Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein was the start of a new era for Heinlein. His previous book Starship Troopers finished a series of 19 novels published between 1947 and 1959 (18 if you don’t count Sixth Column which was serialized in 1941). To celebrate, Heinlein took a year off and nothing was published in 1960. Stranger in a Strange Land is very different than previous Heinlein books and I don’t think anyone suspected the success that followed, not only in science fiction circles but in the growing counter culture as well.

After much discussion on who the astronauts would be, a mission was sent to Mars. The ship arrives and all transmissions end. Another ship follows some years later and finds all the crew dead, but a child by a couple is still alive and being raised by the Martians living there. Valentine Michael Smith comes back to Earth and the political and financial wrangling starts (Smith is heir to millions of dollars and possibly the human owner of the planet Mars). Writer/Lawyer/Doctor/Crank Jubal Harshaw comes into the picture and gets the government off Smith’s back, freeing Smith to learn how to be human.

Smith goes off with Gillian, the nurse who rescued him from the government hospital, and learns what it means to be human. After many misadventures while wandering around, Smith finally learns what being a human is. He decides that the only way he can bring together his Martian and Human backgrounds to help people is to create a religion. His religion is basically everything he learned while on Mars.

After years of “juvenile” science fiction adventures, Heinlein decided to write for a more adult audience. The book details free love, free will and a usual Heinlein superman in Jubal Harshaw. Heinlein’s women are ultra capable in intellect and love. This book’s characters would serve as a blueprint for future Heinlein characters. Anyone who expected a typical Heinlein book would have been in for a huge shock at the material and tone covered in the book. It goes overboard in places (especially since only the unabridged version seems to be available now. But it is well worth the read. Heinlein is a science fiction master, not only for his ideas, but for his writing as well.