I Will Fear No Evil [Mass Market Paperback]

I probably like this book far better than it deserves; if so, it's because I imprinted on Heinlein's stuff during my formative years. At any rate, this novel is based on a terrific concept but suffers from flawed execution.

The concept: Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is ooooold. Oooooooooold. He's going to die soon. But he's also rich, and he wants to spend a huge chunk of his fortune having his brain transplanted into a younger body. This he does. ('Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . . ')

Well, the joke's on him. The body -- as he learns after the transplant is performed -- is not only female, it's the body of his beloved secretary Eunice Branca (who was killed in a mugging that conveniently left her in brain-transplantable condition, and who conveniently happened to have the very same rare blood type as old Smith). So Johann has to learn how to be female, and also has to get over feeling just terrible about taking over Eunice's body.

Ah, but the lucky fellow gets some help. Turns out Eunice's body is still inhabited by Eunice -- or maybe Smith is hallucinating her (perhaps as her body rejects the transplant?). Or maybe it doesn't matter which; reality is slippery that way. (' . . . I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.')

_Great_ concept. The idea alone is worthy of a Hugo.

Unfortunately, Hugos aren't given for ideas; they're given for execution. And the execution here is troubled.

Heinlein suffered from life-threatening peritonitis during this period of his life, and his wife Virginia had to help him out with the editing on this one. At that, Heinlein claimed to have trimmed the draft MS by some ungodly number of thousands of words, and the result is _still_ sort of saggy in places. Like, between the covers.

There are minor indications throughout that this isn't Heinlein's best-thought-out work. Here's my personal favorite example: when Johann, in Eunice's body, decides on a name, he suggests using 'Joan' but giving it the 'two-syllable pronunciation'. Apparently the author forgot that his character was _speaking_ the name, so that her listeners (who were not reading the text but hearing her speak) would _hear_ the two syllables; what they wouldn't know was how she intended to _spell_ it. (And what, by the way, would have been wrong with spelling it 'Joanne'? Then we wouldn't have had to worry about reader-vs.-listener at all, and I wouldn't have to keep reminding myself all the way through the blinkin' book that it's _not_ pronounced 'Jone'.)

Lots of the content is very dated, too. And it's not very realistic to imagine Joan Eunice spreadin' 'em for every big strong han'some male who treats her nice. (Including attorneys and judges, who might have had some ethical issues here. And please don't email me any lawyer jokes on the subject; believe me, I've heard 'em.)

But there's still lots of cool stuff. The dialogue (especially the _internal_ dialogue, of which there is naturally a long ton) is about as well handled as it could be. Eunice's 'stenodesk', allowing for time and fictional extrapolation, sure looks a lot like a modern desktop computer (in about the way that D.B. Davis's 'Drafting Dan' looked like a CAD system). There's also what must be one of SF's very first sympathetic fictional portraits of a same-sex couple.

So I still rate this one as a rewarding read (and in fact do reread it every now and again myself). It's not Heinlein's best; it's not even his second-tier material -- but it's still pretty darned good.

It's just not _great_. And that's too bad, because I'd have loved to see what Heinlein could have done with this concept had he been at the top of his game.

"I Will Fear No Evil" by Robert Heinlen is a dramatically woven story of the potential pros and cons of performing brain transplants. Johann Smith, the main character, is a man who is extremely wealthy but only has a limited time left to live on earth. In the story Mr. Smith mentions that he constantly heard the saying "You Can't Take It With You." He was determined to get around that phrase by undergoing a brain transplant with a willing and healthy body between 20-40 years old. He ends up unexpectedly having a brain transplant with Eunice Branca. Mr. Smith is very familiar with her because she was his favorite secretary. The only reason why I gave this story only three stars is due to the fact that I was expecting more spontaneous action plot elements similar to what are seen in the Star Trek and Star Wars movies. This book is more for those who are looking for a book that is centered around the conversation dialogue of characters describing their feelings on life and what they are going to do.

Before we get into things, let's deal with the most common complaint regarding the book. Yes, it is sexist, anachronistic, and often patently offensive in it's portrayal of BOTH genders. It's also a book that was first published in 1970, and is the work of a man who began writing science fiction as early as 1939. Critiquing Heinlein for not being properly progressive regarding women 40 years ago is like lambasting Mark Twain for not being politically correct regarding race 135 years ago.

Anyway, the book introduces us to Johann, an elderly, crippled, bitter old man who also happens to be exceedingly rich. He knows his body is dying, but his brain is just fine. So, he comes up with the idea of transferring his brain to a new body upon his death. He doesn't actually expect it to work, but figures it's better to waste his money on a sliver of hope than to let his children squabble over it.

Not only does he not expect it to work, but he certainly does not expect to wake up in the body of a woman - specifically, that of Eunice, his beautiful young secretary. Fortunately for Johann, something of Eunice has survived to share her body with him. It's never made clear whether this is her spirit, her memory, or just his imagination, but it serves to jumpstart the plot past the awkwardness you'd expect of a man who is suddenly a woman.

Once the legal/ethical/philosophical issues are dispensed with, much of the book deals with Johann's (now Joan Eunice's) sexual exploits. Again, yes, they're sexist and sometimes crude, but also thoroughly entertaining.

Ultimately, what I took away from the book was an appreciation for the dilemma of sex vs gender vs sexual orientation - what does it means for a man's mind to desire other women (while in a woman's body), or for a woman's body to continue desiring men (while guided by a man's mind).

As I said, it's an interesting book, and one that makes you think. It's not the greatest story every written, but certainly a great concept.