Stranger in a Strange Land

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but needs editing
Review: The book was interesting in the beginning but the ramblingabout religion, government and philosopy gets extremely annoying andboring. I found myself skipping pages just to help advance the story. In the middle, I lost the plot and found Smith's transformation into a religious messiah to be unbelievable and ridiculous. It happen suddenly and without a solid explanation. In one paragraph, he was his normal Martian self, then he found sex and suddenly he is on the path to becoming a free-loving, sex craze messiah. It seems more plausible for Smith to reject physical contact with people because his Martian education focus more on mental development. Heinlein was not convincing enough in the second half to get a good rating. After all, a great story must have all its subplots tied in with the main plot. The events in the beginning of the story do not support nor explain the occurrences in the end. It needs editing and a more concise plot line! Skim the beginning and skip the rest.

Rating:
Summary: A delightful, and contradictory, sci-fi classic
Review: If you have read Frank Herbert's "Dune," you will probably find that this novel by Robert Heinlein is very similar. Both revolve around Messiantic characters who upheave the societites they live in. However, Heinlein's novel is more lighthearted and humanizing than the often cold and aloof style of "Dune." Many people have commented on the odd medley of beliefs in Heinlein's novel: he espouses open sexuality, communism, nudism, and religious tolerance, but compares women to "cherished housepets," and rails against the "wrongness" and "tragic inbetweenness" of homosexuality. His views may seem contradictory, but after all, it was written in 1961, when America was breaking away from old beliefs and struggling for a new identity - a time, in other words, of many contradictions. "Stranger in a Strange Land" simply reflects this transition from the family values and Red Scares of the Fifties to the Flower Power of the Sixties. Everybody, conservative or liberal, will find something in this book that is personally offensive. Read it anyway. It is a fascinating tale and an inciteful allegory.

Rating:
Summary: A great, insightful book. If you ignore it's sexist views
Review: This book was a great page turner, but at times it made me cringe... because of its blatant sexism -- relegating all female characters to sexy secretaries, who can cook. And some homophobia was also sprinkled throught the ending of the book ("Mike would grok it as bad" -- if a guy tried to make love to him). In such an inspiring book of free love and the powers of the individual, its dated views in some respects brought me down. But nonetheless I recommend it. It is one of the best sci fi books I've read.

Rating:
Summary: we are all strangers
Review: Heinlein's novel about a foreigner, in every aspect, who comes to Earth from distant Mars and discovers both the joys and the sorrows of humanity is incredible. The plot takes the reader on a journey into the very depths of what makes us human. Philosophy, religion, sexuality, interpersonal relationships, love and more are explored down to the most minute detail. This book almost acts as a mirror into which the reader finds themselves looking after reading this masterpiece of contradiction of meanings and persecution of the truth. It is a pool of water that reflects all the horrid and majestic aspects of how man functions, a pool of which we must all drink deeply. Like no other, Heinlein ventures through the very fabric of human society and the cause of human emotions. Never will you examine your fellow humans so closely after reading this, and you never may again. I grok that you yourself will drink of the water, but not now. Waiting will fill.

Rating:
Summary: The best book I have EVER read
Review: This is a book that I think everyone should read at some point during their life.

This book accomplishes the primary goal of any book, it will make you think. Sex, religion, philosophy, love, and social taboos are all in this book, and new points of view are given to the reader on each of these. This book is an adventure of the mind, the characters may not seem realistic, but the ideas are as real as night and day.

The end result; this book may offend you, but if it does, it is because you are unable to defend yourself against Heinlein's ideas, and you needed to hear these things anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing like I thought it would be
Review: I liked the first half and hated the second half. Jubal Harshaw was brilliant but after a while he just became a tool to preach Heinlein's philosophies. Even though I agreed with most of what the author said, I don't like to be preached at and especially when it's disguised as a story.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, dated, and pretentious
Review: Do not mistake this book for hard science fiction, or even scince fiction. It is completely unrealistic and fanciful. People behave the way Heinlein needs them to behave to reach the conclusion of the story, not the way people actually behave. This book is better described as allegory. And as allegory it stinks. It is a simplistic fantasy about how everyone could be happy (and rich) if they joined a hippy cult, had sex all the time, and used words like "Grok." This story wrapped up with a pointless Christ metaphor (which might be meant to be taken litterly rather than as a metaphor since at the end of the book it is impied that the cetral character Michael is Michael the archangel which some fringe Christian groups believe to be Jesus Christ. After all it is a fantsy book.) Oh and there's catholic bashing, women bashing ("whever a women is raped it's partially her fault" is uttered by one of his FEMALE characters), and gay bashing. My advice is to avoid this so called classic. Many people love this book, but I have no idea why.

Rating:
Summary: any book i don't put down...
Review: must captivate interest seeing as i have intense a.d.d. there is a reason why heinlein got the hugo in 1962 and this is why. the book takes a main character thru changes while having the scene transform and other characters conform themselves to be more like the main character. an interesting technique...i even found myself pattern myself after micheal in months following. but then i settled down back into being an individual again. true heinlein's writing style rambles but as i once read "hard writing means good reading."

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Any SF Reader
Review: I won't go so far as to say that this is the greatest work of fiction ever written - it is not. It suffers on several counts, not least of which is that it marks the real beginning of Heinlein's later descent into rambling on at too great a length propounding on the benefits of free love at the expense of gripping storytelling.

That said, it nevertheless earns 5 stars not just for its well-deserved place near the top of the SF pantheon of 'must reads' but on its merits. This is no mere rayguns-and-aliens space opera and as such it was, in and of itself, also a contributor to a fundamental shift in the nature of all SF published afterward. I don't think it's going to far to say that this book reshaped the genre permanently.

One thing is certain: If you haven't read this book - or much of what Heinlein wrote after - it is very different form what you're expecting. At times it seems a simple enough story. But by taking Micheal Valentine Smith and raising him in an alien culture, Heinlein is able to draw out much of what it means to be human - his main character, after all, is an alien human who must learn for himself how his fellows work to try to fit in among them. A monumental endeavour for its time and no less relavent today. And, at the risk of repeating myself, this effort continues to this day in much of the better SF being published. The newer takes on the subject may not agree with Heinlein's point of view on the nature of humanity, but they cannot ignore it and in many ways they owe their ability to approach the issue in print to this book.

So, it's important. Does that also translate into a good read? Yes, it most certainly does. This novel is packed with fun and interesting characters interacting with panache and an ever-present hint of heresy that stimulates the mind to explore new ground even as it makes you laugh and/or nod your head in fervent agreement.

So, if you're a fan of SF you need to read this book not only b/c no SF collection is complete without it but also b/c it's great fun.

Rating:
Summary: Strange and thought provoking
Review: Make it 3 1/2 stars. This is a strange book. Though this is classified as science fiction, that classification is only half true. The other half is a commentary on human psychology and philosophy. The book started out strong, but somewhere in the middle the author seems to have lost the plot. He gets stuck with the concept of religion, cult and God. For a commentary on humanity and society, addressing those topics might be necessary, but I felt he over-did it there. One other drawback which I felt is that he could have developed the characters better. But inspite of these drawbacks, it is a very interesting book. Some of the conversations between Valentine Michael Smith and Jubal are thought provoking and intriguing. Though, I believe this book could have been better and that it started out strong and faltered in the middle, I still consider this as one of the better science fiction/philosophy books I have read. It portrays a bold view-point about religion.