Heinlein's greatest work, without a doubt. A masterpiece, and a world I wish I lived in.

It gets 4 stars instead of 5 simply because I thought there was some filler and unnecessary cruft. The amazing bits (and the overall story/idea) are lovely, there are just some bits that I found dull. And there are a few minor points of philosophy on which I have to disagree with RAH.

Addendum: A few hours after writing this, I managed to put my finger on something elusive about this book. I am definitely convinced it's an important book, but I'm not particularly inclined to keep it on my bookshelf along with others that I want to reread again and again. This confused me, until I realized why: this book is one of those that anyone who wants to understand me better would be well-served to read. But the philosophy and moralism expressed in it is very familiar to me, being very close to my own; I didn't really learn anything new from it.

Despite the fact that it was [b:Stranger in a Strange Land|350|Stranger in a Strange Land|Robert A. Heinlein|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1156897088s/350.jpg|908211] that I read during my teenage years, when I was still developing and discovering my own ideas about life and love. I think Heinlein says the same thing, better, here.