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    Stranger in a Strange Land
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    Stranger in a Strange Land
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    Stranger in a Strange Land
    Audiobook16 hours

    Stranger in a Strange Land

    Written by Robert A. Heinlein

    Narrated by Christopher Hurt

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Stranger in a Strange Land is the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with “psi” powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man.After his tutelage under a surrogate-father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a kind of messiah. His exceptional abilities lead Valentine to become many things to many people: freak, scam artist, media commodity, searcher, free-love pioneer, neon evangelist, and martyr.Heinlein won his second Hugo Award for this novel, sometimes called his “divine comedy” and often called his masterpiece.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlackstone Audio
    Release dateJun 1, 2009
    ISBN9780786109524
    Unavailable
    Stranger in a Strange Land
    Author

    Robert A. Heinlein

    Robert A. Heinlein, four-time winner of the Hugo Award and recipient of three Retro Hugos, received the first Grand Master Nebula Award for lifetime achievement. His worldwide bestsellers have been translated into twenty-two languages and include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. His long-lost first novel, For Us, the Living, was published by Scribner and Pocket Books.

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    Reviews for Stranger in a Strange Land

    4/5

    2,221 ratings82 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I couldn't finish this novel. It started out with promise and degraded into an intoleratable mess. From what I've read of others' reviews, it doesn't get better at the end. The only benefit to having read as far as I did was that I now understand what "grok" means (and kinda wish it was a more acceptable part of our vocabulary).
    • 5/5
      Read the originally released version. It is much better. This version is too long. This version shows the value of a good editor. Had this been the released version, it never would be the loved book it became.
    • 1/5
      Too much sex.
    • 5/5
      I groked it.
    • 4/5
      A thought provoking read, I reflected upon the author's meaning for several days before writing this. There appear to be several themes: free love, individualism and the tendency of human government to dominate. So, in addition to a science fiction theme, there are political and social messages also. The impact of religion upon the human condition is also evident. Could this book also be precursor to integration with others in the galaxy? More Heinlein....
    • 4/5
      Loved it. The development of the main character is very well done, and his strangeness is very well described. I would have given it 5 stars, but I really have to subtract 1 star for the absolutely disgusting remark of one of the women (!) who states that in most cases, if a woman gets raped, it is partially her fault. Really?!? Eugh... It's such a shame, because I really liked almost everything else.
    • 5/5
      I just re-read this book after 45 years. Its still a great thought-provoking read. While few of the concepts are a little stale, most of the book is still very fresh and resonating. One aspect I didn't pick up during my first reading is that the patriarchal character of Jubal is the voice of Heinlein -- an elderly, somewhat chauvinistic author who is very self-confident and obsessed with employing young women to help him. America was a much more religious country when Stranger was written, yet the books observations of religion -- especially fundamentalist ones -- still hold true.
    • 3/5
      Freaky 60s classic.
    • 4/5
      A deep study on how a new religion is born, a fight between the old ideology with the new ideas, human greed as the main factor of a possible extinction of humankind.
    • 3/5
      Heinlein uses his "what if..." in order to cast lines about religion, atheism, and sexual mores. The first three sections of the book build up the world and its rules in an exciting way, but the final two sections dive into religion and morality in a way that seems today to be forced.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting book. It was the best story that I have read by Heinlein. The concept of a man from Mars is not interesting but Heinlein was able to provide some interesting insights on our society. He is probably right about how ritualistic and backward our culture is. I am not optimistic about improvement any time soon.
