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kirkreads's review
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
loper100's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A very middle of the road fantasy trying very hard to be in the style of Twain but bogged down in juvenile sex humor.
hawkeyegough's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book is somewhat difficult to review without giving away major spoilers, so I'll try to keep this one brief:
Job: A Comedy of Justice gives the reader a lot to think about regarding some big-picture concepts on the nature of existence, organized religion, persistence, and what happiness means. There is also some interesting world-hopping that takes place. Heinlein had a vision and he managed to do a great job of laying out very specific, researched examples of the point he was trying to make. I will not expound on my interpretation of his point here as I will admit that I think my lack of religious context made some of it go over my head. I also will refrain with the intent of not providing a pretty serious spoiler, as mentioned previously. There are several twists at different stages of the book, and while I anticipated one or two, many caught me off-guard in a good way. I think these twists were well thought-out by the author and were probably one of my favorite aspects of the book.
I'm mostly familiar with Heinlein through his sci-fi offerings, which this is not. I'm not sure how I'd describe this book, but there's definitely a touch of philosophy and even some parables involved. The main thrust of the plot appears to be a reinterpretation of the book of Job from the Bible. While I found some parts of this dragged on and were not pleasant to read, the author turned out to have a purpose for most (if not all) his diversions and uncomfortable scenarios in which he places the reader. While I am not intimately familiar with the original book of Job, this seems like a fairly rigorous adaptation, with most of the finer points present in some form or another.
I had some issues with this book as well, which hurt my rating of it. Namely, some of the coarser elements of the book didn't appear to be intentional. This book was written approximately 40 years ago, but the main character uses phrases and epithets that do not seem acceptable even in the '80s. Many aspects of this book were included to intentionally make the reader uncomfortable, but the author repeatedly uses slurs and derogatory phrases that don't seem like they were included in this intentional discomfort. This was distracting at the least and made me less inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt. Additionally, the pacing was not great at times. I tend to have trouble with books that feel like they're dragging without a real purpose to slow down the momentum. A good example of slower pacing that I'm OK with is the Chronicles of Amber. Zelazny's Amber has a very slow pace, to the point that my reading also slows down significantly. But this is acceptable to me because Zelazny is seamlessly fitting lots of intricate details together in a way that the reader doesn't even notice (in my case) until significantly later when the author tied things together. This is incredibly satisfying and (again, in my case) made all the slow pacing worth it. I learned to expect and even enjoy this in later installments. In Job: A Comedy of Justice, however, there is a large portion of the book that is almost painfully repetitive. Without giving too much away, some of this is redeemed later, but in the moment it's excruciating at times. It occurs to me that this, too may be intentional. But it's not fun to read. Finally, I can't help mentioning this: the description of the traffic lights. Goodness, this was painful. The main character spends what feels like 50 pages (I'm sure it was more like 4) describing stoplights to the reader. This was written in 1984, when I'm sure the vast majority of the readers have seen at least one traffic light per day for many years. I get that the character himself is enamored with this technology, but again, this is not fun to read.
Not every book is intended to be fun to read, but if they're going to go down that path I expect a lot more payoff than I got. That being said, Heinlein has his typical descriptive flair and big brain ideas, which saved this book for me. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to other than big fans of Heinlein who want to complete his works, but I'm sure some deeply philosophical folks would enjoy a spin with this book as well so they can analyze the hell out of it (pun intended). Overall, this is a very confusing book for me to say whether or not I liked, but it definitely has some meat to chew over and some thought-provoking passages.
Job: A Comedy of Justice gives the reader a lot to think about regarding some big-picture concepts on the nature of existence, organized religion, persistence, and what happiness means. There is also some interesting world-hopping that takes place. Heinlein had a vision and he managed to do a great job of laying out very specific, researched examples of the point he was trying to make. I will not expound on my interpretation of his point here as I will admit that I think my lack of religious context made some of it go over my head. I also will refrain with the intent of not providing a pretty serious spoiler, as mentioned previously. There are several twists at different stages of the book, and while I anticipated one or two, many caught me off-guard in a good way. I think these twists were well thought-out by the author and were probably one of my favorite aspects of the book.
I'm mostly familiar with Heinlein through his sci-fi offerings, which this is not. I'm not sure how I'd describe this book, but there's definitely a touch of philosophy and even some parables involved. The main thrust of the plot appears to be a reinterpretation of the book of Job from the Bible. While I found some parts of this dragged on and were not pleasant to read, the author turned out to have a purpose for most (if not all) his diversions and uncomfortable scenarios in which he places the reader. While I am not intimately familiar with the original book of Job, this seems like a fairly rigorous adaptation, with most of the finer points present in some form or another.
I had some issues with this book as well, which hurt my rating of it. Namely, some of the coarser elements of the book didn't appear to be intentional. This book was written approximately 40 years ago, but the main character uses phrases and epithets that do not seem acceptable even in the '80s. Many aspects of this book were included to intentionally make the reader uncomfortable, but the author repeatedly uses slurs and derogatory phrases that don't seem like they were included in this intentional discomfort. This was distracting at the least and made me less inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt. Additionally, the pacing was not great at times. I tend to have trouble with books that feel like they're dragging without a real purpose to slow down the momentum. A good example of slower pacing that I'm OK with is the Chronicles of Amber. Zelazny's Amber has a very slow pace, to the point that my reading also slows down significantly. But this is acceptable to me because Zelazny is seamlessly fitting lots of intricate details together in a way that the reader doesn't even notice (in my case) until significantly later when the author tied things together. This is incredibly satisfying and (again, in my case) made all the slow pacing worth it. I learned to expect and even enjoy this in later installments. In Job: A Comedy of Justice, however, there is a large portion of the book that is almost painfully repetitive. Without giving too much away, some of this is redeemed later, but in the moment it's excruciating at times. It occurs to me that this, too may be intentional. But it's not fun to read. Finally, I can't help mentioning this: the description of the traffic lights. Goodness, this was painful. The main character spends what feels like 50 pages (I'm sure it was more like 4) describing stoplights to the reader. This was written in 1984, when I'm sure the vast majority of the readers have seen at least one traffic light per day for many years. I get that the character himself is enamored with this technology, but again, this is not fun to read.
