Friday by Robert A. Heinlein

One of Heinlein's less critically acclaimed works, Friday is probably Heinlein's only true visionary work...at least from his perspective...this is how Heinlein thought the future will be. And, since its Heinlein, its a scary, scary place.

Friday is the name of the main character, a genetically enhanced, better-than-human test tube baby who, as a young adult, finds herself cut off from all she's ever known and cast adrift into a sea of oh-so-predictable envy, bigotry and fear. She's kicked out of one relationship after another because of what she is, despite of what she has been to the other people involved up to the point of revealing that she's enhanced. At one point she reveals what she is in order to save a family's life from terrorists, and they consequently reject her. She is literally a better person than most of  those she meets.

Are we really so xenophobic that we fear our own gene pool? Heinlein certainly thought that most people are. But as with every Heinlein story, there are the exceptions to basic stupidity that redeem the whole society. Friday fights her way through and while not saving the world in the process, she gives it hope.....sorta.

This is a great story told only as Heinlein could tell it; no holds-barred honesty and insight into the American mainstream culture. And, as it couldn't have been in 1986, this story is suddenly timely and cogent to some of the basic moral dilemmas of our day. Cloning is upon us, and how long will it be until embryonic stem cell research makes the advances in this book all too possible? While this is no Farnham's Freehold, this is a story worth reading over and over...just to make sure you remember.