science fiction

Friday - Robert A. Heinlein Book Review

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"Friday"
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Review Summary
This a story of a young woman who is an artificial person existing under the wing of Mac. It also asks the question of whom is real, whom is not, and whom has the right to live. Like the Repicants of Phillip K Dick's Blade Runner, Miss Friday is an artificial person. Unlike the above mentioned replicants, she is organic, with a strange navel. As she smuggles her way through life, she yearns to be real, much to the annoyance of Mac who arranged her reality check so she could traipse in and out without notice. It seems humans can tolerate artificial life forms only if they don't resemble any thing human, for obvious reasons. If and artificial person were say afflicted with downs syndrome, there would be no point in building one. And there lies the problem. If you have intellegence a couple of standard deviations above the norm, you're competeing with every naturally evolved human for function. No one needs to create more competition. If you're artificial and a universal soldier type, you would be viewed as dangerous. The ending, however, seemed anticlimactic, with Miss Friday living out her days in bucolic bliss with her daughter, Wendy, awaiting grandchildren. Though, that seems pleasant enough, it really means that she was unable to find acceptance, that acceptance contingeant upon her being in some sort of witness protection program. Sad End.
NeonMercury, Resident Scholar

Friday is strong, smart, and sexy; a secret courier who lives in a world of violence and intrigue; and an "Artificial Person," or genetically engineered human, in a post-USA America that doesn't allow APs even the most basic rights. Friday finds herself smack in the middle of a baffling political and corporate power struggle--first she is imprisoned, then is offered training as an assassin, and is finally chased off-planet to an unsure fate. Over the course of the novel, she seeks acceptance by family, friends, and co-workers, suffering betrayals where she least expects them and receiving help from the most surprising sources.
Joy F., Resident Scholar

She is a strong woman, who was engineered from the best genes to be a courier in the future.. She is smart, fast and can fight superbly...
Lisa Oliver, Resident Scholar

This is the story of secret agent Friday, an "artificial person" created in a lab. She suffers prejudice because of her status and doesn't get nearly as much sex as a Heinlein character would otherwise. Finally she goes on one mission too many and has to make a quick getaway before she cut up into pork chops.
Steve, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of Friday
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Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 30%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%




Tone of book - cynical or dry-wit
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Spying & Investigations Yes
What is main char. doing? - spying/espionage in enemy territorry
Story involving clones/duplicates? - good clones/duplicates
Lifeform altered? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Clones Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Female
Profession/status: - spy
Age: - 20's-30's
Has magical/special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character: - is very quick
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.

Setting
Terrain - Desert - Water - Mountains - Forests
Earth setting: - medium future 22-24th century - current (early 21st century)
Spaceship setting: - futuristic human freighter/transport
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - none/very little science jargon needed
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only - descript of kissing - rape/molest (yeech!)
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Friday
Agent Five by Jeffrey L. Malenfant
The Widowmaker by Mike Resnick
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Spin State by Chris Moriarty
The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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