heinlein.

I had never read a Heinlein I didn't like. Even when, starting with "Stranger in a Strange Land," he quit writing for children and started writing for adults, I made the transition (I was 12 that year) and forced my tastes to grow up right along with his stories. 45 years later, I liked "For Us, the Living," which is more of a rough draft of an unpublished novel than an actual book. I even liked "Variable Star," although it frequently loses Mr. Heinlein's voice in Mr. Robinson's.

I DON'T LIKE " I Will Fear No Evil."

It is too long, it drags, and it is, ultimately, plain ol' boring, despite a fascinating well-developed premise.

Too bad. But it is really the only dog he ever wrote, so read it once, and then go back to the rest of his truly brilliant ouevre.

The characters in this book are so two dimensional it's scary. There is no conflict of any kind. Everyone is happy if they're good guys and angry if they're bad guys. The conversations are trite with the same catchphrases appearing over and over again. The "witty" banter between characters is the entire book, all people ever do is talk and none of them seem to be able to do so in an intelligent manner. I have no trouble accepting Heinleins drawing of people since this is a work of FANTASY, but I do find it hard to believe that the world he draws would be in such a sorry state when full of such loving and generally bland people. The sap runs pretty heavy in this work.

Macho, macho man; I've got to be a, whoops, where's my willy? Heinlein's medication must have backed up on him while he was writing this. I guess every man has wondered what it's like for the girls, but very few volunteer to find out. Johann Sebastian Bach Smith's elaborate suicide scheme to escape his nightmarish, over-medicated old age, an impossible body transplant, backfires by actually working. Smith finds himself in the body of his recently-deceased secretary, along with the mind of the secretary herself. It's actually a damn good book, but we are talking major league weirdness here as Smith sets out to explore this brave new world, jiggling all the way.

Standard Heinlein Disclaimer: Heinlein is a frequently-polarizing figure in American literature. The people who dislike his work (e.g., A. Panshin) seem to *really* dislike his work, and often for reasons that seem to me spurious. The people who like his work are in many cases blind or too forgiving of Heinlein's problems as a writer. I like Heinlein's work quite a bit, and find all but two of his novels consistently enjoyable, but I would not rate any but one or possibly two of his books as being the "best of the SF genre." They are for me, however, always enjoyable, and that is no small thing to find in an author.

And as you may have guessed, this is one of the two. (The other is "Rocketship Galileo" which, in my opinion, only suffers from the mistakes of a person new to writing novels, and a hoary "Nazis on the Moon!" plotline that, to put it mildly, has not worn well with time.) The story behind this book is, apparently, that Heinlein was ill as he was finishing it, and it was published without the traditional editing cycle that he usually employed.

Could be. Frankly, it's hard for me to imagine editing making this novel more readable. This is a relatively interesting idea (a man's brain transplanted into a woman's body), but as many others have pointed out, the execution is poor. Frankly, there's not much story here at all, aside from a man exploring what it's like being in a woman's body. But the exploration is by turns dull and absurd. Man in woman's body has many sexual flings! Man in woman's body poses nude for a painter! Man in woman's body cooks dinner for widower husband! Man in woman's body finds that piano lessons he took as a boy are now useless, but he can run secretarial equipment! The thrills never stop.

There are any number of other irritating things about this book (personally, I find being forced to try to pronounce "Joan" as "Joanne" really irritating, but that's probably just me [If you want it pronounced "Joanne", spell it that way, Bob!]), but I'll let you read the other reviews. The summation is, for this lover of Heinlein, who has read almost everything he wrote, I can't reread this novel. And for me, folks, that's really saying something.

This is a clunkily written book about an old man who has his brain implanted into the body of a young woman. Not only is the method unrealistic - as they are compatible by blood type the surgeons just match the brain stems and don't worry about which nerve goes where - but the story is way too long. Naturally, there is a dialogue that goes on between the 2 people in the body, and it is not bad but there is nothing much interesting about it except perhaps when the old man discovers sex as a female. The atmospherics are not bad, as the earth is falling into a kind of political chaos from totally unregulated capitalism, but this is only a backdrop. I just never quite believed in either the characters or the situation.

Recommended tepidly.

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?

I probably like this book far better than it deserves; if so, it's because I imprinted on Heinlein's stuff during my formative years. At any rate, this novel is based on a terrific concept but suffers from flawed execution.

