[Heinlein's] own statement of his intent in writing [Stranger in a Strange Land] may well be noted; but it is not necessarily the reader's best guide in his perusal of it. "My purpose in this book," the author says, "was to examine every major axiom of the western culture, to question each axiom, throw doubt on it—and, if possible, to make the antithesis of each axiom appear a possible and perhaps desirable thing—rather than unthinkable."

An ambitious and comprehensive undertaking, surely, "Western culture," even tho restricted to its major axioms—and who is to determine which they are?—is a complex of multiple concepts and behavior patterns. To stand each one of them upside down, with the avowed objective of discovering whether they may thereby appear more acceptable, is to subject each axiom to the warped mirror of ruthless reflection. Such a quixotic venture might well seem foredoomed to disaster.

But the author calls to his aid the helpful technique of science fiction, to lend a trace of plausibility to the preposterous. An experienced and expert practitioner in that occult craft, he launches his social critique by virtue of the rocket propulsion of this device….

[Stranger in a Strange Land] is an excellent yarn, creating its own atmosphere of fantasy and fascination as it proceeds. It is Alice in Wonderland for grownups of the space age. Disturbing vestiges of human actions and reactions in the characters who play their topsy turvy roles in this extravaganza project a mirage of veracity that lures us on and on.

In the quaint vernacular of our everyday world, a man from Mars …—becomes the protagonist of the fable. It is he who justifies the title, as well as the author's avowed intention in writing the book in the first place. It is he who reveals our mores and our morals to ourselves. He forces us to see ourselves as others see us—some god has given us, thru him, the gift to do so.

Even so, the earthbound reader may well be excused if he disregards this elaborate examination of our culture, except in passing, and finds his chief enjoyment, instead, in the wide ranging fantasy of the story for its own sake.