The bookclub decided to read Heinlein’s masterpiece — the brilliant spectacular and incredibly popular novel (quote from the back cover of the Ace Science Fiction edition, published in 1987). The book Stranger in a Strange Land hasn’t quite stood the test of time (assuming it ever did match up to the breathless praise). War of the World’s review is decent and points out some of the strengths and weaknesses of the book.
The bookclub found the book worth reading for its historical value, even though the sexist and racist tones are irritating, the dialogues don’t quite match up to the supposed sophistication of the characters (particularly Jubal), and the bits about the archangels don’t appear to serve any purpose. The book could have done with a good editing. A couple of interesting questions came up – we spent some time discussing privacy in a telepathic world, especially on how one would bring up children with a sense of who they are in such a community, and the implications of a group where people take money as they need it and give money as they can (shades of the socialist ideal from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs
that never seems to work beyond a small circle of people, such as a family).
In the end, we came to the conclusion that there were good ideas in the book, and parts of it were reasonably well-written, but that there must be better science fiction out there, with believable dialogues and characters. Does anyone have recommendations?