The Secret of Ages is a pseudo-scientific self-help book that purports to contain the key to human happiness. Author Robert Collier claims throughout the book that positive thinkers actively collect a force equivalent to luck or cosmic goodwill and that through this process they acquire the objects of their desire. This belief, while unsubstantiated by controlled research or any evidence, is expounded on enthusiastically over the course of the volume.
Stranger in a Strange Land is the story of Michael Valentine Smith, a human raised on Mars among the Martians. Returning to Earth, Smith finds himself enmeshed in corporate and consumerist struggles. Smith's struggle to comprehend human society acts as a stern condemnation of modern materialism and consumer culture. The story follows Smith's journey and his impact on Earth culture as an outsider unaffected by the trends that have shaped world government and industry.