Book Review: I WIll Fear No Evil

http://www.scottbradford.us/2004/01/10/heinlein-robert-a-i-will-fear-no-evil/

This is the second Heinlein book I have read.  I did not find this as enjoyable as the first.  This review above of this book calls me stupid.  It says intelligent people will really enjoy this book.  I guess I am not intelligent because I didn’t really enjoy it that much.  It is about an old man, who has his brain transplanted into the body of his beautiful young secretary (he did not choose her on purpose, but she was murdered by a blow to the head and they shared the same blood type.)  However, when he does finally wake up, because success with this type of thing is not certain, he finds that her thoughts are still with him.

The book is consumed with this internal thought process between the two characters in the brain.  I found the internal talk rather boring.  It was always centered around sex, and how to win this guy or that woman, and whether a woman enjoys sex more or a man. 

Heinlein presents a decadent world, where crime is rampant, and it is hard to remain safe unless you are locked in, or travel in an armored car with many guards.  Women run around naked, or with revealing clothing, and sex dominates much of peoples activities.  Open marriage and threesome and foursomes are the theme of the day.  There is also a colony on the moon, where humanity is hoping for a new start.

One of the first things the new young lady, Joan Eunice does, is impregnate herself with sperm stored from the original Johann Smith.  She then pursues her lawyer, and eventually marries him.  However when he dies of a stroke, we now find there are three voices in this brain, that of the husband, the host who donated the body, and the original brain.  It is too much to fathom.

Book Review: Puppet Masters

This is a Robert A. Heinlein book published in 1951, originally as a serial.  This is my first time reading a Heinlein book.  Dean Meservy mentioned him and Facebook.
Sam and Mary are called in by the “Old Man.”  The Old Man is the head of a spy agency, outside of the CIA and traditional agencies.  He makes it clear that Mary is much more important than Sam on the mission.  They are headed to Iowa to investigate a UFO sighting, which has some suspicious things around it in that after a few hours local authorities said it was just a prank, but several agents have disappeared, who had gone to investigate.
They find the cover-up, but more importantly they find a group of people whose minds are being controlled by parasitical alien slugs on their backs.  They get out of there, and report to the president. 
At first no one believes the story told to them.  However, the spy agency is very wary.  The Old Man is very wary, and orders everyone to strip down so they can make sure there are no slugs among them.  The Old Man’s secretary is last to undress, and she is carrying a slug.  Sam pursues her to not let her get away, capture her if he can, but get the slug at all costs.  However, the slug attaches itself to Sam, who instantly becomes an agent for the aliens.
He gets away, and joins a group in converting a country club, with many prominent people to the slug way of thinking.  He is recaptured by the "Old Man." The agency tries to get information from him.  Finally, they attach a living slug to him, so they can interview the slug.  This experience is terrifying, but they get enough information to determine origin, a moon of Saturn.
Sam and Mary take a break a break from the agency.  They have fallen for each other.   They marry and head to Sam’s cabin.  However the world goes to pot in the mean time.  More and more areas are infected.  Finally there is an attack on Mary.  Sam pushes her into the fire to get the slug off.  They both get burned, but are free of the slug.  They hurry back to head quarters, and are invited to a battle surrounding an alien spaceship which has been captured.  The Old Man leads Mary into the ship.  Sam goes as protector.  They see people suspended in fluid.  They hope that this will trigger memories for Mary as she had previously been a captive, and suspended for over ten years.  She had escaped when the slugs died of a disease.  She did not die.  They need this information to know what to use against the slugs.  What will kill the slugs but not kill the human host.
This leads to a last big battle to kill the slugs.
This book though written in 1951, and taking place in the early part of this century, captures some aspects very well.  In some things we are more advanced, (cell phones and satellite t.v.) while others we are less advanced (flying cars lazer guns).  An interesting side light is steps taken to curb the spread of the infection—going around naked or with hardly any clothing.  However they also spread through animals, which changes the game.  So even controlling the slugs, are you ever really safe?  For this reason an expedition is sent to Saturn.
This poem was quoted at the end.  I sort of like it:
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
  And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.