I also reread Robert Heinlein's 1982 novel Friday.
Published two years before the seminal Neuromancer, Heinlein's novel can be viewed as a sort of ur-cyberpunk, with a protagonist who's an "Artificial Person" and who works as a specialized courier in a world full of megacorporations, prototypical street samurai, hypersonic air travel, and earth-to-orbit beanstalks.
Coming on the heels of re-reading the disorganized mess that was The Number of the Beast, Friday was a relieving return to form by RAH. It's probably the best of his late novels in every respect save one: Plot. See, there really isn't one of those; the narrative basically just follows our protagonist through the chaotic events of her life until (highlight for spoiler) a "Happily Ever After" ending.
The most controversial part of the book happens very early on, still in the opening setup part of the book, when our heroine is captured by a gang of baddies and tortured... which torture includes rape. That scene has been called gratuitous, but I believe that it was influenced by the time when it was written. At the time, the U.S. military academies had just graduated their first classes that included female cadets, and I believe this influenced Heinlein's writing of the novel. He was both pointing out the consequences of the existing trend, and at the same time establishing his protagonist's credentials as a pragmatic badass.
Anyway, the novel held up on the reread and remains one of my faves by RAH. Certainly his best post-The Moon is a Harsh Mistress novel. Recommend.
