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Aesquire.328 net.sf-lovers utzoo!decvax!harpo!esquire!nrh Mon Apr 26 01:00:42 1982 New Heinlein Novel is Alive and the Same I've just finished reading "Friday", Robert Heinlein's new book (out only in hardcover as yet).

It is better than "The Number of the Beast" -- although the ending again has a rather unlikely set of windfalls for Our Hero.

If you feel Heinlein has become senile, that his characters jump into bed with each other at the drop of a hat, that he's stuck on this idea of women being the controlling sex, then reading this book won't help your opinion of RAH much. You'll find the same old Cranky Genius running things, the same old well-defended-household of the smart folks, the same old superhuman observer who can't understand why people are so hung up about sex. The author is up to the same tricks, done as well as he ever done them.

For myself, I can't criticize -- Who reads what I write? Spider Robinson did an eloquent defense of RAH in Destinies' book column. The praises for "Friday" of Poul Anderson, Frederick Pohl, and Harlan Ellison are quoted on the dust jacket. RAH is hot stuff.

I read the book in two days and enjoyed it. I'm a junkie though -- I fought my way through "The Number of the Beast", and did NOT enjoy it.

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