The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress book cover

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Paperback – June 15, 1997

by
Price
$25.87
Format
Paperback
Pages
384
Publisher
Orb Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0312863555
Dimensions
5.5 x 0.96 x 8.25 inches
Weight
11.2 ounces

Description

“We proceed down a path marked by his ideas.” ― Tom Clancy Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) is widely acknowledged to have been the single most important and influential author of science fiction in the twentieth century. Four Hugo Awards for Best Novels and three of his novels were given Retrospective Hugos fifty years after publication. He won Science Fiction Writers of America's first Grand Master Award for his lifetime achievement. His many influential novels include Starship Troopers , Stranger in a Strange Land , The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress , and Glory Road . Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. ONE That Dinkum Thinkum I see in Lunaya Pravda that Luna City Council has passed on first reading a bill to examine, license, inspect--and tax--public food vendors operating inside municipal pressure. I see also is to be mass meeting tonight to organize “Sons of Revolution” talk-talk.My old man taught me two things: “Mind own business” and “Always cut cards.” Politics never tempted me. But on Monday 13 May 2075 I was in computer room of Lunar Authority Complex, visiting with computer boss Mike while other machines whispered among themselves. Mike was not official name; I had nicknamed him for Mycroft Holmes, in a story written by Dr. Watson before he founded IBM. This story character would just sit and think--and that’s what Mike did. Mike was a fair dinkum thinkum, sharpest computer you’ll ever meet.Not fastest. At Bell Labs, Bueno Aires, down Earthside, they’ve got a thinkum a tenth his size which can answer almost before you ask. But matters whether you get answer in microsecond rather than millisecond as long as correct?Not that Mike would necessarily give right answer; he wasn’t completely honest.When Mike was installed in Luna, he was pure thinkum, a flexible logic--”High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L”--a HOLMES FOUR. He computed ballistics for pilotless freighters and controlled their catapult. This kept him busy less than one percent of time and Luna Authority never believed in idle hands. They kept hooking hardware into him--decision-action boxes to let him boss other computers, bank on bank of additional memories, more banks of associational neural nets, another tubful of twelve-digit random numbers, a greatly augmented temporary memory. Human brain has around ten-to-the-tenth neurons. By third year Mike had better than one and a half times that number of neuristors.And woke up.Am not going to argue whether a machine can “really” be alive, “really” be self-aware. Is a virus self-aware? Nyet. How about oyster? I doubt it. A cat? Almost certainly. A human? Don’t know about you, tovarishch, but I am. Somewhere along evolutionary chain from macromolecule to human brain self-awareness crept in. Psychologists assert it happens automatically whenever a brain acquires certain very high number of associational paths. Can’t see it matters whether paths are protein or platinum.(“Soul?” Does a dog have a soul? How about cockroach?)Remember Mike was designed, even before augmented, to answer questions tentatively on insufficient data like you do; that’s “high-optional” and “multi-evaluating” part of name. So Mike started with “free will” and acquired more as he was added to and as he learned--and don’t ask me to define “free will.” If comforts you to think of Mike as simply tossing random numbers in air and switching circuits to match, please do.By then Mike had voder-vocoder circuits supplementing his read-outs, print-outs, and decision-action boxes, and could understand not only classic programming but also Loglan and English, and could accept other languages and was doing technical translating--and reading endlessly. But in giving him instructions was safer to use Loglan. If you spoke English, results might be whimsical; multi-valued nature of English gave option circuits too much leeway.And Mike took on endless new jobs. In May 2075, besides controlling robot traffic and catapult and giving ballistic advice and/or control for manned ships, Mike controlled phone system for all Luna, same for Luna-Terra voice & video, handled air, water, temperature, humidity, and sewage for Luna City, Novy Leningrad, and several smaller warrens (not Hong Kong in Luna), did accounting and payrolls for Luna Authority, and, by lease, same for many firms and banks.Some logics get nervous breakdowns. Overloaded phone system behaves like frightened child. Mike did not have upsets, acquired sense of humor instead. Low one. If he were a man, you wouldn’t dare stoop over. His idea of thigh-slapper would be to dump you out of bed--or put itch powder in pressure suit.Not being equipped for that, Mike indulged in phony answers with skewed logic, or pranks like issuing pay cheque to a janitor in Authority’s Luna City office for