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

A Book That Could Change The World!

What made the experience of listening to Stranger in a Strange Land the most enjoyable?

It was a richer experience with someone reading it to me instead of me reading it myself. I had read it twice before.

What did you like best about this story?

The ending which I finally understood.

Which character – as performed by Christopher Hurt – was your favorite?

Juble.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending.

Any additional comments?

It is a deep book with lots of meaning. Worth the listen.

fantastic philosophical fantasy book

this amazing book takes you through the life of a human raised among an alien race. by the end of the book you'll question your own moral values and want to grok with the universe

Stranger and stranger

Well titled and in many ways a strange story, but also a classic. Yes, it is dated - with the social attitudes of the day quite shocking in many ways. SIASL is comical, whimsical, and unashamedly philosophical. The narration was superb, the story at times was hard to perserve with, but in the end I grok it.

Free Love Paradise or Dystopia

From the 60's. Depending on your point of view this is either an interesting look at the effects of imposed morality or something very offensive. Compare with Brave New World. The first half is better...

Awesome

This was my first full complete book read. Never cared to finish a book in the past. This is the second time around reading this book. It was even better this time around. This book is insanely good

a classic and certainly cutting edge for its time

I think this novel could have ended about 2/3 of the way through and I would have been happy. The final section was a bit pedantic for me, but I can certainly appreciate it as the classic it is.

well done

What an interesting ending. I would recommend this book. well read. kinda makes one think.

Good story for its time

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but it was difficult getting past all of the sexism. The comment about 9 out of 10 women being responsible for the own rape was way to much.

Excellent

One of the best books I’ve read in a while. A bit dated, but just ignore that as best you can. It was written in 1961 after all. They did not grok in fullness, as we still do not.

incredibly chauvinistic and outdated

it was a lot of work to get through this terribly dated science fiction book. It has not aged well, especially with its chauvinistic views about women in positions of power oh, there are none in this book, and their role in society. I almost quit when one of the female characters declared that nine times out of 10, if a woman gets raped, it's must be her fault.