    • 3/5
      For the very first part I liked the concept of the novel but then got more and more bored by its preachy ramblings. It's a book that sure hasn't aged well and is less of a story than a series of seemingly endless not-as-clever-as-the-author-thought-it-would-be monologues. Yep, colour me disappointed.
    • 5/5
      This is the story a man of two worlds, the world he was born to and the world be was born on. On first inspection the most remarkable thing about Valentine Michael Smith was his circumstance of birth and subsequent upbringing in a strange land, however it is not until Valentine Michael Smith is brought 'home' that we have to wonder if his is the strange land, or it is ours?However you looked at it, biologically Valentine Michael Smith was human, even if his beliefs and ways were not. But is genetics alone enough to define man? As he begins to learn about his new 'home' and its people, many social, philosophical and religious question are raised. What is it to be a man, to be human? What is truth? What is God?As it turns out Valentine Michael Smith may be no more a man than he is a Martian. He is a race of one having to learn to change his ways to conform to human society, or failing that change human society to conform to his ways. A feat that may be more plausible then it sounds, at least for one as unique as the 'Man From Mars'.STrANgER IN A StRANgE LAnD is a deeply thoughtful and undeniably compelling read; this is not a book to be skimmed through and passed off as mere fantasy alone but a story to be taken in and grokked as best as possible. It is easy to see why they had wanted to ban this book with its themes of sexuality, religion, society and morals. Themes that are as relevant today as they were when this book was first written.(1961, in case you were wondering.)Having never read the original, previously released shortened edition, I can not say for sure how much this story has changed being the uncut version, but I can say that if you have never read this book, either version I'm sure, then you are greatly missing out on one of the most cultural, philosophical and religious discussions ever committed to literature.
    • 5/5
      One of the classic sf novels, this impressed me when I read it long ago and is on my list to reread.
    • 4/5
      Strong, sensitive story about a 'stranger' who comes to earth and finds how to live here. I later learned that many fans of Heinlein did not like this novel, which helped me understand why I couldn't really get into any of the other books of his that I tried to read.
    • 3/5
      Read this as a teenager in the 70s, didn’t remember it very much. Read it again for my book club, now the big uncut version. Mostly didn’t love this book - don’t like his style of writing, and felt I was being lectured to. But some of the ideas were very creative. Seemed amazingly dated - maybe any SciiFi from the early 60s would be the same, I don’t know.
    • 3/5
      I read most of this one. Pretty good. I grok it!
    • 3/5
      I expected sci-fi with social commentary. Instead I've got religion packed porn script. Yeah, there was social commentary, but it wasn't about people from the future. No, Heinlein was describing his highly conservative society. And, c'mon, inhabitable Mars? I can't buy it unless it's far in the future or far back in the past.OK, maybe I'm exaggerating. I have no problem with sexual scenes or religion. But it was unexpected. And I cannot stop giggling that "The Man from Mars. Let's grow closer" is a perfect title for some very adult movie.
    • 5/5
      I read this book in high school for recreational reading and greatly enjoyed it then. I hope to read it again. However, I think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress maybe better. But my favourite book by Heinlein is his collection of short stories The Past Through Tomorrow.
    • 5/5
      Vintage Heinlein
    • 2/5
      A landmark science fiction novel, but one superseded by many others. It dragged on, yet felt more like a screenplay than the novel of ideas it purports to be. The message isn't great either: an ideal of free love in a chauvinistic world. Later 60s psychological science fiction such as Dune, The Left Hand of Darkness or even The Dark Light Years work much better in depicting intelligent alien life.
    • 3/5
      I first read this back in high school, where it had a strong positive impression on me. Reading it again, I was primarily aware of the persistent, unpleasant chauvanistic paternalism of the main characters. The women are all gorgeous, smart, intuitive, witty -- and happily subordinate to the men in their lives. Blech!

