Stranger In A Strange Land - Softcover

Heinlein, Robert A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425030679 ISBN 13: 9780425030677

Publisher: Berkley, 1975

Synopsis

Stranger in a Strange Land tells of Valentine Michael Smith, born during & the only survivor of the 1st mission to Mars. He's raised by Martians & arrives on Earth an innocent. He's never seen women & has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he's legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality & the meanings of love. He founds a church, preaching free love & disseminating the psychic talents taught him by Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate of all messiahs.
The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading some children of the '60s to set up households based on Martian water-brother nests. Heinlein pontificated through his characters, so 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 his best entertainments, provocative as he always loved being.--Brooks Peck (edited)

About this title

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 hed 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0425030679
• ISBN 13: 9780425030677
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 414