After close to 40 years after my first time through this book, this older (in years) and hopefully wiser piece of the universe finds 'Stranger in a Strange Land' to still be a riveting book but with my greater awareness, a very thought provoking book. I find the story has held up well and has some very good comments about the universe and state of man.
We are, at least, learning, slowly, what Mike meant when he said "Thou art God!"
I do believe it was this book, read by a very naive young adult, that steered me toward more of Heinlein stories. My science fiction/fantasy interest was fueled by the original Star Trek and the album "The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy" with his song of 'Bilbo Baggins'. Guess where THAT led me. I have liked most of Heinlein's books, some more so than others. Still somewhat naive, I do like 'Star Beast', 'Have Spacesuit, Will Travel', and 'Red Planet', but I also like 'Friday', in some ways more shocking than 'Stranger'. David Gerrold, writer of 'Trouble with Tribbles' both the screenplay and the book behind it, stated that of the top 10 science fiction writers, Robert Heinlein was the top 5. I don't think his ranking is in much jeopardy.

I thought I would start with a science fiction classic and one of my all time favorites. Robert Heinlein is an interesting study. While his books are indeed science fiction they also seem to highlight an interesting social issue, and this book is absolutely no exception. What may initially appear to be a story about a man who was stranded on Mars as a baby, raised my Martians and the potentials of space travel is really a poke in the ribs to conventional organized religion and questions the correctness of family structure and politics. While it has all of the science fiction aspects, of a man from mars, flying cars, space travel, high tech gadgets and gizmos, as well as a "futuristic" society, I would argue that it isn't really science fiction at all.

Valentine Michael Smith, or Mike, looks like a man, but by all other standards he is clearly alien, or Martian really. After a turn of events that left the baby Mike stranded on Mars, he was subsequently raised by Martians. Years later, when another attempt to explore Mars is initiated the explorers find not only Martians, but the son of two of the original crew, has been living with them. Rather than leave him there, they decide to bring him back to Earth and Mike not knowing any better goes willingly. While this is an interesting set up, it's not the story. The story is not only how is he going to survive Earth's gravity and very different environment, but how he's going to survive Earth's customs. Read the rest of the review here: http://fandomania.com/book-review-stranger-in-a-strange-land/

There's little profound in this book, just a dull Messiah-type whose Human/Martian backstory sounds a lot more intriguing than the plot he gets involved in back on Earth. Important lessons are delivered not only in broad strokes but with a thick vein of smug Heinlein libertarian/sexist self-congratulatory dialog.

Individualism is the creed being stressed, primarily though sexual freedom, or Heinlein's piggish view of it anyway. But the only battlefield are the repressed mores of fundamentalists, easy targets, and the book's one-world government escapes with a mild scolding for a tendency to bureaucracy. Even property rights weren't sacred.

It all seems an odd brand of small govt individualism, one with a dim future. The characters grate, the politics are confused and it all ends with a lengthy and insufferable scene of extended and indulgent, charmless egostroking for Harshaw/Heinlein. I imagine the edenic Pocono sex commune of SiaSL as something of a Galt's Gulch for dirty old men, with both Heinlein and Ayn Rand's imagined communities awash in self-congratulation and self-contradiction. At least Heinlein's has lots of beautiful, naked women who take verbal abuse very well and then bring you drinks.

I read this book for my book club. I am not a fan of science fiction in general, but I like to read all the books that are selected for my group and often am surprised at the different genres that I find enjoyable. This book was NOT one of them.

This sci-fi counterculture novel espouses libertarian philosophies including free love and, more generally, the idea that morality is whatever the individual wants it to be. The main character, Martian-raised human Valentine Michael Smith, claims "Thou art God!"

I read this at, if I recall, age fourteen. I didn't understand much of the ideas therein until much later, so fortunately, they didn't influence me. However, the book was an example of how when I was young, I'd say that I loved a book because it was too deep for me to figure out. For some time afterward, I called Stranger one of the best novels I'd ever read. It's not on my radar now. I am not God.

(FYI: Supposedly, the character Jubal Harshaw represents Robert Heinlein.).

Good,but NOT worthy of worship.(stick THAT in your Craw,CAW!)

One of the few Heinlein books I enjoyed. Transgressive. Interesting blend of science and eastern philosophy.

One of the few books that I reread regularly.

This book changed the way I look at religion and the whole human race.

I feel such a deep personal connection with this book, not because I'm secretely a martian or anything, but because it has had so much affect on me. This book explores so many loops and convolutions of the human mind, society, life, innocence.. the list goes on and on. There so much to this book that with the first read one can only grasp some of what is there, perhaps that which is floating on the surface. However, the rest of the iceburg which is revealed with multiple reads astounds all who read it. It is difficult to even really express how amazing and wonderful this book is. Anyone who disagrees obviously doesn't understand the book, or is just to narrow-minded to think. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR... READ THIS BOOK, AND READ THE UNCUT EDITION. IT'S MUCH BETTER.

Freak yourself out with some ultimate-liberatarianism. In the real world the ideas in this book are BS but reading it still makes you feel all warm and gooie. A celebration of the individual and true gone out of your mind fantasy. I love it.