      Beyond that, the story of Michael Valentine Smith and his idealistic, Martian-influenced vision of what human beings are capable of in terms of both mental powers and staggeringly open hearts, continues to be intriguing.

      I'm glad I re-read it, but it's no longer a favorite of mine.
    • 5/5
      A classic any sci-fi fan should read. Super super story.
    • 4/5
      A legendary classic. One of my favorite Heinlein novels. Unfortunately, he's far from my favorite sci fi writer, and I think he lost any talent he once had once he moved into the 1980s, but this one is certainly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Stranger in a Strange Land starts off well. It appears to be a fun science-fiction story about a human raised among the Martians that returns to Earth and has a huge cultural shock while having to deal with all of Earth's bureaucracy. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Martian civilisation and bow it differs from ours, and the plots of the administration to make the protagonist, Valentine Michael Smith, sign over his rights. Unfortunately, this part only lasts for the first couple of hundred pages or so.SKIP THE NEXT PARAGRAPH TO AVOID SPOILERS:Once Valentine Michael Smith gets accustomed to Earth and its strange ways (or as the book says, once he groks Earth), he takes the logical next step of... starting a cult! Of course, this cult is the right one for Earth's people, one which teaches them awesome mind powers that means work is unnecessary and also gets rid of jealousy and possessiveness. Everyone has sex with everyone else, except of course, homosexuality is utterly wrong. The highest value in his society is "growing closer" through sex, but men get closer with other men by encouraging the women that they have sex with to have sex with other men. (Presumably Michael's amazing mind powers prevents sexually transmitted diseases, since he seems to be able to control his body utterly.) And in the end, after he sacrifices his physical form and his cult eats his flesh, he's revealed to be an incarnation of the Archangel Michael!END SPOILERSOkay, so I thought this book was a bit absurd. I did think that it was going to be hard sci-fi, and in my opinion, it wasn't (although I don't think that's what kept me from enjoying it.) Heinlein can write pretty well, as shown by the first part of the book, but the book ended up devolving into preachy philosophical monologues (all delivered by the men, while the women say "I understand now, dear! Can I get you some food?") The character of Jubal seemed like a Mary Sue stand-in for Heinlein; he's a writer who writes "bad pulp fiction" but knows that it is trash, but he's also a doctor and a lawyer and the only person that understands Valentine Michael Smith.Also, I'm usually very forgiving of old books being representative of the prevailing morals of their time, but still, this book is incredibly sexist. Like I said above, the men always need to explain things to the women, the women spend their days mostly in swimsuits (or later, naked), the women are always concerned about providing food to the men (or are rebuked with threats of "spanking", all in good fun, of course.) There's a disturbing statement about rape ("nine times out of ten, it's the woman's fault") that's said by a woman.The homophobia was also a disappointment. For a story that preaches free love and "sex isn't just about babies, it's to grow closer to people" to be so acutely homophobic seemed like a huge cop-out. I've heard this book described as visionary for its message of sexual liberation and anti-bigotry, but then it's homophobic! I would've forgiven it if the topic of homosexuality had not been addressed at all.I'm glad I read it, though. It's good to read books I absolutely don't agree with, once in a while. And Heinlein is still a way better writer than Larry Niven.Originally posted on my blog.
    • 5/5
      Considered a classic in the SF genre and generally known as a must read.A magnificent book, in my opinion. The first half of the book is very much SF, and very good SF at that. The second half spins off into philosophy while still in the context of the story. He really gives you some issues to think about. Some people won't like this, but I did. The ending took me a bit off guard, but probably shouldn't have. For all you avid SF readers who haven't read this yet, you should try to eventually get around to it. That goes for the rest of you,too.Experiments in Reading
    • 5/5
      A man, born on Mars, returns to Earth and has a bit of culture shock as he attempts to find his own way among the human race.This is definitely one of those Sci-Fi books that defines the genre and can be called a cultural touchstone. There are several interesting situations and words that are introduced here - most notably the word "grok".
    • 5/5
      No matter how many times I read it, this book never gets old.
    • 3/5
      A good idea but poorly executed. A lot was included that shouldn't have been and some intensity could have been added. Now I see why I am a Bradbury fan. Had to push through to finish.
    • 2/5
      Why is it every time I read a "classic" book, I end up regretting it. Yeah, it's got a lot of material, a lot of questions and issues to analyze, but in the end, the trip just isn't worth it. I've gotten more out of the shorter trips that used this one as inspiration. The book barely focuses on the main character, the man from Mars. It leaves out crucial pieces of backstory, like how he grew up on Mars with the actual frickin' Martians. No, no one seems to care that there's actual extraterrestrial life. We just care about the night nurse with Florence Nightingale syndrome and a journalist who's not good at his job.At least not compared to Jubal Harshaw. Hoo, boy, they should have a novel about him. He's like a proto-Spider Jerusalem. Sharp talking, indulgent, and crushing any enemies with the law they hide behind. I loved watching him give idiots the business, hammering them down with clever legalese. And he takes a large part of the first half, so that I thought it was going to be a legal thriller, like Fuzzy Nation.And like most reviewers said, the second half is a total tonal shift. No more Jubal Harshaw. No more trying to stay hidden. No more learning about two different cultures. It becomes satirical and touchy-feely. The first scene of the second half is that Valentine Michael Smith and his girl are trying to learn about human culture... by being in a carnival sideshow.And this eventually leads to Smith gaining followers of his "god is everywhere, love everyone" Martian philosophy, which turns into a religion, and into a cult, and so on. No more legal thriller. There's a lot of "explanations" which are just the author giving strawman arguments with himself. In fact, there was a lot of that in Starship Troopers too -- essays disguised as fiction. Except this time it's not about cool militarism and civics, it's about free love. Damn hippies.