Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Like New
- ISBN 10
- 0441788386
- ISBN 13
- 9780441788385
- Seller
-
Englewood, Colorado, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Stranger in a Strange Land is a best-selling 1961 Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on the planet Mars, after his return to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with--and the eventual transformation of--Earth culture. The novel's title refers to the Biblical Book of Exodus. According to Heinlein in Grumbles from the Grave, the novel's working title was The Heretic.
Reviews
Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND is a clear example of the "didactic" novel. It teaches, it preaches, its characters rant and debate, parry and thrust. Its story is not much. But its message resonated with millions of confused "searchers" for meaning in the turbulent 1960s and even into the cooler, more blase 1970s. *** Valentine Michael Smith, after his pioneering parents died opening up Mars, was raised in a nest on Mars by Martians as close to a Martian as he could be. A later expedition from Earth to Mars found young Mike Smith and returned him home. Meanwhile the ostensibly pacifistic Martians, it is hinted throughout the novel, are planning something nasty for the Earth and earthlings. Mike seeks for a way to defend the Earth without tipping his hand to the alien race that raised him. ***Smith goes through one cross-cultural shock after another, eventually deciding that he can prepare earthlings to resist suspected Martian imperialism by making it attractive for them to learn selectively features of Martian civilization (ceremony of sharing water, thinking empathetically aka "grokking" and others) while going beyond even the Martians by adopting a new Smith-created religion, Church of All The Worlds. *** Smith's intially sceptical admirer is crusty old libertarian lawyer Jubal E. Harshaw. Via dialogs and monologs of Harshaw, author Heinlein criticizes received human religions, mores, thought processes, nudity, clothing and more from a Martian point of view -- as filtered through hybrid Martian-Human Mike Smith. *** The level of argumentation ranges somewhere between 1960s American 7th grade and college sophomore, arguably, on balance, sub-adult. But STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND proved wildly attractive to an increasingly rootless, restless generation of young Americans thirsting for they knew not what, eager to grok and to say, "I am only and egg" and "Thou art God." Study STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND not as literature but as 1960s sociology. -OOO-
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Details
- Bookseller
- Colorado's Used Bookstore, Inc. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 442232
- Title
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- Author
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Format/Binding
- Trade Paperback
- Book Condition
- New Like New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0441788386
- ISBN 13
- 9780441788385
- Publisher
- Ace
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- October 1991
- Pages
- 528
Terms of Sale
Colorado's Used Bookstore, Inc.
Visa, MasterCard. Returns must be returned to bookstore within 10 days for credit on the books only.
About the Seller
Colorado's Used Bookstore, Inc.
About Colorado's Used Bookstore, Inc.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...