thebacklistborrower's Reviews (570)

I don't think I really appreciated it. I found it hard to read and follow. I'll try again in a few years and see what I think then.

I loved this book. Beautiful, sad, quirky... The story felt very real and it made me very anxious. I couldn't wait for the ending but also dreaded it. In the end, it didn't disappoint.

Very entertaining book! I liked how where I already knew about things being explained I could get enjoyment from the way they were being explained, or I could guess at what parts were being explained (the periodic table was a bit of a guessing game to try to remember the elements!). I also learned new things and some things, like airplane engines, were explained better than I'd heard before.

Stranger in a Strange Land was completely different than what I had expected, but in the best way possible. It made me really think about how I perceived everything, since it forced me to look at things through Michael Valentine Smith’s eyes. I inhaled the book, reading it at every possible opportunity, and finished it very quickly. And -- I don’t want to give away too much here -- I was completely betrayed by the end. I felt betrayed, and I also felt ill at ease from the way the book was at the end, the actions and situations that the characters put themselves in.

I grokked many things over the course of the day, and I continue to grok new things. This book opened my eyes to the human condition, as well as human prejudices, and I believe that is the best thing a book can do. In every situation where I felt wrongness or betrayal in this book, I had to come to the conclusion that I was the one who was acting on my prejudices that I have from growing up on Earth, in a human culture predominantly based on Chritianity, and there was no “true” wrongness in any situation since nobody was being harmed.

A very quick read, but one that is fascinating and well-done. A great primer to learn about the issues facing first nations as a result of colonialization, residential schools, and modern racism.

I really liked the idea, and I think I'll read the remaining books in the series, but it was definitely a YA book, and I am not a young adult, so I found the writing a bit more simple than I'm used to for Sawyer books.