Unusual and entertaining but not that great

I found it to be a nice story. Quite unusual and explored some interesting situations, as is often the case with Heinlein. But it was a bit repetitive and diluted in some ways, so I didn't enjoy it as much as many of his other books.
I guess there were some things to learn from it, e.g. about valuing the time you have and making the most of each day, and valuing each person.

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Not my favourite Heinlein, but a good story anyway

The brain transplant was the most likely event in this story. Mr. Heinlein usually has a TOUCH of possibility in his stories.

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3 people found this helpful

A fabulous revisiting.

First read in my teens, time has not one bit diminished the revisiting of this Heinlein classic. it has stood up to the test of time, it is still futuristic almost 40 years later. Medicine has still to advance so far. The character portrayal was excellent. All the cheek and charm beautifully delivered. if I live another 40 years I will give it another spin.

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1 person found this helpful

Archaic

Some books I can accept were written in less enlightened times but this sexist twaddle is simply awful. Couldn't finish it.

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2 people found this helpful

Inside the mind of a dirty, old flasher

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A pseudo-philosophical study into identity and sexuality, told with the emotional intelligence of Twilight, subtlety of Benny Hill and plotting finesse of a telephone directory; imagined by a dirty old man, gleefully rubbing his thighs.

This book has done for Heinlein what Cop Out did for Bruce Willis - it's so bad, it has cast its miasmic cloud over all other associated works and ruined them a little bit for me. Avoid (also avoid Cop Out).

The premise could have worked and at the very beginning, I had hope. An elderly, dying businessman wants to find a way to escape his hospital existence and since he's also filthy rich, decides to have a bit of fun and puts out an outrageous demand: find a healthy, young body for me to put my brain into.

When his secretary conveniently dies shortly after, his brain is put in her body and the Benny Hill theme tune comes on. It doesn't stop until the very end, by which time we've had hours of internal dialogue between 'the boss' and his secretary (yes, her consciousness somehow survived in her body without her brain in it), sex, talk about sex, 1950s sexist attitudes, competitive promiscuity and worse. There's also an assumption that now that the boss is inside a woman's body, his sexual orientation is automatically female. The topics aren't the problem. It's the way in which they are handled. I suppose you might enjoy reading this if you've always wanted to know what it's like to be inside the head of that man in the park, wearing nothing but an anorak and hoping to expose himself to children at an opportune moment.

What does Anthony Heald bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The performance was great, considering the quality of the book. Having this as an audiobook meant I suffered it through to the end (had it been a physical book, I'd have given up a few chapters in). I don't know whether having spent 19 hours of my life listening to this counts as a bonus, alas.

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4 people found this helpful