AS-$10,000,000,000,000,185.15--last five digits being correct amount. Just a great big overgrown lovable kid who ought to be kicked.He did that first week in May and I had to troubleshoot. I was a private contractor, not on Authority’s payroll. You see--or perhaps not; times have changed. Back in bad old days many a con served his time, then went on working for Authority in same job, happy to draw wages. But I was born free.Makes difference. My one grandfather was shipped up from Joburg for armed violence and no work permit, other got transported for subversive activity after Wet Firecracker War. Maternal grandmother claimed she came up in bride ship--but I’ve seen records; she was Peace Corps enrollee (involuntary), which means what you think: juvenile delinquency female type. As she was in early clan marriage (Stone Gang) and shared six husbands with another woman, identity of maternal grandfather open to question. But was often so and I’m content with grandpappy she picked. Other grandmother was Tatar, born near Samarkand, sentenced to “re-education” on Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya, then “volunteered” to colonize in Luna.My old man claimed we had even longer distinguished line--ancestress hanged in Salem for witchcraft, a g’g’g’great-grandfather broken on wheel for piracy, another ancestress in first shipload to Botany Bay.Proud of my ancestry and while I did business with Warden, would never go on his payroll. Perhaps distinction seems trivial since I was Mike’s valet from day he was unpacked. But mattered to me. I could down tools and tell them go to hell.Besides, private contractor paid more than civil service rating with Authority. Computermen scarce. How many Loonies could go Earthside and stay out of hospital long enough for computer school?--even if didn’t die.I’ll name one. Me. Had been down twice, once three months, once four, and got schooling. But meant harsh training, exercising in centrifuge, wearing weights even in bed--then I took no chances on Terra, never hurried, never climbed stairs, nothing that could strain heart. Women--didn’t even think about women; in that gravitational field it was no effort not to.But most Loonies never tried to leave The Rock--too risky for any bloke who’d been in Luna more than weeks. Computermen sent up to install Mike were on short-term bonus contracts--get job done fast before irreversible physiological change marooned them four hundred thousand kilometers from home.But despite two training tours I was not gung-ho computermen; higher maths are beyond me. Not really electronics engineer, nor physicist. May not have been best micromachinist in Luna and certainly wasn’t cybernetics psychologist.But I knew more about all these than a specialist knows--I’m general specialist. Could relieve a cook and keep orders coming or field-repair your suit and get you back to airlock still breathing. Machines like me and I have something specialists don’t have: my left arm.You see, from elbow down I don’t have one. So I have a dozen left arms, each specialized, plus one that feels and looks like flesh. With proper left arm (number-three) and stereo loupe spectacles I could make untramicrominiature repairs that would save unhooking something and sending it Earthside to factory--for number-three has micromanipulators as fine as those used by neurosurgeons.So they sent for me to find out why Mike wanted to give away ten million billion Authority Scrip dollars, and fix it before Mike overpaid somebody a mere ten thousand.I took it, time plus bonus, but did not go to circuitry where fault logically should be. Once inside and door locked I put down tools and sat down. “Hi, Mike.”He winked lights at me. “Hello, Man.”“What do you know?”He hesitated. I know--machines don’t hesitate. But remember, Mike was designed to operate on incomplete data. Lately he had reprogrammed himself to put emphasis on words; his hesitations were dramatic. Maybe he spent pauses stirring random numbers to see how they matched his memories.“’In the beginning,‘” Mike intoned, “’God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And--’”“Hold it!” I said. “Cancel. Run everything back to zero.” Should have known better than to ask wide-open question. He might read out entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. Backwards. Then go on with every book in Luna. Used to be he could read only microfilm, but late ‘74 he got a new scanning camera with suction-cup waldoes to handle paper and then he read everything .“You asked what I knew.” His binary read-out lights rippled back and forth--a chuckle. Mike could laugh with voder, a horrible sound, but reserved that for something really funny, say a cosmic calamity.“Should have said,“ I went on, “’What do you know that’s new?’ But don’t read out today’s papers; that was a friendly greeting, plus invitation to tell me anything you think would interest me. Otherwise null program.”Mike mulled this. He was weirdest mixture of unsophisticated baby and wise old man. No instincts (well, don’t think he could have had), no inborn traits, no human rearing, no experience in human sense--and more stored data than a platoon of geniuses.“Jokes?” he asked.... Read more