Not every book is intended to be fun to read, but if they're going to go down that path I expect a lot more payoff than I got. That being said, Heinlein has his typical descriptive flair and big brain ideas, which saved this book for me. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to other than big fans of Heinlein who want to complete his works, but I'm sure some deeply philosophical folks would enjoy a spin with this book as well so they can analyze the hell out of it (pun intended). Overall, this is a very confusing book for me to say whether or not I liked, but it definitely has some meat to chew over and some thought-provoking passages.
spitzig's review
3.0
REALLY disappointing. I'd heard good reviews of this book and I like religious ideas in fiction. So, I was hopeful.
The SF content wasn't impressive. Alternate universe hopping-only not very interesting hops. The visits to heaven and hell were a little interesting.
The religious content was REALLY weak. Basically, yeah, Job was treated like crap by God(indirectly, by having the Devil do the work). The original story was FAR better done. One interesting thing, because of the perspective. I don't know what religion Heinlein was, but he WASN'T a fundamentalist Christian. He used the main character to play the "Devil's Advocate" though. Also, it's strange to say the "Devil's Advocate" is the person supporting the side of fundamentalist Christianity. Overall, the book is pretty critical of Christianity, though. At least a literal/fundamentalist interpretation.
As for his characters, Heinlein's characters are pretty much the same as always. Lots of idealizing their romantic partners. Heinlein always seems like a teenager talking about "oh-so subversive" sexual practices. Well, maybe when Heinlein was a teenager, they were. But, at least he doesn't GO ON about the sexual stuff. He brings it up a lot, but stops talking about it relatively quickly. I'd say it's pretty bad if you make sex a boring subject.
I can say this was at least better than Number of the Beast and Fear No Evil. That's not saying much, though, since I'd give them the lowest rating possible.
The SF content wasn't impressive. Alternate universe hopping-only not very interesting hops. The visits to heaven and hell were a little interesting.
The religious content was REALLY weak. Basically, yeah, Job was treated like crap by God(indirectly, by having the Devil do the work). The original story was FAR better done. One interesting thing, because of the perspective. I don't know what religion Heinlein was, but he WASN'T a fundamentalist Christian. He used the main character to play the "Devil's Advocate" though. Also, it's strange to say the "Devil's Advocate" is the person supporting the side of fundamentalist Christianity. Overall, the book is pretty critical of Christianity, though. At least a literal/fundamentalist interpretation.
As for his characters, Heinlein's characters are pretty much the same as always. Lots of idealizing their romantic partners. Heinlein always seems like a teenager talking about "oh-so subversive" sexual practices. Well, maybe when Heinlein was a teenager, they were. But, at least he doesn't GO ON about the sexual stuff. He brings it up a lot, but stops talking about it relatively quickly. I'd say it's pretty bad if you make sex a boring subject.
I can say this was at least better than Number of the Beast and Fear No Evil. That's not saying much, though, since I'd give them the lowest rating possible.
sindri_inn_arsaeli's review against another edition
4.0
Thoroughly enjoyable. The main character is as much of a bigot as one would expect from his background, and a fellow reader in a small book group held this against the book the entire read. But in true saintly fashion, following his understanding of the rules, Alex/Alec does his best to honestly and sincerely save every being he encounters. He is absolutely a bigot, and a racist, and a patriarchal idiot. But present him with a flesh and blood live person, even one who tells him straight up she is a witch, and he truly wants to save them. Not just for following the "rules" and spreading the Word as required, but because he thinks well of the human in front of him and doesn't want them to suffer. He made for a very excellent flawed hero in this way, and gave the writing excellent depth.
I will say, for depth, that Margrethe, his beloved, is not quite flat as a character, but rather more two dimensional than several of the other very vibrant background characters.
Still a good solid read, and I would be confident recommending it.
I will say, for depth, that Margrethe, his beloved, is not quite flat as a character, but rather more two dimensional than several of the other very vibrant background characters.
Still a good solid read, and I would be confident recommending it.
ogreart's review against another edition
5.0
I remember reading this book when it first came out in 1984. It challenged some of my religious concepts and made me think. What a thing for a book to do! This audio version is well done. It took me into the story of this modern-day Job and let me relive the adventure. Heinlein was the master.
tandemjon's review
4.0
A very interesting book, I'm not sure it's a classic but I enjoyed watching our hero change throughout his adventures. I think it was a bit formulaic at times and the characters were from a 1950's Doris Day school of conversation but that made it easier to see the change in their values and worked quite well.
cassie_grace's review
4.0
Loved it. One of Heinlein's stronger late period works, from what I've read. It's a parody or retelling of the Book of Job from the Job's point of view. Not literally, though. It's got dimension hopping, alternate history, airships, gods, and devils.
rocketiza's review
2.0
As much as I love Heinlein, his books focusing on religion are almost unreadable they are so awful.