Book Review - Stranger in a Strange Land
Hello, once again.
So, I finished another book, and I'd like to take a swing at reviewing it for you fine people out there (assuming anyone's reading this yet).
As a science-fiction writer, I feel it's part of my job to really get into the genre—I'd be stupid not to take the masters like Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury and Hubbard seriously. But here we have an example of where Heinlein got controversial in his writing.
Stranger in a Strange Land goes over the life of Valentine Michael Smith, a child born of one of the first manned missions to Mars, and raised by Martians. It's an extremely compelling concept, and the worldbuilding that Heinlein went to is second-to-none. Not only was he able to paint a compelling picture of what the future of Earth might look like (from his 1950s/60s point of view), but what a prospective Martian world and culture might look like. What's more, he went to the trouble of including into the Martian culture aspects that would be integral to them as a people, e.g., water.
This isn't a spoiler, so I'll go ahead and mention it. Water plays a vital role throughout the book. When Valentine Michael Smith (Mike) shares water with someone, it is a quasi-religious experience, meaning that he will trust his new "water brother" implicitly. Water brothers speak no "wrongness" to one another.
The book goes through the entire gamut of our modern world and examines each and every facet from a totally detached viewpoint. But, as is always the case, as you stare at the void, the void stares back. The longer Mike stays on Earth, the more worldly he becomes, while the people around him become more like Martians, with all that entails. I'm not going to go into what that means, but it should suffice to say that the two poles switch in a shocking way.
My impression overall was that it was good, although not quite what I expected. Looking back, I guess I don't know what I expected. It was certainly had an impact on me, but will it shape my worldview? Probably not. I can certainly see why it bot won the Hugo award and got banned from school libraries. In many ways, I wouldn't be surprised if one was hard-pressed to find a copy in a modern school library. The Library of Congress declared it to be one of the books that helped shape America, but I don't think it's going to be that significant to me ... at least not in the short-term.
Pros:
Deep characterization
Interesting development throughout
Potential for great significance to readers
Cons:
Odd pacing
Characters come and go quickly
Sags a bit in the middle
Attempts humor, succeeds about half the time
My overall opinion about Stranger is a good one, and I would recommend it with 6/10. But I would add a caveat. It does contain sensuality, although no graphic sex. There's no language, save the phrase "Thou art God." If those things don't bother you, go nuts. It's a pretty good book. Not the best, but not the worst.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
Jeff
So, I finished another book, and I'd like to take a swing at reviewing it for you fine people out there (assuming anyone's reading this yet).
As a science-fiction writer, I feel it's part of my job to really get into the genre—I'd be stupid not to take the masters like Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury and Hubbard seriously. But here we have an example of where Heinlein got controversial in his writing.
Stranger in a Strange Land goes over the life of Valentine Michael Smith, a child born of one of the first manned missions to Mars, and raised by Martians. It's an extremely compelling concept, and the worldbuilding that Heinlein went to is second-to-none. Not only was he able to paint a compelling picture of what the future of Earth might look like (from his 1950s/60s point of view), but what a prospective Martian world and culture might look like. What's more, he went to the trouble of including into the Martian culture aspects that would be integral to them as a people, e.g., water.
This isn't a spoiler, so I'll go ahead and mention it. Water plays a vital role throughout the book. When Valentine Michael Smith (Mike) shares water with someone, it is a quasi-religious experience, meaning that he will trust his new "water brother" implicitly. Water brothers speak no "wrongness" to one another.
The book goes through the entire gamut of our modern world and examines each and every facet from a totally detached viewpoint. But, as is always the case, as you stare at the void, the void stares back. The longer Mike stays on Earth, the more worldly he becomes, while the people around him become more like Martians, with all that entails. I'm not going to go into what that means, but it should suffice to say that the two poles switch in a shocking way.
My impression overall was that it was good, although not quite what I expected. Looking back, I guess I don't know what I expected. It was certainly had an impact on me, but will it shape my worldview? Probably not. I can certainly see why it bot won the Hugo award and got banned from school libraries. In many ways, I wouldn't be surprised if one was hard-pressed to find a copy in a modern school library. The Library of Congress declared it to be one of the books that helped shape America, but I don't think it's going to be that significant to me ... at least not in the short-term.
Pros:
Deep characterization
Interesting development throughout
Potential for great significance to readers
Cons:
Odd pacing
Characters come and go quickly
Sags a bit in the middle
Attempts humor, succeeds about half the time
My overall opinion about Stranger is a good one, and I would recommend it with 6/10. But I would add a caveat. It does contain sensuality, although no graphic sex. There's no language, save the phrase "Thou art God." If those things don't bother you, go nuts. It's a pretty good book. Not the best, but not the worst.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
Jeff
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