3.5 stars

This was such a wild ride. It was given to me by a friend’s boyfriend because I told him I liked sci-fi and had never read Heinlein. I had no idea what to expect and even if he had given me a brief synopsis I would have still been surprised.

I was raised by two Atheists, both raised religious in different Christian faiths. My brother and I were always encouraged to develop our own ideas about the universe but I was certainly influenced by my parent’s lack of belief (I refused to say the word “God” during the pledge of allegiance because it didn’t feel right). We went to church a few times as a cultural experience and to please my grandparents but I didn’t absorb very much. I’ve always felt like I don’t know quite as much about Christianity specifically as I should, living where I do and having the education that I have.

This book was one hell of a way to intrigue me into the bizarre world of believers. I plan to crack open the King James Bible for the first time. I have been meaning to read it - it’s an important text no matter what God you pray to - but I’ve never been enthusiastic about it. I don’t have positive associations with Bible readers.

Heinlein interrogates the complexity of belief along with the power of love. This novel, despite its many worlds, twists and turns literally throughout the universe, is ultimately about what we would do, could do for love. Love in many forms: faith, loyalty, perseverance, lust, patience.

I appreciated the humor, the self awareness, and the creativity of the story. I know that a lot of it went over my head but I’m hoping that King James will help me out with that. I don’t think that I’m headed for any major religious revelations, but I hope to understand a little bit more of what makes the world around me tick the way that it does.

This book is apparently an attempt by Heinlein to write a satire. He apparently modeled the gist of it after the Book of Job in the Bible [where God and Satan make a ‘wager’ of sorts about whether or not Job would curse God if everything was taken away from him]. It strongly reminded me of ‘the mark of the beast,’ except that this book was much ‘cleaner’ than ‘the mark.’ I can see how this would fit into his ‘world as myth’ motif that he enjoyed so much later in life. This was one of the last books that Heinlein wrote before he passed away; it is definitely written in the later stages of his life.

I guess it had a decent flow to it. It is kind of funny, but for as much stuff that ‘happened’ in the book it sure seemed like not a lot happened. Reality was constantly changing around Alex and Margrethe; every couple of chapters they would find that the world around them had changed. Perhaps it was because of the constant reality changes, but the book seemed to be long and boring just before it reached the last 1/4th [or so] of the book. For instance, at one point, the reality changes were described in two-to-three paragraphs like a bizarre stream-lined cliff notes version. I did not really care about Alex or Margrethe as characters in this story; in fact, I did not really care about any of the characters.

This was my third reading of the book. I am on a ‘Heinlein kick’ right now; unfortunately, most of what I have read has been his drivel-filled garbage from the ‘unbound’ period of his life. This, in my opinion, was one of the better books written during that period [and that truly is not saying much]. The first time I read this book was on the recommendation of a friend. We attended a small private school, and I saw the world in terms of ‘black and white’; there was very little gray area in my opinions. So I hated this book; I saw very little, if any, humor in it. I was easily offended by it [especially the blasphemous last third of the book]. I was shocked a bolt from the blue did not strike me dead by the time I had finished it. Hahahah Yeah, it had me quaking in my boots with indignant anger! The second time I read it was in early college [a few years later]. I read it on a whim, to see if it was as bad as I remembered. It was. So now it has been over twenty years since I last read it. This third time around, I actually ‘enjoyed’ it more than the previous two times. Regardless of the extent to which I ‘enjoyed’ it this time, the blasphemous ending was still a bit much for me. I realize it is an attempted satire, but it was still blasphemous.

The good: did it have anything good in it? Hmmmmmmmm……some, yes. I did enjoy the changing-reality. Regardless of my views of Heinlein’s later books, the man was a genius in building new worlds as well as parallel worlds for his characters to travel through. He did a nice job with his building of multiple worlds in this novel. Perhaps it is because I am married now, but I actually got a large chunk of the humor that went over my head in high school and early college.

Two favorite lines: the first was when Alex was demanding Saint Peter the Apostle to tell him [Alex] how to go to Hell. Just the way it was phrased in the book had me in stitches; I am not sure why. The other was the ‘old joke’ about the secretary staying late ‘in case something came up in the night.’ Yeah, I never caught that one before now. It was pretty funny.

