As an avid fan of Science Fiction over the past two decades or so, it boggles my mind that I haven't read more work from Robert A. Heinlein, one of the forefathers of modern science fiction. Before picking up the old and battered copy of FRIDAY (found on some upper shelf of an obscure used-book store many, many years ago) from one of my book shelves one day earlier this week, the only other book by Heinlein that I'd read was STARSHIP TROOPERS. I have to say, I read it just before the movie came out a few years ago, and wasn't impressed very much by either incarnation.

But, I had just finished some 500 or so page political thriller last weekend and was in the mood for a good old fashioned romp across the galaxy. While scanning my various shelves of "yet-to-be-read" books, I came across FRIDAY. A simple name for a book but written by a name that has long been heralded in science fiction. So, I pulled it out of the stack, turned it over and took a good look at the cover. For some reason, covers have always had a lot to do with whether or not I'm in the mood to read a certain book. This paperback copy of FRIDAY had a gray background and an artist's rendering of a shapely blonde woman on the cover dressed in a simple blue coverall whose front-loading zipper hadn't been zipped up much past her waist. I turned the book over and read the summary on the back...hmmm, sounded interesting so I stuck my bookmark somewhere in the middle pages and began to read.

Now that I'm through, I'm very glad that I did. This is not your normal science fiction adventure, folks. This is the story of Friday, a young lady who has been enhanced. Or, better yet, an Artificial Person (as her kind are known) grown in a lab from a select grouping of only the finest human genes. A mixture concocted to grow a virtual superbeing. She was raised in a creche, kept away from normal society. She was human enough to pass for human in a crowd and even upon close inspection (some very close inspection, most of a romantic nature, during many passages in this book) but was still considered to be a NON-HUMAN BEING, something other, something to be ostracized and not accepted in society.

However that all changed once she was recruited to work as a combat courier. An extraordinary messenger whose cargo always got through. Her amazing speed, brute strength and quick wits made her perfect for this type of job. Having worked for an ultra-secret entity known only as System Enterprises and run by a man she only knew as BOSS, Friday had made a name for herself within the agency and was a well-respected operative.

This story begins as Friday is captured (at great cost to the capturers) by some unknown opponent while returning to base from an assignment and repeatedly raped and tortured in an effort to learn what she knows about her employer. Unfortunately for her enemy, Friday does not know much of the details surrounding her employment (which is by design) and has been trained to withstand such punishment, both mentally and physically. She wakes up some time later in the presence of her BOSS and in some medical institute where she has been rehabbed back to health. She learns that someone is striking out at her employer and trying to get at BOSS in some sort of power move that is yet unclear. Friday is granted a lengthy vacation and she returns "home" to her family, a multi-spouse arrangement that is quite common in this future.

Well now, perhaps I should explain this future a bit...I enjoyed the background information and political "history" that flows throughout this story very much, as I learned of a world in utter turmoil in a future not too far from now. It seems that a cataclysmic event has shattered the world's former political structure, resulting in what has become known as the Balkanization of North America. In Friday's World, the California Confederacy is a country unto itself while the Chicago Imperium occupies still other territory in the former US along with many other nation states. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and many other nations also play a large role in this story, as Friday travels around the globe in her urgent quest to return "home" from vacation after a political emergency has taken place and closed down several national borders.

The story moves along swiftly, with numerous romantic interludes to keep Friday's zest for sexual relations satisfied (male or female or any combination of several of both), and ends up with Friday arranging to travel off Earth on one last courier mission.

Ok, that's as far as I'm going to go right now. If this review has piqued your interest, pick up a copy of Heinlein's FRIDAY and read it for yourself. This isn't one of his better known books by any means but, I figured, if one of his lesser known works can be this entertaining, just imagine how good his well-known books must be? Now I feel comfortable in tackling the many other Heinlein titles that still lay stacked in my "Yet-To-Be-Read" shelves. Books such as STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET and THE PAST THROUGH TOMORROW.

Shall I get started on these sf classics? Won't you join me?