Rating: 
Summary: Grok it all!
Review: Stranger, as this book is known to Sci Fi buffs, is top of mylist as far as Heinlein novels go. It narrowly beats "Time Enoughfor Love" for first place. It's a Bible for the 60's in more than one way. Only this time it was written competently. Yes it is a Messianic story but it is a Bible in another way. It was written in 1960 and was a precursor for the heady rebellious days to come. Unfettered sex, rampant hedonism, anarchy were all included in this "how to" manual. Even feminism is present but don't be too shocked, Heinlein still managed to avoid being politically correct in his condescension of the female gender.
The novel is about a man from Mars. (Ha, Ha). No I am serious. It always struck me as odd that all of those man from Mars stories were false advertising. They should have claimed creature/alien from Mars because that is what they meant. In Stranger it really is a MAN from Mars. Michael Valentine Smith, the son of intrastella travelers from Earth, raised on Mars by, (you guessed it), Martians, is coming home.
Unfortunately this young man is at the center of more controversy than just his upbringing. It seems that according to world law he is now the owner of the fourth planet, Mars. And as such he is likely to become the puppet of the first powerful political [person] that comes along. Luckily he is saved by a friendly and beautiful nurse who kidnaps Michael and places him under the protective wing of Jubal Harshaw. Jubal, (the alter ego of Heinlein), is a Doctor come Lawyer come Writer who lives in a secure palace type of accommodation and practices Freedmonite economics in his spare time. That is to say he is strongly in favour of smaller government.
Although Michael starts out quite naive and trusting, we know from the beginning that he has some unusual abilities, care of his Martian foster parents. Included amongst the many, are seemingly full control over his bodily functions and the power to make offending items and people disappear, permanently. It is a situation reminiscent of a toddler with a loaded gun in a crowded room.
Eventually through the careful tutorage of Jubal and his harem of beautiful assistants, Michael becomes worldly enough to leave the roost and learn more of life outside Jubal's home. Before he leaves though, they all have fun fighting off the underhanded and decidedly dangerous attempts of the world president to recapture Michael.
Michael then spends a troubling time trying to understand humanity by traveling, reading and working in several occupations. He is accompanied in these efforts by the original nurse that rescued him. Eventually he groks, (fully understands), his own species and becomes aware of the meaning of life. Naturally this is the start of what appears to be a very popular religion, complete with miracles, disciples and resurrection.
Stranger is chock full of great quotes and fascinating ideas. If you can't learn any thing from this book, then you are either God or dead.
Rating: 
Summary: Prophetic in a very curious way!
Review: When I first read "Stranger..." over thirty years ago in junior high school, I enjoyed it, though perhaps no more than many of the other Sci-Fi books I was reading at the time. It was good, but a bit overdone, I thought; I preferred a good shoot-em-up like "Starship Troopers" or "Glory Road". What do 14 year olds know?Some years ago a new edition was released that was reportedly a restored manuscript, closer to what Heinlein had intended, so I bought a copy and promptly put it aside for ten years. Eventually I picked it up which cleaning house and started to read it again. Much better the second time, as I could better appreciate Heinlein's parodies and critiques, and his shots at government and institutions. But midway though I was struck by a number of Heinlein's plot elements. World governments... black helicopers... martians.... I suddenly realized that all the contemporary paranoid theories, all the modern conspiracies, all were, in fact, drawn from this book! I couldn't believe it. I was laughing so hard, I was crying. All these very serious people watching "X Files" and swearing up and down that it's all true- do they know they're repeating stories from a 40 year old SciFi book? I think Heinlein would have been proud.
Rating: 
Summary: a waste of money
Review: I was so excited to read this book. I had heard so much about it and was looking foward to a fun, interesting and intelligent read. I was gravely dissapointed. The book is trite, dull and the characters (especially the female nurse) are nauseating. They are all dated stereotypes and being such allow more of an interesting prespective on stereotypes of the time this book was written than interesting characters. Using stereotypes in characters is a shallow, inaffective and immature way of writing. I felt the "philosophy" of the book was weak, not to mention unoriginal and mindnumbingly simplistic. This poorly conconcted story merely acts as a cover for the author to express some of his more poorly concocted and immature philososhical ramblings. I just hope Heinlein does a better job on his other books, but I am afraid to try them out because this book was such a waste of time and money. The time I spent reading this book is time out of my life I will never get back; do you "grok" that?
Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: All I have to say is "grok"
Rating:
Summary: Dated, trite and gratuitous
Review: I first read this book when I was in high school, some 20 years ago. For some reason, I thought it was fascinating then, and decided to buy it to read to my two pre-teen daughters now. Boy, was that a mistake. Either the general quality of science fiction books has gone up in the past 20 years, or my taste has matured. This book presents an adolescent, amateurish point of view (free love is good, business and money are bad, government and police are evil) that has been said a million times before. Maybe if you were 12 years old, this might sound fresh, but I doubt it (my daughters thought it was stale). In addition, the plot never really gets moving, since the author spends so much time just explaining this philosophy. If the philosophy were original or compelling, this would be okay -- but it isn't. Valentine Michael Smith is a human who was raised on Mars, and brought to Earth. This allows Heinlein to criticize us Earthlings from a naive, disinterested perspective. Smith hooks up with a bunch of characters who are more stereotypical than believable (an omniscient writer-lawyer, a sexy nurse, a corrupt high priest), and tries to force some action. Unfortunately, not much happens (that is believable), and my daughters (and I) had to force ourselves to stay awake while reading this. The jacket cover calls this the most important science fiction work of all time. Don't believe it.
Rating: 
Summary: Utopian Novel
Review: This is indeed a dated work, but may be worth a read. It is another "share and share alike" work reminiscent of Thea Alexander's "2150 AD." New ideas are introduced to the characters and they, in typical human fashion, turn them into dogma. If you've explored Alexander's work, or read and gleaned something from the "Conversations With God" series by Walsch, then "Stranger in a Strange Land" may be for you. While reading though, remember Tennyson's words, "There is more faith in honest doubt than in a thousand dogmas."
Rating:
Summary: Understand It
Review: Many people rail this book for being dated and argue that a clasic cannot be dated. Many people, attack it for being borring, non-science fiction, or numbing. They are right in respects. Yet do not allow the flaws to destroy a work that has an ENORMOUS amount of value. If you can understand it, if you can go with the flow, if you can let the author take you where he wants to go instead of where you are excpecting, it might be one of the most awarding piece of literature your eyes will grace. Remember to abandon preconceptions and ideas. If you hate it? Oh, well. His ideas are poingent and even if you don't agree there is some great stories on human divinity and frailty. Remember, abandon what you know.
Rating:
Summary: BORING...It could be way better
Review: Until I got to half the book I thought it was one of the best SF books I've read, but then everything changed it got so boring, it doesn't seem science fiction at all. I even thougt the author had died and someone else had written the ending half. If you want real science fiction you'll be disappointed with this one...go read Dune instead.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Awful. I want my time back.
Review: Heinlein is guilty of fraud. Guilty of masquerading this pieceof drivel as 'sci-fi', instead of the pseudo-religious claptrap itactually is. We hear so much against the scientologists and L. Ron Hubbard--why isn't Heinlein and this monstrosity included in the same breath? The story begins innocently enough, about a mission to mars and a human child raised by Martians...but about page 250--by the time you've invested too much time to easily toss this book down in disgust--suddenly we feature Angels talking to one another, snake-oil preachers, and a generally mystifying focus on religion. If you want Sci-Fi, go elsewhere. If you want to be spoon-fed Heinlein's ideas through badly-disguised characters, by all means waste your time on this. END
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.
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