jenk | I Will Fear No Evil

Paul Constant, the book critic for The Stranger (possibly NSFW*), is reading Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil on a bet. He is titling this Book Club of the Damned* on The Stranger's blog.

His summary of the first 122 pages, including spoilers & study questions, are here*. He writes:

I’ve read Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers, so Heinlein’s not a new experience for me, but this reads like atrophied Heinlein, as though he’s trying to write like a young man and failing miserably. This almost works with the ideas that the novel is trying to encompass, but I have a feeling it’s not going to seem appropriate for that much longer.

For anyone who cares, I have read I Will Fear No Evil. (And Starship Troopers and The Door into Summer and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Friday and Double Star and The Rolling Stones and Job and The Number of the Beast and Glory Road and more besides.) I don't think No Evil is Heinlein's best but I don't think it's his worst, either.

*The Stranger is an "edgy" weekly. In particular some of the personal ads on the right-hand side of the page would be problematic at many workplaces.