I also appreciated how it did not have the excessive amount of bitter diatribes and voluminous garbage-laden writings spewing forth about how horrible certain values are and how far man has fallen [in Heinlein’s arrogant opinion] while he brags about his own created Utopia where he can indulge in any decadent, sinful, wicked, horrific, aberrant, abominable, unsatisfying sexual experience with which he can devise. There are a couple of times when he begins to head into familiar territory of didactic crap, but he manages to reel it in so that it is not so overwhelmingly horrific. I also appreciated how ‘clean’ this novel was in how Alex’s and Margrethe’s relationship was presented; Heinlein did not seem to feel the need to pour in his usual filth-ladened fantasies about pederasty, rape, adultery, promiscuity, incest, bigamy, polygamy, fornication, or whatever other act of perverted sex he could devise.

The bad? Well, he did have to make his allusions to pederasty, pedophilia, and incest, all of which was completely unnecessary. He does have Alex rationalizing his adultery with Margrethe. The characters all seemed flat and lacking any kind of substance. It was almost like he was just going through the numbers to crank out a book due to contractual obligations. The blasphemy at the end was a bit much; I am not jaded enough to be able to enjoy any of that. I did not care for the twisting of Scripture to fit whatever mold in which Heinlein was trying to cast the story. Alex waking up with a female demon in his bed was a bit much [especially as he continually tried to remind himself how much he loved Margrethe while being unfaithful to her during his time in Hell]. It seemed slow, and long, and nothing really seemed to matter in terms of the story. Oh, I am sure what they did did matter in the end [as the book indicates], but it was so doggone BORING!

I realize it was a satire, so some of the blasphemy and Scripture-twisting probably goes with the territory. I just felt like Heinlein crossed some lines he did not need to cross in the book. He does make some interesting arguments, I guess, in the book. Interesting might be too generous; he was proposing answers to arguments that really did not mean a hill of beans to anybody.

The number of demons’ names who lived in Alex’s community at the end of the book was a bit much, too. I did not care for it. I felt he could have used other names; however, he did have some creative spellings to semantically identify the names of the demons he was using.

I did find it interesting that Alex was able to acknowledge that while God always promises to answer our prayers, He does not promise to always give us the answer that we want. So true, and so easily forgotten by so many people.

I swear, but I am positive I read his description on how teenagers should be kept [fed through bung holes until the parents decided to either free them or kill them] in one or two other stories previously written. It was very familiar to me!

I thought Alex’s stating that Margrethe was ‘good’ was pretty funny [so perhaps it was meant as satire?] considering she was knowingly engaged in illicit sexual liaisons with Alec Graham and she continued in this behavior after Alexander took Alec’s place. She knew he was married yet she continued to have sex with him. So perhaps that was meant to be a part of the satire – how he knew he was committing adultery, so he rationalized it away by deciding to accept bigamy/polygamy as many of the Patriarchs were also bigamists/polygamists.

I could not help but wonder if Rick Riordan modeled his Pluto after Heinlein’s Lucifer. Both characters initially appear as scary demonic beings; this is only one part of their appearance. They also appear as normal, everyday-humans if they so desire. Reading Heinlein’s description of Lucifer when he was in his ‘demonic’ mode really made me think of that scene in ‘the lightning thief’ where Pluto invades Camp Half-Blood and issues his challenge to Percy.

He does a horrifically great job of describing a Heaven in which nobody would want to live. It is almost funny how lousy Heaven would be if it were as described by Heinlein. Angels are the top dog, followed by saints as the ‘middle class’, and everybody else being the lowest of the three castes. I think Heinlein was going for some humor while describing Alex’s time in Heaven, but it fell short of what I think he may have intended. I did chuckle over the ‘unofficial’ motto of Heaven: Rank Hath Its Privileges. So he has introduced racism in Heaven! That is going to stink for some people!

So, yeah, the end was a bit of a shock  what with Yahweh and Jerry being brothers, Yahweh has made a bargain with Loki because Jerry did not want to ‘play’ with his brother any more, and Loki and Odin appear to be brothers as well. All four of these ‘minor’ deities are subservient to an even more powerful deity introduced as ‘Mr. Koschei’  the first time I read it and was the primary reason I was expecting a bolt from the blue. I could not figure out if Heinlein was trying to make some kind of bizarre statement in this, or if he was just thumbing his nose at Christians in general.

Kinda funny how much I ‘wrote’ for a book I did not care much for. I have to admit, I think I enjoyed it the most this time around, in spite of the blasphemy and what not.