The concept: Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is ooooold. Oooooooooold. He's going to die soon. But he's also rich, and he wants to spend a huge chunk of his fortune having his brain transplanted into a younger body. This he does. ('Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . . ')

Well, the joke's on him. The body -- as he learns after the transplant is performed -- is not only female, it's the body of his beloved secretary Eunice Branca (who was killed in a mugging that conveniently left her in brain-transplantable condition, and who conveniently happened to have the very same rare blood type as old Smith). So Johann has to learn how to be female, and also has to get over feeling just terrible about taking over Eunice's body.

Ah, but the lucky fellow gets some help. Turns out Eunice's body is still inhabited by Eunice -- or maybe Smith is hallucinating her (perhaps as her body rejects the transplant?). Or maybe it doesn't matter which; reality is slippery that way. (' . . . I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.')

_Great_ concept. The idea alone is worthy of a Hugo.

Unfortunately, Hugos aren't given for ideas; they're given for execution. And the execution here is troubled.

Heinlein suffered from life-threatening peritonitis during this period of his life, and his wife Virginia had to help him out with the editing on this one. At that, Heinlein claimed to have trimmed the draft MS by some ungodly number of thousands of words, and the result is _still_ sort of saggy in places. Like, between the covers.

There are minor indications throughout that this isn't Heinlein's best-thought-out work. Here's my personal favorite example: when Johann, in Eunice's body, decides on a name, he suggests using 'Joan' but giving it the 'two-syllable pronunciation'. Apparently the author forgot that his character was _speaking_ the name, so that her listeners (who were not reading the text but hearing her speak) would _hear_ the two syllables; what they wouldn't know was how she intended to _spell_ it. (And what, by the way, would have been wrong with spelling it 'Joanne'? Then we wouldn't have had to worry about reader-vs.-listener at all, and I wouldn't have to keep reminding myself all the way through the blinkin' book that it's _not_ pronounced 'Jone'.)

Lots of the content is very dated, too. And it's not very realistic to imagine Joan Eunice spreadin' 'em for every big strong han'some male who treats her nice. (Including attorneys and judges, who might have had some ethical issues here. And please don't email me any lawyer jokes on the subject; believe me, I've heard 'em.)

But there's still lots of cool stuff. The dialogue (especially the _internal_ dialogue, of which there is naturally a long ton) is about as well handled as it could be. Eunice's 'stenodesk', allowing for time and fictional extrapolation, sure looks a lot like a modern desktop computer (in about the way that D.B. Davis's 'Drafting Dan' looked like a CAD system). There's also what must be one of SF's very first sympathetic fictional portraits of a same-sex couple -- and, lurking in the background, some references (in 1970!) to what is clearly the Internet.

So I still rate this one as a rewarding read (and in fact do reread it every now and again myself). It's not Heinlein's best; it's not even his second-tier material -- but it's still pretty darned good.

It's just not _great_. And that's too bad, because I'd have loved to see what Heinlein could have done with this concept had he been at the top of his game.

This book was absolutely horrible. The very beginning was interesting, especially when Johann was still Johann and being a real head-strong individual. After that, the book was total crap. It turned into a dialogue about who kissed whom, why it was done, whether or not it was good, whether or not Johann-Eunice should have sex with one person or another, and on and on and on. Then toward the ending, Jake arrives in their head with no reasoning or justification whatsoever. The final thing that tore it for me was the exchange of Joan with the beaurocrat who reviews her entrance to Luna. The whole thing about her parting with him as "friends" and getting her good-bye kiss just made me absolutely ill. This book's ideas became boring and repetitive real fast, and it turned into a sappy-crappy romance novel.

Considering Heinlein is best known for Stranger in a Strange Land (which I have not read), which is about a man who teaches the world about love, I was shocked to find that Heinlein seems to have the sexual maturity of a 13 year old. Interactions between the sexes in his books are incredibly awkward and unrealistic, and I usually find his female characters somewhat insulting to the sex. So you can imagine how strange and convoluted this book is. Aside from being hard-boiled, corny, and shallow, it is also incredibly boring. I gave up on it about two-thirds through, and I HATE not finishing a book. After being (almost) equally disappointed in Starship Troopers, I really don't know if I have the patience to give this supposed Grandmaster another chance.

Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is filthy rich and about 90 years old. He arranges to have his brain transplanted into a younger body when he goes. It just happens that the body is that of his gorgeous female secretary, Eunice. So, now he has to learn to be female... and it also just so happens that Eunice still kind of inhabits her body and the two of them have really great conversations. Okay. Interesting idea. I could not read more than half of this. I found the dialogue stilted and awkward. I kept thinking, people don't really talk like this! I couldn't keep my disbelief suspended. And, by the way, Eunice acts like men wish women would, but few do. Really unbelievable and disgusting. Lots of adult topics explored. Not impressed.

Heinlein's classic story about an elderly, wealthy man whose brain is transplanted into the body of a beautiful woman skewers gender roles, corporate and legal power, art and more. Although written decades ago, Heinlien's shrewd knowledge of human nature brings these characters to life in a fascinating story; as with vintage SF some "predictions" are hit and miss, but a society in which the "haves" use armored vehicles, bodyguards and fortified homes, and many "have nots" are forced to live in dangerous, lawless "abandoned areas" still rings true today, as does the fact that the brilliant transplant surgeon (an Australian) works only in China, where the government's disdain for human life and thirst for innovation provides him with "patients" to practice the procedure. The philisophical "mind/body" problem is amusingly explored as well. A great read!

This novel has an interesting premise. An extremely rich old man doesn't want to die. He pays to have his brain transplanted into someone else's body before he dies. He discovers very much to his surprise that his brain is transplanted into the body of a young woman. The novel is the story of his adaptation to being in a woman's body. If you're looking for a unique book, this is the book to read.

I'm sorry, but this is just not Heinein Sci-fi. However, as any true Heinlein devotee realzes, heilein is not a conventional sci-fi writer. With this novel he escapes the bounds of his boyscout adventure books and leads the reader to an expostion of the human soul, and of course, another of his favorite themes, love. How can anyone like Stranger or any of the Lazerous Long stories without enjoying the rollops into love? My own copy of this book is older than myself, and held together only be a ribbon (or 8), this book is a comfort, a joy, a vacation and something to think about.

I read this book years ago. I loved it I still remember the tale of the old man who wanted to live on in another body and it just so happened that his aide died her brain destroyed. The book seemed to focus on the memory of her body even though his brain was in her body. The book was thought provoking and interesting.

This was awful. I gave it 2 stars cuz it RAH - but this was a one star book. The characters were unlikely and had motivations that were obscure and at least to me, seemed unlikely.
There were still a few chuckles to be had, and a passage or two had me thinking it may turn aroud and get good, it just never happened.

This was largely a soapbox piece. It was hard to believe how far left RAH ended up after how far right he started out, but this was a clear indication of the hippy / free love impact in his later wrtings. Gotta make you pretty sure RAH and his wife were swingers, though I have never read anything to lend that credence, just reading this book makes me think so.

If you arent a hardcore fan, skip this one.

If the idea of human brain transplantation intrigues you, especially the transplant of an old male brain into the body of a voluptuous young woman, give this book a try. Otherwise, forget it. I estimate, very roughly, that the book is 20% decent SF, 40% average storytelling and character development, 30% psycho-sexual babble, and 10% very soft porn, titilatiing, but not explicit. Some of the brain's internal babbling did get annoyingly repetitive, e.g., "I did X while your grandmother was still a virgin." I wonder if Heinlein was well enough to edit this story to his satisfaction before he died. I also wonder if he had originally intended a sequel to take place on the Moon; the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying.

This book is somewhat odd, and really, not that good. Heinlein's main character here is an old man, and he is transplanted into a young woman's body, and learns to experience things from the female perspective.

So, bits about the difference between the sexes and how they look at and thing about things, as some of her consciousness is still there.

This novel starts out with an intriguing concept - that a rich man get his brain transplanted into a young body - but becomes a Heinlein exploration of tittilating sexuality to poke the reader. When I first read it in the'70s I thought it ws OK, but on re-reading it, NOT SO MUCH.

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.

I am a huge Heinlein fan and have read and re-read most of his books. This book feels off center, more like a failed attempt by another author (who was a Heinlein fan themselves) than a Heinlein. A real bummer of a time slogging through this one.

This book examined gender issues and the ethics of quality of life versus extension long before it became topics in the modern news. Not to speak of the introduction of such topics as 'body paint' being clothing, etc. A long time favorite novel of mine, it rates up there with Stranger in a Strange Land and Fear No Evil. This not your early Heinlein, it is an adult book, and in many ways it is not an 'easy' book, and as such may have thrown some readers for a different take. A must read.

