Book Review: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Paperback, 528 pages

Published October 1991 by Ace (first published July 1961)

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1962)

Prometheus Hall of Fame Award (1987)

My reading theme for this year is retro-science fiction. I mean I am already reading A Philip K Dick book a month for the podcast, but now for better or worse, I am reading all of the winners of the Hugo for best novel in the '60s. In 1962 the book considered Robert Heinlein's all-time masterpiece won the Hugo for best novel. He already won for Starship Troopers two years and would go on to win for Moon is a Harsh Mistress in the sixties alone. You can already listen to Starship Troopers of Dickheads podcast sound cloud page.

I will be recording this one soon, but our release schedule is all over the place, so in the meantime here is my review.

Look I grok that this is a classic of Science Fiction, the word masterpiece is thrown around and I can see why in 1962 it seemed like a bold achievement. It is my belief that you have to consider when a book was written when judging the characteristics that make it a classic. I am Legend is classic and it holds up really well today.

I actually quite enjoy out of date science fiction in many ways it is a more interesting window into the time than contemporary books of the past. A book written in 1961 about 1961 is of course a more direct window but how did RHH envision a future during that time. That is interesting to me. Even if you end up with a book that is sexist, homophobic and perhaps if I am being generous unintentionally racist.

It is too late to strip this book of the classic status it is has generated but goddamn is it a dinosaur of the time it was released. I understand that some of the progressive ideas of free-love and self-determinism were pretty revolutionary in America at the time. I am not sure how it was read overseas but also the questioning of religion was also pretty hardcore for the time.

None the less this is Heinlein we're talking about who can write super libertarian in one novel and then go crypto-fascist in another novel like Starship Troopers. So I suppose it shouldn't be too surprised when he has off-handed remarks blaming rape victims or glorification of only hetero-normative sex. It is bad enough any time that happens but it is glaring in a book that positions itself as about free love.

The story has some cool elements, I like the idea of the human born on Mars, the child of two astronauts who died on the surface of the Red Planet. Left alone to be raised Tarzan style by a Martian civilization we never really get a glimpse of. That is personally one of the best aspects of the novel. I loved that the Old Ones and the old civilization of Mars stayed off stage.

After 20 years and World War III, humans return to Mars and bring back Michael Valentine Smith the first human born on another world. The first half of the novel is a fish out of water story. This goofy alien learning to be human provides some fun moments but I also found myself thinking that the mid-80's John Carpenter movie Starman did all that stuff better.

The middle of the book was a bit of a slog, we spend along time figuring out how the government intends to exploit Smith. In the third act is when the book really tries to do interesting things. Smith wants to teach the Martian language and by doing so it fundamentally changes how people view the universe. I like the idea of language being conduit for this new religion, but is that not how all religions get transmitted?

Don't get me wrong I am glad I re-read this. I got more out of it than when I read twenty-five years ago but I was also able to see it with a critical eye.