Rating: 
Summary: Some people will do anything for money
Review: UGH!go ahead and write to complain. I like hearing from other Heinlein fans. (No I'm not being sarcastic)
Rating: 
Summary: A ground breaking work.
Review: The original "man who fell to earth." This is the tale of
the son of some original space explorers, brought up by
Martians from infancy, and suddenly returned to earth in
the late 20th century. Robert Heinlein's witty and instructive
observations litter the landscape of this exploration of
humanity and its foibles. That this was published in 1960 and
mentions the reliance of the wife of the President of the USA
on a medium to make descisions speaks tellingly of his understanding of what makes people tick.
Rating: 
Summary: out-dated attack on the silent majority
Review: Disclaimer: The first Heinlein books that I have read were "Time Enough for Love" and "The Number of the Beast". Both of which I consider trash. Anyways, "Stranger" is somewhat better. The themes that are brought out might have been scandalous in the sixties, but now they are rather ho-hum:Free Love is good, physical possessions are bad, established religions are hokey, Jealousy is bad, you get the idea. These themes are tied together by a messiah/martyr story. This story might offend you if you believe in the literal meanings of your favorite holy book, but otherwise I think it's tame for many readers. I guess I don't really like Heinlein's tone of writing. I always get the feeling that I'm reading from the mind of a 1960's Hippie demagogue. Someone like Timothy Leary. On the surface they might seem open-minded but underneath they are quite autocratic, self-righteous, inconsiderate and closed to other view-points. Also he's always displaying an adolescent fascination with sex and at the same time he is incredibly sexist with his portrayals of the female characters. For a much better messiah/martyr story, check out Frank Herbert's "Dune".
Rating:
Summary: Stranger in A Strange Land
Review: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein is the story of a human, Valentine Michale smith, who was born and on raised on mars, and now on earth must come to understand the human race. This is a wonderful classic that I cannot say enough good things about. It is captivating and quite exceptional. Full of philosophical, spiritual, social and religious ideas that are not only mind boggling but eye opening in many ways. This wonderful piece of literature delves deep into why humans act the way they do, and how society as a whole sees the world it has created. I have very little complaints about this novel. I found some exceptionally sexist views in this book which were unsettling to me but not surprising for a book written in 1962. That is actually my only major complaint, and the passages in which this viewpoint seeps through are so short and so sparse that it did not detour me from reading the book. Oddly enough Heinlein seems to contradict himself in these viewpoints, he writes female characters that are Strong and would make any feminist proud, and then turns around and has them say something that contradicts that very character. So overall this book was truly wonderful. Something I would suggest anyone and everyone read, simply because of the ideas expressed within it alone, if not for the wonderful writing and compelling story. (By the end of this book you will find need to incorporate the word "grok" into your daily vocabulary.)
Rating:
Summary: I finished it, but....
Review: I just finished The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (pretty good overall), and went to SIASL because it had been recommended it to me before. Besides the good anti-gov't lines (mostly quips), there's not much to recommend the book. I'm glad I read it to say I read it, but I'm not ever going to read it again. Why? 1. Jubal. Supposed to come across as a wise, lovable old coot, but I found him annoying and I don't ever want to meet such a pompous person. He ruled every situation, and I don't think he deserved to. I can't stomach him again.
2. Free love. Against human nature. People will, in general, get jealous and get hurt.
3. Polylogism - the Martians have superior logic. Um, there can't be different logics. See Wittgenstein.
4. Anti-religion but all religions lead to the truth? I certainly don't buy that. The scenes in heaven...wow, I don't know what to say.
5. Characters overall. I didn't like any of them. I didn't care about any of them, and I hated how snappy the dialogue was. People don't talk like that ALL the time. I guess most of Heinlein's dialogue is like that, but it was a major flaw in this book. I'm a woman but I didn't mind the sexist stuff. It wasn't all that bad. "Terrifyingly homophobic"? I thought it was rather pro-homosexual, as much as it could be, as Mike talked a bit about how wonderful the bipolarity of man and woman was. Homosexual sex doesn't really fit into that view. My least favorite Heinlein book. Read Moon or Starship Troopers and skip this book if you can.
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: Easily one of the best ever, more than just scifi but flawed
Review: Stranger is easily one of the greatest SciFi novels ever. It deserves discussion along with Ender's Game, 2001, and maybe 2 or 3 others as candidates for the best of all time. Its effect on our culture is obvious, with "grok" becoming a word most people now recognize. (An Amazon search reveals nearly 400 other works that use the word "grok." How's that for influence.)
Like most of the more in-depth reviews will state this, this novel is really like a play in two acts. The first half of the book is a masterpiece, and what places it amongst the great works. The 2nd half bogs down and meanders though. The first and second halves are different enough to make you think it's really two different stories.
Without debating the merits of the themes on love in the 2nd half, the second half still would have been improved by a tighter focus, doing more with less.
The first 1/2 of the book is the greatest couple of hundred pages of scifi ever, nothing compares. The 2nd half brings it down a little to the level of a few other greats, but it's still in select company.
Everyone should read this. SciFi fan or not. I hope that one day it will be core reading for most 20th century literature courses, and included with great works outside of the scifi genre.
Rating:
Summary: Stranger in a Strange Land
Review: I just reread this -- 35 years after I first read it in high school! It still holds up. Even those too young to really understand the hippies culture will be able to 'grok' Heinlein's underlying message. The sweet Valentine Michael Smith becomes the worldy wise "Mike" in a strange coming of age story that will captivate you from page one. Highly recommended for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: My first Heinlein read.
Review: First, I'd like to say thank you to Robert A. Heinlein no matter where his soul rests. He gave us a beautiful story of love and the human spirit, and shows that we as people could be happy if we only chose to. Many reviewers have gone in-depth about the plot, so I will not repeat it for you here.
Secondly, in first impression his (R.A.H.) style reminds me most of Ray Bradbury; not in small part because of the fact that they both started in the "Golden Age" of Sci-Fi. Stranger in a Strange Land was written in the fifties and is infused with the colloquialisms of that particular era. If you have seen the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow then you'll know the type of language that I'm speaking of. Though, this novel is not as "Golly-Gee-Wiz"ish as that movie.
Finally, for Christians, Non-Christians and people of no faith at all, this is a beautiful story that somewhat follows that of the life of Christ. It will remind readers who know of Christ's' teachings what his most important message is: Above all else love each other; love each other no matter what.
I would recommend this to any Bradbury fan, or any one else who wants to see what one of the best Sci-Fi authors has to offer.
Rating:
Summary: If you were realy into the sixties you will love it
Review: I am a huge fan of Heinlein's early work, and this is an okay book, with things to ponder and things to offend. However, it seemed to me that this was the beginning of a drift away from hard sci-fic and into the acid culture stories. Far from my favorite.
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