I Will Fear No Evil

I Will Fear No Evil is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1970. The plot concerns a wealthy businessman (Johann Sebastian Bach Smith) whose brain is transplanted from his dying elderly body into the young, healthy body of his female secretary (Eunice Branca), who was murdered while on her way to donate blood -- and whose personality continues to co-inhabit the body.

Depending on how you choose to view it, the novel may be read as either a riveting exploration of human relationships and the need to treat our fellow man decently while we're still alive, or as the rambling sexual fantasies of an old man with a brain tumor.

Heinlein also suffered from life-threatening peritonitis while working on this novel, and it is generally believed that his wife Virginia handled much of the editing. Detractors of this novel sometimes invoke Heinlein's overall ill health as a reason for its perceived poor quality. Whatever its quality, the novel is undoubtedly devoted in large measure to internal dialogue between Johann and Eunice.

However, Heinlein the prognosticator scored some hits here. For example, Eunice operates a device called a 'stenodesk' that works quite a bit like a modern personal computer or workstation. (Heinlein's 1957 novel The Door Into Summer similarly envisaged the development of CAD systems, and his 1982 novel Friday (book) portrayed something very like the modern Internet.) The novel is also notable as one of SF's first sympathetic fictional portrayals of a same-sex couple.