Features & Highlights

  • Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, an influence so large that, as Samuel R. Delany notes, "modern critics attempting to wrestle with that influence find themselves dealing with an object rather like the sky or an ocean." He won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, a record that still stands.
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
  • was the last of these Hugo-winning novels, and it is widely considered his finest work.
  • It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of the former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority that controls it from Earth. It is the tale of the disparate people--a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic--who become the rebel movement's leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success.
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
  • is one of the high points of modern science fiction, a novel bursting with politics, humanity, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom.
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
  • is the winner of the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(4.1K)
★★★★
25%
(1.7K)
★★★
15%
(1K)
★★
7%
(475)
★
-7%
(-475)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

A stunning achievement in hard-science and hard-politics

Written at the peak of Robert A. Heinlein's creative powers in the mid-sixties, "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" ranks with "Stranger in a Strange Land" as his most popular and acclaimed novel. Heinlein was furiously ingenious at this stage in his career, and this novel is an incredible feat of imagination, intellect, and writing talent. It is, however, a difficult and heavy novel (much like "Stranger in a Strange Land"), loaded with hard science and even harder politics: Heinlein at his best is a writer who attracts and repels the reader at the same time, and no one could read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" without forming some very strong opinions about it.
The story follows a revolution on the lunar colonies against Earth authority. The lunar colony was originally a penal colony, but even though the lunar residents ("Loonies" as they call themselves) are no longer technically prisoners, they have become economic slaves of the Earth. Also, because of their adaptation to the Moon's lower gravity, they cannot safely return to live on Earth, so their exile is a permanent one. Amidst growing but unorganized discontent amongst the Loonies, four remarkable individuals begin the meticulous planning of a revolution to free the Moon: Mannie, an engineer and our narrator; Prof. de la Paz; fiery Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott; and a newly sentient supercomputer named Mike. Starting from this small group, the resistance spreads across the Moon. But how can the nearly defenseless colonists and miners face down the juggernaut of the nations of Earth? Mike has an ingenious solution: "Throw rocks at `em"...literally!
Told through Mannie's point of view, the novel is written in a clipped, abbreviated style that represents the Loonie version of English: many pronouns and articles are dropped, leading to sentences like: "Stomach was supposed to be empty. But I filled helmet with sourest, nastiest fluid you would ever go a long way to avoid." This takes a few pages to get accustomed to, but soon you won't notice the odd style at all and accept it as part of the book's revolutionary spirit.
Heinlein unfolds the revolution in a meticulously detailed style, using lengthy conversations between the characters about how to step-by-step overthrow the authority of an overwhelming power. Heinlein not only provides in-depth details on the technology, but also of the philosophy of revolution and the unusual customs of the Loonies (such as their group marriages). Like most of Heinlein's great novels, this is a trip for the mind, and you have to be prepared to do plenty of thinking along with the passages of action. The novel does tend to drag somewhat in the middle, but the last hundred pages are feverish with both action and ideas.
Where Heinlein really triumphs in this novel is in the characterization of Mike the computer. Mike, along with Hal from "2001," is one of great artificial intelligences in science fiction. You will quickly forget, as Mannie does, that Mike is a disembodied voice from a machine, and instead think of him (or sometimes `her') as another character. Mike's growth from his shaky beginnings as a thinking being is fascinating and one of Heinlein's great achievements as an author.
However, if you are new to Robert A. Heinlein (or science fiction in general), this isn't the novel to start with (and neither is "Stranger in a Strange Land"). You should ease yourself into Heinlein's brilliant mind first through his novels from the 1950s, most of which were aimed at teenagers but are nonetheless wonderful books that anyone can enjoy: "Have Space Suit -- Will Travel," "Starman Jones," and "Citizen of the Galaxy" are good places to start. Also recommended: "The Puppet Masters" and Heinlein's short stories from the 1930s and 40s collected in "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and "The Green Hills of Earth." You should definitely read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" -- it's an essential classic of the genre -- but you may need to build up to it. After all, as Loonies say: "TANSTAAFL!" ("There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!")
421 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Anyone want a free copy?

