Stranger in a strange land /

In 1939 Heinlein published his first sf short story and became one of the most prolific and influential authors in the genre. Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) is an international best seller and a landmark in more ways than one: it opened the trade best sellers lists to sf writers, breaking down longstanding barriers that will never be seen again. At the same time Stranger became an emblem of the 1960s generation in its iconoclasm and free-love themes. Telling the story of an Earth baby raised by an existing, ancient Martian civilization, the novel often reads as if it were the "Playboy Philosophy" in dialog form. The man/ Martian comes to Earth and broadcasts his ideas by forming his own Church. Heinlein has been rightly criticized for presenting as facts his opinions, which state that organized religion is a sham, authority is generally stupid, young women are all the same, and the common individual is alternately an independent, Ayn Randian-producing genius and the dull-witted part of an ignorant and will-less mob. Yet the book is hard to put down; in its early pages it is a truly masterful sf story. Every library with a fiction collection should have it. Christopher Hurt reads with authority, nicely drawing the characters via barely perceptible changes in intonation, harshness, and pacing. Highly recommended.‘Don Wismer, Office of the Secretary of State, Augusta, Me. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

If any sf novel deserves to be called a ""classic,"" it is Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Now, 30 years after its original publication and two years after the author's death, we have a longer edition--by 50,000 words--based on the original manuscript. 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. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.