Stranger in a Strange Land was a good book. But I wish Miriam, Anne, and whatever that third girl's name was didn't act exactly the same.

I wish Jubal took the time to actually follow through on his beliefs rather than spend dozens of pages thinking up eloquent monologues without any actions to back it up. I wish he wouldn't use his age as an excuse for not doing something every other scene. I wish he wouldn't be so damn crochety. I wish he wouldn't try to use humor as a thinly-veiled excuse for sexism.

I wish Valentine Michael Smith didn't act like such a child upon initially leaving Mars, when we know that he was intelligent enough not to act as such- even if he didn't understand exactly what was going on. I wish Mike put less of an emphasis on sex and pleasure and did more to actually help humanity. I wish he didn't act so arrogantly. I wish he talked more about the Martian language.

I wish Jill wouldn't hate on gays.

I wish Duke had defining traits beyond his fondness for pornography. I wish every other character wouldn't feel the need to bring up Duke's fondness for pornography quite so often. I wish Mike had bought a gift for Duke other than pornography.

Spoiler warning I wish Michael had taken the time to demonstrate to the mob in the closing scene that he had the power to stop them all before he let himself be killed. I think it would have made his point better. End spoiler


I wish I understood what tense I should have been writing this in, and I wish I had stuck to that tense throughout, rather than switching through a bunch.