Stranger within a Strange Land is the epic saga of the earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, given birth to and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with “psi” powers-telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the capability to take control of the minds of others-and complete innocence about the mores of guy.

After his tutelage under a surrogate father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a sort of messiah. His outstanding abilities lead him to be many things to numerous people: freak, fraud artist, media commodity, searcher, free like pioneer, neon evangelist, and martyr.

Heinlein won his second Hugo Award for this novel, sometimes called his “divine humor” and often called his masterpiece. This Blackstone audiobook may be the “as released” version, read from an Ace paperback released in 1987. The full, uncut text was not made available until 1991.