About this title: This 1961 novel, considered to be one of Heinlein's definitive works, was the first science fiction book ever to make the bestseller lists. Valentine Michael Smith, a human child raised on Mars, returns to Earth with psychic powers and a strongly alien outlook. After some difficulties in understanding and acclimating to society, he teaches others ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: ACE Charter
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780441790340ISBN:0441790348
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. wearing on front cover, edges and spine. Inside pages are perfect. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 438 p. Remembering Tomorrow. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass market pb
Publisher: Putnam, New York
Date Published: [1961]
Description: Good. No dust jacket, as issued. Unknown printing. 408 p. 22 cm. Quite a bit of wear although still all in one piece. Reading copy. read more
Edition: Thirty-second Edition
Binding: Good
Publisher: The Berkley Publishing Co, NY
Date Published: 1961
Description: Fair. No Jacket. Paperback Covers show lots of wear, cat sticker to inside front cover, bookstore address stamped to first page, light, small stain to 3 pages, otherwise, pages are clean with no other markings, creases, rips, tears or writing to them. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon
Date Published: 1967
Description: Garrido, Hector. Fair+ 12mo. {001622} Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Illustrated by Hector Garrido. Published by Avon in 1967. MASS MARKET PAPERBACK 12mo Sci-Fi {Book Condition} FAIR+ {Book Condition Details} Cover: rubbing, heavy creasing on Spine, creasing, scuffing, Text: tanning, occasional water staining. {Mini-Review} {Blurb: The most famous science fantasy novel of all time! Hugo Award Winner. Discover the strange and wonderful practice of water-sharing; and if you are ... read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Medallion Books, New York
Date Published: 1973
Description: Good. The story of Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet superhuman in abilities and ignorant of sex as we know it. He shocks the mores of Western culture by attempting to set up a stange and fascinating discipline on Earth: the first step is learning to Grok....Softcover, 414 pp. Moderately worn and creased covers, previous owner's name on first page and rear inside cover, text has yellowed, tight binding. Average reading copy. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: berkley, London
Date Published: 1973
ISBN-13:9780450016905ISBN:0450016900
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Good reading copy. intact and clean. 400p.; 18 cm. Originally published, New York: Putnam, 1961; London: New English Library, 1965. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon
Date Published: 1961
Description: Poor. The spine is intact, the cover is seperating from the spine, from page 1-318 the cover is totally pulled away from the spine. the cover is very worn and creased. This is a reading copy. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Science Fiction & Fantasy Inventory No: 000798. read more
Edition: 13 Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ace Books, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780441790340ISBN:0441790348
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. read more
"I read this book at least thirty years ago. I don't know what triggered my urge to read Heinlein again but I bought 3 of his books from Albris! However, Stranger in a Strange Land will always be one of my favorite S/F stories. It has it all - Martians, space travel, mystery, murder, intrigue, angels, magic! Add a sly slam to organized religion and a beautiful love story and there you have it - something for all ages, gender, reading level..."
"I have only read two of Robert A. Heinlein's books before this one and he is becoming one of my favourite authors. I enjoyed this one, its a good story with some interesting ideas in it. A Man born on Mars and raised by Martians coming to live on Earth, everything being strange and alien to him to start with but with a Martians perspective on life he quickly comes to terms with life on Earth with interesting results, its a great idea and well put across by the author. I've heard that Heinlein is known as right wing (?), Starship Troopers definatly has Fascist undertones while I'd say this one was anarchist. I can understand why it became popular with Hippies and I found some of it a bit dated but don't let this put you off, its still a very good story and I am glad I read it."
"I picked up Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein as part of the Science Fiction & Fantasy book club. I'm always willing to try new books, especially ones out of my typical genre. I borrowed this copy from the library, and it is the uncut version, having 60,000 words that were cut from the original restored.
If it were possible, I would have given this book 3.5 stars. I more than liked it, but I wouldn't say that I really liked it (which seems like a major commitment to me).
*Spoilers may start here*
I loved the first half of the book. In fact, if I could rate the first and second half of the book separately, I would have given the first half five stars. That's how much I loved it. The characters were human, the story moved along nicely and was very interesting.
Heinlein shows his adeptness at writing sci-fi by making technical, complicated things read so very well. I didn't need a quantum physics degree to understand this story at all, nor did I need any kind of advanced training in anything to understand what his gadgets and technical stuff looked like and did. It was all really plain.
The language was a little annoying - grok isn't my favorite word, but I have found myself thinking about the word a little bit. I did, however, LOVE the fact that it seemed very roaring 20's to me. I'm not sure if it was the language, the settings, or what, but it felt like someone had cut the culture of the early 1900's and transplanted them somewhere in the (not so distant, now) future and everything remained fairly intact. Some might find this disturbing, but it appealed to me - I felt very "retro" reading it... or maybe that was just how I filtered it.
After Mike learns of sex, the story went to pot for me. I'm not sure if it was my version or not, but I felt like certain cast members would get pages of soliloquy, about religion, sex, morals, etc. While I have nothing against trying to teach something to your readers, there were parts where I just wanted to shout "enough all ready! Get back to the story!" The worst scene for this (IMO) was when Ben came home from the Nest and was talking to Jubal about it. Jubal went on and on and ON about it. I found the last half of this book to be very much like this (except for maybe the last two chapters). It seems like any time that Heinlein got a chance to "speak" through one of his characters, he did. And excessively, in my opinion. I would love to know what the last half of this book was like in the cut version.
I did find that, for the most part, that Heinlein dealt with sex in good way. I'm not saying that I believe that polyamoury is something I'm interested/believe in, I just thought that he wasn't vulgar or rude. To be honest, he had more sex in his book than some of the urban fantasy type books that I love to read, but it didn't feel like the book was dripping with sex.
So I don't really know what my final verdict on the book is. I truly loved the first have of the book. I think If I could cut scenes out of the second have (the ones where things actually happened, and it wasn't just jibba jabba), I would have loved the whole thing. As the uncut version stands, it's a heck of a lot of preached, balanced by some storytelling."
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