This reviewer must be a Millennial... reasoning? Only one of that generation is so disconnected from History or it's flow and changes would get so hung up on the sex thing.. Also our intrepid reviewer spouting the old slur against RAH being a male chauvinist pig just shows the lack of reading that this literary critic has done. Again the Critic shows his Millennial limitations on understanding those who have come before by painting RAH with the misogynist label. That is so far from the truth I will use only 2 examples to blow it away.. The Rolling Stones- Not only is the Grandmother An Engineer she also takes over writing a serial her son (the Man of the spaceship) was tired of. Oh yes and the Son's Wife is a Doctor. That book for the record was published in 1952! For a writer to have a Woman Doctor in that year is impressive to have a Woman as a Chief Engineer was at that time sacrilege. So get your pork elsewhere RAH was a firm believer in Women's rights but with an honest view that tips it's hat to evolution in that most men are stronger than most women and etc etc for other areas where it's not a matter of training or whatnot just biological facts.. RAH was as quick to point out women's advantages in endurance and other areas. A more enlightened view than the militant Feminists who will admit no area of male superiority.
I will admit is that this book is not one of my Favorite Heinlein books. That being said the simplistic comparison of this book to Stranger in a Strange Land shows that the Reviewer couldn't grasp the concept of either book. Simply put in this book Heinlein carried the direction of our culture in the 1960's forward but forward as if the entire aids situation never happened.. hey it's his alternate future he's allowed to keep or delete what he wants. He does keep the decline of the American educational system extended to the point where a High School graduate can still be illiterate (seen a Fast Food Cash register lately?) In view of our Millennial's short years and minute experience I'll put this gently Son until you've experienced a crippling injury or condition don't go talking about something you've no way of knowing and not enough empathy to feel. I will Fear no Evil can be looked at in one or two ways... One you accept the Central Character's position of sharing body and brain with first one and then a second person our character is in love with. From that perspective you will either accept a person given options at end of life. The second way to read the book is almost as a cautionary tale of a rich old man's wish and the horror of the sacrifice his beloved secretary made to grant that wish.. his subsequent decent into a congenial madness, joined by his best friend and his secretary's lover who also cannot accept the death of a vital young woman and their brief marriage with a further collapse of the main character's psyche following the death of "her" Husband.. As for all the sex which following RAH's morals is almost painfully pg.. from almost any angle it's a fantasy from the male perspective that began the first time a woman admitted to a man that not only could they out perfom him but were multi-orgasmic to boot! I put it to you that if either brain transplant's could be done with the 100% recovery the main Character seems to have or if a man could make a true transformation to a woman's body that the amount of sex those changing would indulge in would make what was shown here pale by comparison..
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I will admit is that this book is not one of my Favorite Heinlein books. That being said the simplistic comparison of this book to Stranger in a Strange Land shows that the Reviewer couldn't grasp the concept of either book.
Simply put in this book Heinlein carried the direction of our culture in the 1960's forward but forward as if the entire aids situation never happened.. hey it's his alternate future he's allowed to keep or delete what he wants. He does keep the decline of the American educational system extended to the point where a High School graduate can still be illiterate (seen a Fast Food Cash register lately?) In view of our Millennial's short years and minute experience I'll put this gently Son until you've experienced a crippling injury or condition don't go talking about something you've no way of knowing and not enough empathy to feel. I will Fear no Evil can be looked at in one or two ways... One you accept the Central Character's position of sharing body and brain with first one and then a second person our character is in love with. From that perspective you will either accept a person given options at end of life. The second way to read the book is almost as a cautionary tale of a rich old man's wish and the horror of the sacrifice his beloved secretary made to grant that wish.. his subsequent decent into a congenial madness, joined by his best friend and his secretary's lover who also cannot accept the death of a vital young woman and their brief marriage with a further collapse of the main character's psyche following the death of "her" Husband..
As for all the sex which following RAH's morals is almost painfully pg.. from almost any angle it's a fantasy from the male perspective that began the first time a woman admitted to a man that not only could they out perfom him but were multi-orgasmic to boot! I put it to you that if either brain transplant's could be done with the 100% recovery the main Character seems to have or if a man could make a true transformation to a woman's body that the amount of sex those changing would indulge in would make what was shown here pale by comparison..