I just try sit down read Heinlein Moon Harsh Mistress book. Thought I got defective copy. Hate his chopped English (like I'm using right now). Could not finish first chapter. Maybe chopped English end after first chapter. Check random pages in rest. Nope. All written same way. Hate this style. Don't care why chose do that way. And don't need libertarian insight from him. Already know libertarianism, met, conversed with great libertarians. Some say I have reputation as left libertarian. Written on anarchism. Too. But I don't give damn. Find style too taxing. Not worth effort to read book like this. Put book down. Will give away.

There ain't no such thing as a free book. TANSTAAFB. I pay for it.
144 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Blueprint for Revolution

This is my favorite Heinlein novel, and I've read all of Heinlein's works. It is a great mixture of adventure, humor, politics, technology, some thought provoking looks at alternate types of marriages, and the most lovable sentient computer ever to grace the pages of a novel. Mike (the computer) is really the star of this book, from loving to tell jokes, to deciding to help a group of revolutionary-minded Luna 'citizens' actually accomplish their dreams of freedom because the human interaction would keep him from being lonely.

Along the path to revolution, Heinlein, (as usual), inserts thoughts and ideas that challenge your basic assumptions about what is right, normal, necessary, or appropriate. Is a representative democracy the only 'good' form of government? What's so sacred about a 'majority'? How should a government finance itself? (Maybe make the representatives pay for their pet projects out of their own pocket - taxes not allowed!). Are polygamy, polyandry, or other forms of multiple marriage wrong or can they be used to help preserve the stability of a child-rearing environment? How do you most efficiently organize a revolutionary group that must be kept secret from the authorities (given the assumption that there will always be 'stool pigeons')?

Some have quite correctly noted that this book should not be read by ultra-grammarians, as it is told in first person Luna-speak, an odd pidgin mixture of English and Russian, with occasional items thrown in from Chinese, Finnish, and several other languages. Far from being a detriment, I consider this to be a great accomplishment. Most writers have trouble accurately portraying the dialect, say, of the Deep South in a convincing manner. Here, Heinlein has created his own dialect of the future - and makes you believe it.

This book is not quite as deep as Stranger in a Strange Land, one of Heinlein's other great books, but it has a faster, more action oriented pace, and characters that you will get emotionally involved with. I cried at the end of this book the first time I read it (and the second, and the third...) and I think you will too. TANSTAAFL indeed - but in this case, you get more than you paid for.
105 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Not to be missed

Forced to pick a favourite book by Heinlein, one of my favourite writers, I would have to choose this one. Even leaving aside the (not inconsiderable) benefit of the excellent explication of solid political philosophy in the book, it's a great read.
First of all, the entire book is written in Lunaspeak. This pigdin English certainly takes some getting used to at first but one is able to read it after a chapter or so without even noticing. How simple it seems until you stop to consider the effort involved in accomplishing such a feat. And there's no doubt that Lunaspeak is vital to the success of the book.
Then there's the story: fun and important both. Hugely entertaining, so you don't notice that you're also learning something. As usual, Heinlein has populated the book with richly drawn and highly entertaining charcters who matter to the reader as individuals. The highest compliment I can pay a book is that I'm sorry when it ends b/c I want to spend more time with the people in the book. Having read it numerous times, I'm still a bit sad every time I get to the last page b/c my time with these people is done. How much more difficult it is to accomplish this task - very few writers, even good ones, ever even approach it. Heinlein did it consistently and this is no exception. To do so while also acheiving so much else makes this the best of his impressive collection of work.
37 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Not even funny once.

