\nThe premise is much more intriguing than its execution. The brain of a dying rich old man is transplanted into the body of a young woman who has been murdered. The whole book could delve into the meaning of identity and gender but all it does is talk about sex. I don\u2019t think it ever actually describes anyone having sex (current romance fiction is more explicit). But everyone has sex with everyone and spends a great deal of time saying how jealousy is petty and sex is just good fun. They are so self-conscious about acting unselfconscious that I get the impression they aren\u2019t all that sure of themselves. They seem more juvenile than adult about sex.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe rich old man (Johann) is so rich that he can buy anything he wants and so has no conflict or worries. The young woman (Eunice) is so beautiful, and kind, and sweet, and spunky that no one can deny her anything either. Their amalgam (Joan Eunice) just wants to enjoy her new body and what better way than to share it with everyone from her lawyer, to her nurse, to her bodyguards. And that\u2019s pretty much the last 4\/5ths of the book. I kept waiting for something else, anything else, to happen. \n\u201cIt isn\u2019t the threat of war, or crime in the streets, or corruption in high places, or pesticides, or smog, or \u2018education\u2019 that doesn\u2019t teach: those things are just the symptoms of the underlying cancer\u2026It\u2019s too many people\u2026too many. Seven billion people\u2026.\u201d \u2014 p. 460\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nWe\u2019ll, we\u2019re almost there. As of this moment, the world population is 6,902,295,274. How does our present compare to the book? Fictional Earth in the early 21st Century (according to Wikipedia the year is 2015) is filled with Abandoned Areas and no one dares go outside for fear of being murdered by roaming gangs. Children are tracked and if they don\u2019t pass early tests, they aren\u2019t taught to read. A large portion of the population is illiterate. People must be licensed to have children; however, in America the penalty is just a fine. And so what does Joan Eunice do the very first day she is up and around after brain surgery. She goes and gets artificially inseminated. Because that\u2019s what women want. To be pregnant. That\u2019s what they\u2019re built for. And to be protected by men. And to obey them.\n<\/p>\n \nWhat are the most glaring misses in predicting 2010 from 1970? Heinlein didn\u2019t foresee AIDS and the backlash of religious fundamentalism on his free love ideal. Nor did he understand the women\u2019s movement. For Heinlein, a woman really is just a body and inserting a man\u2019s mind (or Heinlein\u2019s imagination) into it doesn\u2019t make any difference. She remains simply a sexual plaything. Imagined technology is very mechanical (tool-based) and specialized rather than our actual personal, pervasive technology that\u2019s used for entertainment, social connection, and commerce. There is a moon colony but no Internet. There\u2019s the hint of a computer network to come\u2026the idea that everything is in a computer somewhere and can be retrieved with enough money and know-how. In one scene, I couldn\u2019t resist the temptation to reply, \u201cJust Google it!\u201d In Heinlein\u2019s future, people do cook food in microwaves, although they aren\u2019t called that.\n<\/p>\n \nI don\u2019t fault old Science Fiction for not being able to predict the future. I\u2019m just fascinated at what wasn\u2019t even on the radar of the writers in the 1970s. It gives me hope. Maybe 2050 will take a sharp turn into a better future than we seem to be heading toward.\n<\/p>\n \nLastly, I must say that I do find Robert Heinlein\u2019s writing very readable. I read that he advised Niven-Pournelle on The Mote in God\u2019s Eye<\/i> and I can see that. I found Heinlein\u2019s writing to be a level up from Niven-Pournelle. I\u2019m not sure why. I think they had the better story. But reading I Will Fear No Evil<\/i> I didn\u2019t care how silly the story was. I felt I was having a conversation with Robert Heinlein and a very interesting one at that. He does have a way of insinuating his voice into one\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spoilers Ahead The premise is much more intriguing than its execution. The brain of a dying rich old man is transplanted into the body of a young woman who has been murdered. The whole book could delve into the meaning of identity and gender but all it does is talk about sex. I don\u2019t think it ever actually describes anyone having sex (current romance fiction is more explicit). But everyone<\/p>\n
\nLike The Mote in God\u2019s Eye<\/i> and Alexi Panshin\u2019s Rite of Passage<\/i>, the big problem of the future as seen from the 1970s is overpopulation.\n<\/p>\n