Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land is the story of Michael Valentine Smith. Born of human parents on Mars and raised by Martians, he comes to earth with different powers and no understanding of humans. This is science fiction about humans and what it means to be human, and change and what causes change. The book has never been out of print and is considered a classic. People who would never read Science Fiction have read this book.

The original copyright to Stranger in a Strange Land was 1961. I probably read it soon after it was published. I included it on my list of favorite books for a long time. When I first read the book I loved the story and I loved the strong women. Today, the women are still strong, but limited by the restrictions of the time. That if nothing else dated the story. However the elements “of individual liberty, self-responsibility, sexual freedom and the influence of organized religion on human culture and government” from Wikipedia that are the heart of the story have kept it relevant. This book caused more discussion than Journey to the Center of the Earth. Again we read different editions of the book. Some people read the original version which was 160,000 words and others read the uncut version which had 220,000 words. All of us who read the uncut version agreed that it needed editing. The extra did not add anything and made the reading drag.

This is a different take on Science Fiction and worth the read even today.

Science Fiction Book Club Members

There is a great variety in all writing. You have fiction and nonfiction, novels and short stories, narrative stories and poetry. We all have our favorite. Within fiction you have further classifications; mystery, romance, adventure and science fiction are just a few. I read across the classifications but my favorite is Science Fiction. Within the area of Science Fiction there are further unique divisions. Those divisions range from fantasy to hard science fiction. Many readers roam between the different areas but some like only one division. In our book club we have both kinds of readers. I tend to roam between different divisions with space opera my favorite. We have one member who loves paranormals, another likes alternate history, still another member likes cyber punk, one member is a hard science fiction fan and one just loves book clubs and had never read Science Fiction before joining. A group this diverse makes choosing books to read and discuss a challenge. We started with a Stephen King book. Not an author I would read, but hearing the thoughts of his fans was interesting. We decided that we would continue by concentrating on some of the classics in Science Fiction. For the next few days I am going to share some of the group thinking on Journey to the Center of the Earth, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Downbelow Station. If you have read any of these books post a comment and add to the discussion.