Heinlein's take on the biblical story of Job is a little less biblically based and a lot more fantastically oriented. That said, it is quite an interesting story, with a double share of twists and turns, and throughout it all you're rather unsure exactly where Heinlein is going.

The more religious minded might be rather offended at Heinlein's theological inversion of good and bad. I think this would be a tragedy, because the wide range of religions interwoven here it seems quite obvious this is not his version of the way things might be, but just a very creative exploration of "what if...?" What if you were just an unlucky pawn in a game between two really powerful players? What if they turned out to not be the most powerful? What if they were themselves not to high on the cosmic food chain? Where would that put you?

Heinlein has never been lacking the creativity department, and in places I think he pretty much let it run wild in this book. All said, the theology is blatantly non-scriptural, and in places, anti-christian. It is quite an interesting read, just don't pick it up with the wrong expectations of what you're getting into.

-Con la excusa de las realidades paralelas, crítica de muchas cosas.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción (con mucho de Narrativa Fantástica).

Lo que nos cuenta. Durante una excursión en crucero por la Polinesia, Alexander Hergensheimer, predicador protestante ordenado en los Hermanos del Apocalipsis de la Iglesia Cristiana de la Única Verdad, se desmaya mientras atraviesa con los pies descalzos una zona de fuego tal y como hacen los indígenas locales. Cuando se recupera, descubrirá que ahora se llama Alec Graham y que el mundo en el que está no es exactamente igual que el que conocía ni por su historia ni por sus adelantos tecnológicos. Pero una serie de acontecimientos catastróficos hacen que, acompañado de una mujer llamada Margrethe, vaya conociendo otras realidades con diferentes peculiaridades mientras empieza a sentir que fuerzas más allá de su control, divinas para ser exactos, están detrás de todo y que es posible que el Fin de los Días esté cerca.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

A comedy of justice, true in every sense of the word. Job is the riveting tale of dimensional travel and exciting circumstance to test the limit of your imagination and perception of our world. Knowing that the book is set in a non-standard universe from the very beginning helps in clearing up your thoughts for the thought provoking look at a human’s spirituality. The book itself is beautifully written, every page being exciting as well as moving the plot along.
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Job could be considered one of the best novels from Heinlein for its look at the cosmos and organization of the divine. “Nobody's ever been this far up before” sums up one of the few unique looks on religious endeavors. The only considerably bad parts of this book would be the preachy nature the characters can draw into at times. But other than that, this novel is worth reading for anybody who can question their own divine entities.

*** 2024 reread -

Job: A Comedy of Justice was first published in 1984 and received nominations for the Hugo and Nebula awards and won the 1985 Locus award for Best Fantasy novel. Even though it received such high praise, it is still not one of his better known works. My hypothesis on this subject is that it is both a latter book, far afield from his heyday in the 60s, and it is of a subject unique to his canon.

Bob was of course first and foremost a science fiction writer. He is literally a Grandmaster in this genre and is one of the best selling and most highly recognized authors that field ever produced. Fans will recognize his purely fantasy effort in 1963’s Glory Road, and then we come to Job.

If I had a metaphorical label maker and I spelled out what could be a fitting placard to slap on this book I would say SF - FANTASY - COMEDY - RELIGION.

There’s a lot going on.

From the SciFi side of the house we have a multiverse adventure like no other as Heinlein has crafted a retelling of the Biblical story of Job, where the cosmic pawns don’t just lose fortunes but whole universes as they are chased amongst different versions of 1994 coming up to the Rapture.

It is here, about two thirds of the way into the book, that Heinlein pressed the nitro button and kicks it into MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE mode for the final third and it is quite the wild ride.

What we have going on between the lines, something Heinlein did better and better as his writing matured, is a philosophical and theological exploration of a great variety of subjects like piety, religion, decency, relationships, family, psychology, mythology, and on and on. A careful reader will also see some clever puns, ironies and lots of humor.

This is a funny book. Fans of his 1961 classic Stranger in a Strange Land will recall the wonderfully satirical Fosterites and Bob outdid himself with some of the world building going on here.

Fun, sexy, playful, irreverent, blasphemous, thought provoking, and satisfying this may be advanced Heinlein reading but very much worth the time.

