From: utzoo!decvax!genradbo!linus!security!tfl Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Title: Article-I.D.: security.171 Posted: Thu Feb 17 09:32:31 1983 Received: Mon Feb 21 21:10:27 1983 Well, since someone asked for it, here is a review of "FRIDAY." First, before reviewing, I think it's only fair to list my background and prejudices. This way, those with divergent backgrounds can take my review with a hefty shaker of sodium chloride. As for my taste in SF, I tend to like the whole range from hardware SF to Fantasy, with the exception of hardware stories without characterization (software? firmware? tupperware?), and fantasy without creativity and logic (all those mindless `quest' novels. sheesh!). Thus, my favorite authors tend to be: Heinlein (early), Zelazny, Anderson, Dickson, E.E. Doc Smith, Asimov (in small doses), some deCamp, some Robinson and Haldeman, Kurtz (to some extent), plus the assorted classics by Clarke, Miller, etc. And, yes, I'm one of the few ever to struggle through the entire DAHLGREN (even five years later I'm still trying to decide whether it represents a bold new enterprise or pure crap). Anyway, FRIDAY, I believe, represents the worst in a growing set of Heinlein's vices. No, I don't believe that it represents senility (whatever that is), but it does represent a turning away from the craftsmanship of earlier years. For example, there was a discernable and growing trend from STRANGER to I WILL FEAR NO EVIL to TIME ENOUGH to NUMBER and finally to FRIDAY of including pages and pages of domestic dialogue (chit-chat). As a progression (not quite geometric, I'm afraid), the amount of fluff in the above sequence goes from 1/3 to 2/3 to 7/8 to 8/9 to 2/3 (mild improvement). That is not to say that Heinlein doesn't occasionally shine with a modicum of his old talent in these books. For example, in TIME ENOUGH, the story about the man who was too lazy to fail was pure vintage Heinlein. Perhaps he's been away from the short-story genre too long, and has forgotten how to write terse prose. FRIDAY, though, was a much greater disappointment than NUMBER, because it starts off so well. Without spoiling it for those who haven't yet read it, there is a distinct turning point in the book from fast-paced action, to slow paced and insipid dialogue (look how hard it is to READ a play, which in its written form, is pure dialogue stripped of action and setting). In addition, as one who would love to read an occasional SF story about a liberated female, minus all of the misanthropy of Joanna Russ, I am distressed by the manner in which Heinlein's hero Friday is rapidly turned from a female Doc Savage cum Lensman cum Dorsai etc. into a meek little house frau. Why does so much SF (with some notable exceptions --- no flames here!) either treat women as objects to rescue from BEM's, or else androgynous creatures whose goal in life is to eliminate men as superfluous, and then take off with the girl next door? For those Heinlein freaks with a more literary bent, you might want to take a look at Sinclair Lewis' ELMER GANTRY (very different from the movie) and IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE (can't or won't, I can't remember the title exactly). In these two books you can see where Heinlein gets much of his style, and some of his plots. For example, lots of the stuff from STRANGER seems influenced by ELMER GANTRY, while IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE (ICHH) seems to have had an influence on a number of Heinlein's novels and short stories having to do with a fundamentalist revolution in the U.S. Also his stuff about obnoxious tourists (viz. PODKAYNE, ITS GREAT TO BE BACK, etc.) seems to come right out of Lewis' DODSWORTH. Notes of interest: there is, I believe, a hidden reference to Lewis in one of the first chapters of GLORY ROAD. It says in there something about Oscar Gordon saying that, in spite of all of the complaining by authors of the 20's about the lost generation, that they had it easy compared to the people of the 50's. Also, in ICHH, written only 2-3 years after BRAVE NEW WORLD (and, to my mind, a more realistic possibility than that portrayed in BRAVE NEW WORLD), there is a hidden reference to Huxley. See if you can find it (hint: he's referred to as a nameless british visitor). So, on the Litant Literary Scale (LLS), with 5 stars as the maximum, FRIDAY gets: characterization: ** plot: * creativity: ** eveness: * entertainment: * intellectual stimulation: * See y'all at BOSKONE.