This book was my second trip down Heinlein lane. I figured that if I didn't like Number, I'd be sure to like Stranger, his most renowned book.

It was, well, all right.

The story's about a human born on Mars, raised by Martians, and then brought to Earth, and introduced to the general society. He begins to game the system for an epic win, and learns a valuable lesson or two along the way. Also, he can do things like levitate, transport, and "push" things into nonexistence (don't tell Newton!).

It was entertaining, for the most part, except I find that I really, really dislike Heinlein's dialogue. It's too... dated. I have no problem, though with his contemporaries, like Asimov or Herbert. But for some reason, the voices of his characters just annoy the heck out of me.

Also, this book, as well as Number seemed to push some idyllic notion of free love and communism/socialism, like the song "Imagine," only with a Martian. I felt like I was reading The Jungle, with a sci-fi twist. "What's this? Meat packing. Okay! Wait a minute! Why is it all about socialism now?"

This was the deal-breaker for me and Heinlein, and I must say, I agree with Michael Moorcock on this one, that authors should leave their authoritarian ideals out of their stories, ruining perfectly good novels with a repeated reader's head-bashing of one viewpoint or another (though, with respect to Moorcock's essay entitled "Starship Stormtroopers," I must say that for as racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic as Lovecraft was, at least his work is somewhat interesting).

So, my verdict: Heinlein is not for me. Also, Moorcock knows what he's talking about. ( )

This book was good until Heinlein started trying to accomplish his goal in writing it. That's pretty sad.

Stick to Starship Troopers.

Though with the amount time Mike spends naked in this book, I wouldn't mind another Casper van Dien adaptation.

http://dustandspores.blogspot.com/200... ( )

This tale about a Gnostic sect in the near future was influenced by Thelema, and has been a major influence on American counter-culture. When I first read it (at the age of 12 or so), it provided my first nominal encounter with Aleister Crowley and The Book of the Law, mentioned when the protagonist is doing research in comparative religion.

Legend has it that this book was composed after a three-way wager among Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and Jack Parsons, regarding which of them could invent the most successful religion. Did Jack spill the beans to Heinlein on certain secret practices of O.T.O.? It's hard for an initiate to read this book and doubt it.

Heinleins’s Stranger is a Strange Land is a fascinating commentary on our society. Although many of the specifics have changed since the sixties the underlying criticism of our society is as valid as it was almost 50 years ago.

The stranger is a human child who is raised by Martians, stranded on Mars after his space exploring parents die. He is found by a second expedition to Mars and brought back to an earth he has never known. As an outsider he presents a unique viewpoint of our society. Mike, the man from Mars, spends a great deal of time tying to understand religion. Seen from the outside it does not mater what religion you look at they are all the same; each claims to be the only true church. Their theologies contradict and attach each other and collectively have been the cause of more death and pain than any other force in history.

Many have criticized this book as being dated. In a way I disagree. Saying a book is dated implies it is not relevant. While the characters and situations do reflect the society during which the story was written, the message of the book is as valid today as it was when Heinlein wrote it. In the sixties women were still thought of as secondary citizens. That was changing but the predominant thinking was that women belonged in the home raising children, cleaning the house and cooking dinner for a man who brought home the money. This portrayal of women may not be valid today, but little has changed. Today many think of Hispanics as second-class citizens. Heinlein’s criticism of how we treat certain segments of society stands just as ugly today as it did then.

The portrayal of the government in Mike’s world is an accurate reflection of how our own. It is made up of people looking out for their own interests and willing to do anything to obtain the subject of their desires.

While Heinlein’s writing style does not have action pact adventure on every page there are thought provoking and insightful views of our world. ( )

What is appealing about Stranger in a Strange Land is contained within the title. Simply, a man raised on Mars comes to Earth and learns what it means to be human. First however, he must escape the clutches of government bureaucracy. There's a lot of story in Stranger in a Strange Land, and I'm wary of giving too much away.
Now, in the middle of reading this version of the book, I was admonished for not having picked up the unabridged version. So, please note that these thoughts refer only to the book as in the form of its original publication.
Within the novel, without going into spoilers, Heinlein deconstructs the common codes of Western religion and then ultimately falls prey to them. For example, although the book presents a libertine attitude toward sex and the human body, its praise is reserved only for heterosexuality. In fact, in several passages, characters and narrator outright stigmatize homosexual desires and relationships. In a book so based upon uprooting social conventions, I found its homophobia both undermining and angering.
I'm having a bit of difficulty succintly reviewing this novel, but I'll try to wrap it up here at the end. Stranger in a Strange Land takes a fascinating idea, throws in some readable characters and healthy doses of both cynicism and idealism, and then undoes its earned good will through homophobia and religious cliché. ( )