I only read about 100 pages of this book, so I'm sure I didn't get to the good part, but it just wasn't too bright of Heinlein to put the bad part all through the first 100 pages. I simply ran out of patience. The bad part is the supposed futuristic prose style of the narrative. I guess he was trying to pare down the language by removing ambiguous "it"s and "there"s from the speach of the characters. Sort of like if I said, "It's raining." Well, since you have know idea what the "It" is in this sentance, you could well ask, "What's raining". Or I could say, "There's a man I want you to meet." You could say "Where's a man you want me to meet?" Heinlein removes these confusing and unnecessary words from the English language and yields sentances like, "Is raining." or "Is a man I want you to meet." There. Isn't that better? No. So I ask, "Is helpful to alter the language like this to help demonstrate that will be changes in way we communicate in future?" Well, Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" is proof enough that this kind of technique can work wonders. That book however seemed to be written by a man who could actually imagine his characters speaking in such a whacked-out manner. This book's "inventive" prose could've been "invented" by a word processor. Or a bottle of white out. Is Heinlein saying that in the future we will have to communicate with computers so regularly that we will begin to think like them? If so, why does he use silly colloquialisms like "the Yankees finished in the cellar" which were basically dead at the time he wrote this? Is it to show that some things never change? Cute. But not funny. Not even funny once. Then there's all this long-winded "character development" wasted on characters that have less substance than the cast of Scooby Doo. The Professor (we call him Prof), The able bodied male Manuel O'Kelly (we call him Man), the brains of the operation (in this case a supercomputer called MIKE) and the utterly useless but somehow ubiquitous hot chick with the ridiculous name of Wyoming Knott (just don't call her Why Not?). Get it? It's stupid!... I hate this book more the more I think about it.
By the way, the worst thing about all Heinlein is his relentless sexism. He repeatedly creates weak female characters, then pokes at their faults, then forgives them for having something like good intentions (just feeble minds and bodies). From what I hear, this is a guy who spent a lot of his life alone in the mountains. There really is something of the egocentric-misogynist-hermit archetype that is associated with right-winger fanatics and libertarians in Heinlein. Maybe that's why this book is popular with libertarians! Anyway, this book sucks. Stranger in a Strange Land was much better. So was Starship Troopers for that matter. They both had the same sad sexism and pretentiousness, but had more... heart.
26 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Cast the first stone

I am not much of a science fiction reader or film watcher but when my friend bought THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS for my birthday, it instantly became one of my favorite books. Not one of my favorite science fiction books, one of my favorite books period. And what makes it such is its sturdy character development and plot development. All the characters are believeable and likeable. This includes Mike the computer. His desire to understand humor and humans must have been revolutionary for the time the book was written.
I have heard of Heinlein's political leanings and how they affected his writing. However, I did not sense that the novel was a veiled attempt at spewing a manifesto. The story is simply about humans wanting to be treated as such, and having to fight for that treatment. Mike's suggestion to "throw rocks" at the oppressors was absolutely brilliant. It made me think of the Biblical line: "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone". Maybe there's a link, maybe not. I'm sure there are dozens of master's theses out there on this subject. In any event, this is a brilliant work of fiction of any kind! Read it!
24 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A primer for political science

What would you do if you had access to the greatest supercomputer ever built? A computer so complex and intricate that it finally gains full consciousness - and only you knew about it? Would you use it for your own nefarious purposes and hack your way to riches? Would you try to teach it how to be human? Would you tell it jokes? Or would you use it to start a revolution that frees your people in the Lunar Colonies from the yoke of Terran oppression?

