Stranger in a Strange Land - Softcover

Heinlein, Robert A.

3.92

313,145 ratings by Goodreads

9780425022023: Stranger in a Strange Land

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425022021 ISBN 13: 9780425022023

Publisher: Berkley, 1968

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Here for your delectation is the SPECTACULAR AND RARE-----Stranger in a Strange Land by ROBERT A. HEINLEIN.......If any sf novel deserves to be called a "classic," it is Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Valentine Michael Smith is a human raised to adulthood by Martians, his viewpoints completely alien. This is the mechanism for Heinlein's Swiftian examination of human culture, politics, religion, and customs, starting with Michael's puzzlement and ending with his founding of a religion/discipline combining Martian wisdom and Michael's understanding of what human nature really is. If anyone expects whole new scenes or plot elements, they will be disappointed. The additional words and pages consist of longer descriptions, more dialogue, and perhaps two sexually explicit (for their time) scenes that were toned down in the first edition. A line-by-line comparison reveals no new scenes, but, instead, shows Heinlein's craft as a writer, distilling the information and flavor of whole paragraphs into single lines without loss, while increasing clarity and impact. Of interest to Heinlein completists and scholars, but, in cutting this version by those 50,000 words to produce the 1961 edition, the author made a good book into a great one.. .....This is the softcover stated BERKLEY EDITION from MARCH 1968. Other than a hint of page yellowing, the book is in excellent reading condition. There are no rips, tears, markings, etc.---and the pages and binding are tight (see photo). **Note: All books listed as FIRST EDITIONS are stated by the publisher in words or number lines--or--only stated editions that include only the publisher and publication date. Check my feedback to see that I sell exactly as I describe. So bid now for this magnificent, impossible-to-find LITERARY / SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTIBLE.

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Review:

Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.

The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60's to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck

About the Author:

Robert Anson Heinlein was born in Missouri in 1907, and was raised there. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929, but was forced by illness to retire from the Navy in 1934. He settled in California and over the next five years held a variety of jobs while doing post-graduate work in mathematics and physics at the University of California. In 1939 he sold his first science fiction story to Astounding magazine and soon devoted himself to the genre.

He was a four-time winner of the Hugo Award for his novels Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), Starship Troopers (1959), Double Star (1956), and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966). His Future History series, incorporating both short stories and novels, was first mapped out in 1941. The series charts the social, political, and technological changes shaping human society from the present through several centuries into the future.

Robert A. Heinlein’s books were among the first works of science fiction to reach bestseller status in both hardcover and paperback. he continued to work into his eighties, and his work never ceased to amaze, to entertain, and to generate controversy. By the time he died, in 1988, it was evident that he was one of the formative talents of science fiction: a writer whose unique vision, unflagging energy, and persistence, over the course of five decades, made a great impact on the American mind.

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