Sorry, Heinlein. Haven't you already said all this in Stranger In A Strange Land? Although you've included many profound issues to ponder, you've yet again delivered them through your highly opinionated surrogates who to my jaded and cynical 21st century mind are in many ways hopelessly out of touch with reality.
By throwing most of Western theology in to the story and then giving it an unevenly sophisticated treatment I find it hard to give much credence to your arguments. The idea that Heaven would be a place of infinite boredom and Hell as much exciting and fulfilling are humorous literary devices, but can't be used to construct serious discussions of religious concepts.
Some fun ideas, but weak story and not all that much 'fun'. I finished it, but only just.

Heinlein is undoubtedly the writer most responsible for forming many of my views and my general outlook on life.

I remember the feelings I had after finishing Citizen of the Galaxy as a young boy, and how, even today, the song Wayfaring Stranger can evoke those emotions.

I remember how, after receiving my parents' and the school librarian's permission, I was allowed to check out and read Stranger In A Strange Land from the public library and wandered around for months afterward with a head full of concepts and ideas I couldn't fully process but which stayed with me nonetheless.

I remember the thrill of finding someone else who'd read Heinlein and shared the enthusiasm and hopefulness for the human race his writing engendered.

I remember hearing the news of his death and, rather than being saddened, I was grateful for having found his writing and respectful of a life well spent.

And I remember buying this book as a young college student, seeing it on my bookshelf for many years, knowing the general premise of the story and even the characters' names, but for the life of me I could not remember reading the book.

A recent discovery of a similarly-themed book by another writer (the first of many, I hope) brought back those memories, but when I went to find the book to re-read it, I could not. Fortunately, Amazon quickly made that a non-issue.

The book is certainly dated in its mores and social views, as one would expect from an author who was born at the beginning of the twentieth century. That said, it's a comic tour de force that hearkens back to Clemens and Cabell. It's also a sardonic meditation on religion in general and, specifically, on fundamentalist Protestant sects.

After consuming several Spider Robinson books, I felt it was necessary to explore some of Heinlein's work finally. I decided upon Job: a comedy of Justice because it was recommended by a friend. I loved it. I can totaly see where Spider Robinson has been influenced greatly by this writer.

I will be going into some more of his work soon.

wow! almost finished , 25 pages to go. how did I never hear if this book before?

This one was a surprise. I really enjoyed the biblical aspects and the main character's journey. It's similar to the concept in Ground Hog Day except every time this character goes to sleep, his reality changes. He soon realizes what is going on and comes up with strategies to hang onto what little money and clothing he can grab. It doesn't work thus he becomes like Job. He loses everything but somehow he keeps his faith. He meets a woman he comes to love but he's married so that's a problem. He left his wife in some long ago place that he can't return to but he is not a man who takes marriage lightly. His memories of his wife clearly show she was not a loving person but she legitimately held the title of 'wife'. The woman he meets early on is pretty much a pagan so that's a problem too. But she is all he has and she goes through the trials and tribulations by his side without complaint.

I can honestly say that I haven't read anything like this. I was lifted up by the faith of the would-be Job. I could never have done it and not cursed the cosmos. The ending was a little messy and it felt like gaining the comedic edge cost something but it wasn't a deal breaker. The fantasy aspect was subtle in that each world shift was mostly historical timeline, world leaders, and religious beliefs. There were variations on the bible within each culture. The power of the church shifted but it was forever present.

This is a standalone novel which testifies to Mr. Heinlein's talent. I will be happy to read his work again.

In someways I think my journey to this book will always outlast the book itself.

When I was seventeen I told my boss I would read this book, that had been so influential to his young catholic school life. It was one of only two gallon sized bags worth of objects prized from my worst car wreck in my early twenties. It has been the lasting joke of a decade. Whether I had finally read it.

And this late winter, in the year I will turn 29, he sent me a second copy. It is pristine, and not as tender warming as the one that slowly is trying to die, but its very much still in this house with me. (And both copies likely find it queer, I read it on my Kindle instead of through either of them.)




I am not sure I liked this novel. It is slow and plodding, and it does not do details and relationships the way my favorite books do. But it was quite compelling, and I was involved with the point of the novel by about the one-third mark.

I can see very much why it changed his life when it did, though at 29, I can see why it seems for granted to me, with all my life has had in it. I'm not sure I'd rec it to others, but I'm certain I would still love to talk about it with people. And thus I will leave you the quote that will stay with me forever, too:





"Is this Texas, then, or Hell?"

"Well. That's all really a matter of opinion."