Manuel Garcia O'Kelly Davis never really meant for that last one to happen. One of Luna's best computer technicians, Mannie's philosophy was "Keep mouth shut" when it came to matters political, and never considered the political fate of the Moon to be something he needed to worry about. When he attends a meeting of Lunar dissidents, people protesting against the rule of the Earth-based Lunar Authority, he goes more out of curiosity than cause. An attack by Authority troops drives him together with lifelong revolutionary Wyoming Knott and anarchist professor Bernardo de la Paz, and together they hatch a plan to take down the Lunar Authority and make Luna into a sovereign nation above Earth.

To do so, they'll need the help of Mike, the world's first - and only - sentient computer. He knows the odds, he can run the scenarios - with Mike on their side, the people of Luna can gain their independence and create a new nation in the grand tradition of old.

A friend of mine said that this was the best political science textbook that she'd ever read, and in many respects she's right. This book packs a lot of social philosophy into three hundred pages, and Heinlein requires you to be pretty quick on the uptake. From Manny's clipped way of narrating the story to all the new lingo and concepts that are necessary for Lunar life, the reader needs to pay close attention in order to get the full impact of what's going on in the book.

In a way, this book is Heinlein asking the question, "How do new nations begin?" Historically, there are two ways: top-down and bottom-up. In the first case, a person or people of strength brings a group of citizens to become a political entity. In the second, the people themselves rise up to overthrow their former masters. Most revolutions are a mix of the two, really, and Luna's is no exception. The very charismatic Adam Selene (Mike in disguise) and the brilliant Professor manage to bring the people of Luna together in order to rid themselves of the Lunar Authority.

What makes it very interesting is that the book is pretty much a how-to book on insurgency and revolution. They work out an improvement on the traditional cell system of a conspiracy, and how to make it as stable and secret as possible, while still maintaining reliable communications. They figure out how to involve people in the revolution indirectly, harnessing the energies of everyone from children to old people. Working against a better-armed and more powerful enemy, Luna's revolution is a textbook model of how to overthrow your oppressors and gain your freedom.

Of course, once you have your freedom, then what do you do with it? How do you run your new country, and how do you make sure that your freedom can be maintained? How do you build a government and write a constitution and establish trade and do all the other little things that have to happen if you want a country all your own?

What's more, Heinlein puts forth a new society that is radically different from the ones we know now, and by necessity. With drastically different demographics and gravity, life on Luna cannot follow the same rules as life on Earth. This new life includes a near reverence for women, marriages that span not only multiple partners but multiple generations, and a spirit of individualism that would make the most grizzled pioneer proud. Life on the moon, as the title implies, is not easy. Many of those who come to Luna do not survive. Those who do, however, become the backbone of a new nation that will one day be the crossroads of the solar system.

It's a dense read, but fun, once you get used to the narrator's mode of speech. Manny often leaves off pronouns and articles, making him sound very choppy and direct. And a lot of it is done in speeches and Socratic dialogs between the Prof and whomever is unlucky enough to get in his way. I'd say that the greater part of this book is discussion of how to have a revolution from the point of view of the moon, and a look at how Heinlein thinks a society should be ordered.

Other than being very narrative-heavy, which modern readers might find somewhat tiring, there is one point about the book that didn't sit right with me. It didn't ruin the book, necessarily, but it put a big asterisk next to everything that Heinlein was trying to say. That asterisk is Mike.

Mike is a truly marvelous AI. He is not only self-aware and blessed with a rather rudimentary sense of humor, but he is tied into all of Luna's main systems. His processing speed and memory are exceptional, and while he doesn't really care one way or the other about rebelling against his owners, he does think that organizing a rebellion might be an entertaining diversion. He's a good character, really, but he is entirely too powerful.

All of the problems that traditionally plague conspiracies, undergrounds and rebellions are solved by Mike. He knows the probabilities of success and can run thousands of scenarios in a moment. He is able to set up a moon-wide communications system that is completely secure. He can tap into the Lunar Authority's database while at the same time keeping the Rebellion's data secret. What's more, he can be trusted to know everything about everyone in the group - he cannot be bribed or drugged or forced to name names under interrogation. He can organize the bombardment of Earth with pinpoint accuracy, bring down attacking ships and organize attacks all over the moon.

