I Will Fear No Evil
| I Will Fear No Evil | |
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 First Edition cover of I Will Fear No Evil |
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| Author(s) | Robert A. Heinlein |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
| Publication date | 1970 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
I Will Fear No Evil is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialised in Galaxy (July, August/September, October/November, December 1970) and published in hardcover in 1970. The title is taken from Psalm 23:4.
Contents |
Plot summary [edit]
The story takes place about 2015 AD against a background of an overpopulated Earth with a violent, dysfunctional society. Elderly billionaire Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is being kept alive through medical support and decides to have his brain transplanted into a new body. He advertises an offer of a million dollars for the donation of a body from a brain-dead patient. Smith omits to place any restriction on the sex of the donor, so when his beautiful young female secretary, Eunice Branca, is murdered, her body is used. He changes his name to Joan Eunice Smith.
Eunice's personality continues to co-inhabit the body and they can communicate. They agree never to reveal her continued being, fearing that they would be judged insane and locked up. Smith's identity is unsuccessfully challenged by his descendants, who hope to inherit his fortune. Smith and Eunice decide to have a baby together and so she is artificially inseminated using Smith's sperm from the sperm bank. Smith explores her new sexuality at length. She goes to visit Eunice's widower, Joe Branca, to try and help reconcile him to what has happened.
Smith marries her lawyer, Jake Salomon, and moves her household and friends onto a boat. Jake has a heart attack and dies but his personality joins Smith and Eunice in Smith's head. She emigrates to the moon to find a better future for her child. Once there, her body starts to reject her transplanted brain. She dies during childbirth.
Note: the story also includes usage of the phrase "classic rock" ten years prior to the first classic rock station broadcast.
Writing [edit]
Heinlein suffered from life-threatening peritonitis after completing the first draft of this novel. He remained ill for the next two years and it is thought to have been published without his usual editing and polish.[1]
Editions [edit]
- January 1970, Putnam, hardcover, ISBN 0-399-10460-7
- Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-06820-X
- Penguin Putnam, paperback, ISBN 0-425-02321-4
- 1971, Berkley, paperback, first printing edition, ISBN 0-425-02085-1
- January 1975, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-02806-2
- November 1975, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-03099-7
- October 1976, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-03425-9
- September 15, 1980, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04386-X
- January 1982, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-05613-9
- December 15, 1982, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-06171-X
- February 1983, MacMillan, 401 pages, ISBN 0-8398-2449-1
- May 1984, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-07508-7
- July 1985, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-08680-1
- July 1986, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-09554-1
- September 1, 1990, Ace, paperback reissue edition, 512 pages, ISBN 0-441-35917-5
References [edit]
- ^ Silver, David. "An Angry Fabulist's Expression of "Rejection Syndrome"". Retrieved 22 January 2013.