Feel free to include me on the list of those who liked the premise of the book much better than the book itself. Instead of being a thought-provoking examination of gender roles and sexual identity, this comes across as one of those self-indulgent (i.e. boring) letters to Penthouse Forum...without the details. The interminable dialogues about clothing (or lack thereof), along with those of which characters haven't had dalliances were nearly excruciating. And let's not even get started on the cloying conversations between the two main characters; simply gag-inducing.

I've long been a fan of RAH's work, but this one left me extremely unsatisfied (no pun intended).

Heinlein is a great author. When he sits back and tells a story, he's one of the best. I've read a couple dozen of his books and enjoyed them all, to varying degrees. Except for one.

I Will Fear No Evil is not just Heinlein's worst. It's one of the worst books I've ever had the misfortune to read.

The problem isn't that there's no action, although there isn't. The problem is that there isn't any kind of substance to replace it. There's lots of sex, but not in enough detail to be pornographic. I read this in high school, and Heinlein somehow managed to make an adolescent male bored of hearing about sex. That feat is probably the only impressive feature of this book. There isn't a love story either; you can't have romance or sexual tension when your characters will sleep with anyone and everyone for any reason. There's not much conflict or plot of any kind. The book just rambles aimlessly until it ends.

I suppose Heinlein was trying for an examination of gender roles and sexual identity, but if so he failed miserably. You'll get no insight on those topics here. You'd probably do better pondering them on your own. The characters in this book aren't just from a different culture, they aren't people at all. They're poor cardboard cut-outs of people. There are other books that do a better job of exploring gender. Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin is a good one.

I Will Fear No Evil reads like an old man's rambling personal fantasies. Someone must like it, but I can't recommend it even to the most devoted Heinlein fans. If you're tempted, do yourself a favor and re-read Stranger In A Strange Land instead.

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.

I read this book in the late 70's. My now husband turned me on to Robert Heinlein and I thanked him after reading this! I'm not much of a SciFi fan but this is an exception to the rule for me. It has become one of my top 10 favorites. Great concept, fast read and one I've enjoyed reading more than once (a rare thing for me).

Basically, this is about an old guy who gets his brain transplanted into a womanm then he/she loves everyone and has sex with everyone. Near the end, she decides she wants to sleep with the several thousand people who have immigrated to the moon. There are about 50 good pages among the 517, the rest are just awful. Nothing happens. His other books are MUCH better.

I wanted to title my review "Ramblings of a dirty old man" but couldn't because that would have been plagerism! Speaking of bad writing, this is it! This is the worst book that I have ever not finished. The constant sex theme is easy to analyse when the main character is old and impotent - like the author maybe?

Heinlein did acknowledge the existance of someone/thing higher in this one. Maybe that was another idea that crept in in old age...

This may be interesting to people interested in transgender, but I wouldn't know because I am not. The idea is not new either, what man has not wanted to think like a woman for a day? But to do that I can read Friday. I remember liking that...

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.

Let me begin by saying I love Heinlein books. This one, however, stinks. The idea of the brain transplant, although silly, is exciting yet Heinlein really bombs by not developing a real plot around the character. The result is a painfully long story of sexual awakening.

I absolutely loved this book. I've read it 3 or 4 times and find new things in it every time. One of the most appealing things about it though is that it was written in the 60's and set in the time period that we are living though. It shows that people can predict the future.

Usually when a novel is this bad and fails to engage me, I put it down and don't return to it. I felt I needed to finish this one for 2 reasons: I never finished "Stranger in a Strange Land" and I thought it might be going somewhere. It turns out the plot device is merely a vehicle to allow Heinlein to imagine how he'd act if he had boobs and a vagina. About halfway through, the novel merely becomes a series of hook-ups although none of them ever go into enough detail to be racy or titillating. The entire premise is about as sophisticated as a man trolling a sexy internet chat site masquerading as a woman. I'd recommend finding another use of your time.

I love Heinlein and have read everything of his that I could find, but I could not even finish this book.

It is the story of a very sick old man who has his brain transplanted into the body of his hot young body-painted female secretary. Part of her consciousness remains and the two of them go on a grand romp seducing other very old men. Heinlein himself was very ill when he wrote this novel and it reads like pure wish fulfillment.

He wrote so many amazing books, there is no need to waste your time with this one.