With Mike at their side, the rebels couldn't help but win, and I found that a kind of hollow victory, in a narrative sense. I kept waiting for Mike to be compromised - his power disconnected or his actual intelligence uncovered - or for him to change his mind about helping the rebels. One way or another, I wanted the rebels to win Luna without the help of their omniscient computer conspirator. As it is, Mike pretty much delivers the Moon to its people, and then vanishes without a trace. That's not to say that the human element isn't necessary - even Mike couldn't have won independence without them - I would rather have seen a wholly human revolution.

Other than that, though, it was a very good read, and it's a book that ties into a lot of Heinlein's other works. Many concepts that are key to Heinlein's vision of the world are in this book - the freedom of the individual to direct his or her own life, the benefits of polygamy over monogamy, and of course the notion of TANSTAAFL - "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" - which is arguably one of the governing principles of the universe. In this book, Heinlein asks the reader to do more than just enjoy a good story - he demands that the reader think about the message as well. And that's what makes Heinlein one of the greats.

If you're looking for some essential science fiction and you like your politics rough-and-tumble, check this book out.

--------------------------------------------------------
"At one time kings were anointed by Deity, so the problem was to see to it that Deity chose the right candidate. In this age the myth is 'the will of the people' ... but the problem changes only superficially."
- Professor Bernardo de la Paz, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
--------------------------------------------------------
23 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Dreck

I've now read Heinlein's 2 "greatest" books, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land.
Heinlein is a truly terrible writer, I honestly don't know how he is so highly rated and praised. I really tried to give him a chance but his writing style is like reading a book for tweens. It is broken and disjointed, for all of you out there who like him, my hats off to you but for myself I will not read another Heinlein novel.
22 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Don't hate me for disagreeing

A narrator with a lunar dialect. A gorgeous female conspirator and, the ace-in-the-hole, a state computer who has secretly become self-aware and has taken the side of the rebels. What could go wrong in such a novel about the first lunar revolution?

Just about everything.

The vast majority of the story is told through exposition or summarization, so the reader knows a great deal about what has happened, is happening on a large scale, and what is about to happen, but the reader never really feels like he or she is there in the midst of the action. What scenes do occur in the present are weighed down with blocks of expository dialogue and again the reader is distracted from the unfolding story. It is very difficult to identify with any of the characters. The reader has a sense that they exist as mere mechanisms for a massive info dump rather than as real people with real wants and needs.

Every Heinlein book is written a little differently. I've had mixed experiences reading his work, my favorites in the past being "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Double Star." "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress," for me, goes near the very bottom of the pile. I realize I'm in the minority here, but I perceive it as poorly written and undeserving of its status as a classic.
21 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

It's Pretty Harsh Right Here on Earth

In light of the Election 2000 disaster, maybe this is the perfect time to discover (or rediscover) Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." The year is 2076 and the time is ripe for a revolution of the residents of the moon against the controlling Authority of Earth. Such a revolution for independence seems impossible. Yet, the hero of the book, Manuel (with the assistance of a computer named Mike) slowly begins to see that revolution just may be possible.
Years ago I read several Heinlein books, but this is the first one I've read in a long time. The book works on many levels. As a science-fiction novel, I would say the books succeeds quite well. While definitely not a space-opera, Heinlein packs the novel with plenty of action and adventure. The book also works well as a mystery, satire, character study, and even as a diagram for political revolution. As always, Heinlein has some very interesting (if not a little wacky) ideas about how a society should be run. Sometimes it's fun trying to figure out whether Heinlein is stating part of his world-view or simply making fun of us as a society.
This is a great book to read right now. Ever since the Presidential Election fiasco has been in the forefront of the news, many people have said that our way of voting may be changing. Maybe even more than our voting practices will change. Heinlein's book is basically all about change. Sometimes things need to change. Sometimes we think that things must change and we try to force change. Reading this book made me think a lot about the changes that might take place in the country in the coming months and years. After you read the book, do some thinking. Every change brings with it consequences and the chance that the change may not be exactly what we thought it would be. Happy reading.
20 people found this helpful

Related Books