- Paperback: 672 pages
- Publisher: McArthur & Co / Hodder Trade (Aug 1 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 034093834X
- ISBN-13: 978-0340938348
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 4.4 x 19.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 422 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (453 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #487,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.
The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60's to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
From Library Journal
In 1939 Heinlein published his first sf short story and became one of the most prolific and influential authors in the genre. Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) is an international best seller and a landmark in more ways than one: it opened the trade best sellers lists to sf writers, breaking down longstanding barriers that will never be seen again. At the same time Stranger became an emblem of the 1960s generation in its iconoclasm and free-love themes. Telling the story of an Earth baby raised by an existing, ancient Martian civilization, the novel often reads as if it were the "Playboy Philosophy" in dialog form. The man/ Martian comes to Earth and broadcasts his ideas by forming his own Church. Heinlein has been rightly criticized for presenting as facts his opinions, which state that organized religion is a sham, authority is generally stupid, young women are all the same, and the common individual is alternately an independent, Ayn Randian-producing genius and the dull-witted part of an ignorant and will-less mob. Yet the book is hard to put down; in its early pages it is a truly masterful sf story. Every library with a fiction collection should have it. Christopher Hurt reads with authority, nicely drawing the characters via barely perceptible changes in intonation, harshness, and pacing. Highly recommended.?Don Wismer, Office of the Secretary of State, Augusta, Me.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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First Sentence
ONCE UPON a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
ONCE UPON a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pompous demagoguery of the highest order.,
By Sutenhotep Mobius (St Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stranger in a Strange Land (Mass Market Paperback)
A novel that begins with the promise of cultural exploration instead quickly devolves into heavy-handed philosophical prolesthetizing masquerading as social commentary. In typical Heinlein fashion, the author thinly veils the outright declaration of his hedonistic and anti-theistic views in stilted dialogue. Furthermore, he characterizes any and all viewpoints that contradict his own as "narrow-minded" and "opressive" while pretending to be an open-minded champion of free inquiry. One might argue that this book is worth reading because of the impact it made upon the hippie culture of its day; I would remind such a person that Chairman Mao also made a significant impact on hippie culture.Though this book serves as a good example of the bloated, sophomoric philisophical tracts that posed as science fiction throughout much of the sixties, I would not reccomend it to anyone looking for good reading. It is pompous, long-winded, morally backward, intellectually deficient, and eminently dull. A monumental waste of time.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dull, dull, dull and stupid,
By P. Lopez "Futurologist" (Monterrey, Mexico) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stranger in a Strange Land (Mass Market Paperback)
I can't believe I managed to finish reading this tripe. Basically as others have said, the first half was an intriguing idea. The second half however shows what a simplistic world view Heinlein had.The Plot: Basically martian man begins a Scientology/Branch Davidians cuasi-socialist-cult where everybody melts into one entity and becomes happy by freeing their mind and having sex, lots of sex. Who gives a (blip) anyway. All this is explained in long-winded conversations where one idiot makes a comment only to be refuted by an all wise sage, and the sage is never wrong. Boring, boring, boring as hell. If Heinlein had any sense of irony he would have seen that martian man's cult was utter stupidity and would have made fun of it in the last half. Don't buy this book, get something that matters.
1.0 out of 5 stars
I grok this book sucks . . .,
By Loudon Is A Fool (PLANO, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stranger in a Strange Land (Mass Market Paperback)
and waiting for fullness won't make it any better. The problem is not merely the pedantic, libertarian, psuedo-intellectual, and mysogynistic man qua Heinlein character of Jubal Harshaw. Nor is is it merely Stranger's naive serial/lady-killer protagonist, Michael Valentine Smith. In fact, it's difficult to pinpoint precisely where Stranger goes wrong because there is nary a single aspect of the book that is not either, at worst, offensive and obscene or, at best, fundamentally misguided. Beneath Smith's Sebastian Flyte pretty-boy exterior beats the heart of a fascist. And somehow Smith's fascism (fully endorsed by the crotchety Harshaw/Heinlein) fits perfectly with Harshaw's/Heinlein's professed libertarianism. How can this be, you ask? Because Harshaw/Heinlein believes that libertarianism is only a good thing when he is not the gov't. But with the reigns of power in his own hands he will gladly rule over every aspect of his citizens' lives with militaristic gusto. This fundamental inconsistency apparent everywhere in Stranger seems to result from the author's belief that the value of a human person is determined solely by what benefits he can provide for the collective (where "collective" means Smith/Harshaw/Heinlein). Stranger rejects the notion that each human person has an intrinsic dignity. People are worth what they produce, period. Smart people are worth more than dumb people, pretty people worth more than ugly, the talented worth more than the untalented, and the people who agree with Smith/Harshaw/Heinlein worth more than the rest of humanity combined. Consequently, it is ok for Smith to kill a dissenter, because in that dissenter there is a "wrongness." And it's ok for Smith to hop from bed to bed and objectify every woman he meets, because pleasing Smith is a "goodness." It frightens me that so many people find this book profound. I can only pray that they really don't understand the novel and just think that it would be groovy to live in a world where shy nerds can become all-powerful magnets of pneumatic women.
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