Stranger in a Strange Land

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Christopher Hurt

Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

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 him 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. This Blackstone audiobook is the “as published” version, read from an Ace paperback published in 1987. The full, uncut text was not made available until 1991.

©1961 by Robert A. Heinlein (P)1996 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, 1962

Every thing I had hoped for.

At last another way to enjoy my favourite book and number 1 author it was every thing I had hoped for.Once again I can emurse myself in his amazing words and Grok it fully. This story changed me from the moment I read it and I have evolved eversince, A philosophy that blends itself to all who Grok and can see the changes to be made . Thank you Robert for your words and well done Christopher Hurt for you vocal prowes in delivering them as they were written clean clear and intuitively. I have enjoyed this Audio Book and will enjoy evry other one from the same Author . Thank you

Narrator A+/Story B-

The main character is an orphan brought up Tarzan-style by ancient Martians, who teach him to flex innate supernatural powers muscles that the rest of us don't know we have. The story starts out fascinating and ends up weird. Ever wonder what you'd get if you combined Jesus with Ron Jeremy? Probably not, but this author pegged it for sure.

The narrator does excellent work. The other reviewer's comments about modulating sound quality and background noise is accurate, but in my opinion it is tolerable.

Worth Rereading

I read it 40+ years ago. Now I grok it. Smith, raised on Mars in a selfless culture, is an individual who didn't have to shed the baggage of our ego burdened society. He is used by Heinlein, in Socratic- style dialog with Jubal, a wise earthling, to illustrate the insanity of our current society. When this Buddha/Christ figure engages our world, the result is both humorous and hopeful.

Should have been sooner

I put off listening to this for to long. The narrator used his Lazarus Long voice for one of the characters which was nostalgic and fitting.

outstanding

do yourself a favor and read this book. maybe more interesting reading it long after it's time to compare attitudes in the author's time to today.

amazing

I loved it. i would suggest it to anyone who loves to read a good story.

Always my favorite book

I re-read this book about once every decade. each reading reveals yet another level of complexity to the story. everyone needs to read this book, as everyone can relate yo one or more of the characters. It was a joy to hear it performed!

So good, yet disappointing.

A revolutionary book with amazing concepts, but so hindered by sexual and gender biases of the time and possibly the Author, as brilliant and celebrated as he was.

A Scifi classic.

Should be a part of all SciFi fans library!
My only complaint is that it should be re-recorded with a female voice actor as well.

Excellent and interesting classic sci-fi

I appreciated Christopher Hurt’s reading of this great sci-fi classic. If you like science fiction, this is the audio equivalent of a page-turner. Normally I never listen to audiobooks except for long trips, but this one had be listening even on short grocery runs, and sometimes even just in my living room in the evenings. Highly recommended.