Paperback, 288 pages
Published March 14, 2005 by Hodder & Stoughton Paperbacks.
It is the late 21st Century and the Moon has been colonized -- as a giant, open, prison. Every aspect of life is overseen by the Federated Nations "Lunar Authority"; until one day when a self-aware Super-Computer, a Jack of all Trades Technician, an Anarchist Professor, and a beautiful Blonde Revolutionary decide to change their world. The conspirators' plans go along beautifully...for a while.
TANSTAAFL! There ain't no such thing as a free lunch! 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 feel 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 …
It is the late 21st Century and the Moon has been colonized -- as a giant, open, prison. Every aspect of life is overseen by the Federated Nations "Lunar Authority"; until one day when a self-aware Super-Computer, a Jack of all Trades Technician, an Anarchist Professor, and a beautiful Blonde Revolutionary decide to change their world. The conspirators' plans go along beautifully...for a while.
TANSTAAFL! There ain't no such thing as a free lunch! 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 feel 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. - Back cover.
Definitely an interesting book. Not completely sure what I think. That seems to be par for the course for Heinlein in my experience.
Was really neat. Liked and disliked the choice of using a new language. Lots of characters, but only really needed to know a few, so wasn't overwhelming. Super progressive for being written in the 60s, but also sometimes some very weird and archaic views of women (or fems).
Not bad
Captivating story
Great Sci-Fi classic!
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress pleasantly surprised me with how good it is. It has polyamory (healthily), a sentient computer, a point-of-view character with a prosthesis, and serious discussions of morality/ethics under oppression and during/after revolution.
The language and code-switching is cool, I knew enough of the words in the polyglot that I only missed things borrowed from Russian. The world building is on the right side of the balance between info dump and sparse description that all sci-fi books have to navigate. The polyamory and polygamy is described well, has a bit of a “relationships... in SPACE” feel but is really cool. Overall I have no qualms recommending this to someone, and I enjoyed it a lot. The main cw is for sexual assault/murder, but even that is handled very well and described in as low-stress of a way as is possible while still including it.
A great complement to [b:The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism|112849|The Machinery of Freedom Guide to a Radical Capitalism|David D. Friedman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298443612s/112849.jpg|108657] that I had recently read and that recommended The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It meditates on much the same political questions but in a vivid sci-fi setting.
We are 60 years in the future (100 from writing) on a moon base with millions of people and a full-blown AI. Yet there are just a few computers and no personal digital technology. Also no mobile communication. They use land lines and typewriters. Even computers use sped-up audio recordings to transmit data. I got a kick out of this very 1960s future.
It has a strong current of feminism though that I found unexpected in a book of that era. (Women still make dinner of course.)
I found it surprisingly insightful for its AI philosophy as well. Mike …
A great complement to [b:The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism|112849|The Machinery of Freedom Guide to a Radical Capitalism|David D. Friedman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298443612s/112849.jpg|108657] that I had recently read and that recommended The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It meditates on much the same political questions but in a vivid sci-fi setting.
We are 60 years in the future (100 from writing) on a moon base with millions of people and a full-blown AI. Yet there are just a few computers and no personal digital technology. Also no mobile communication. They use land lines and typewriters. Even computers use sped-up audio recordings to transmit data. I got a kick out of this very 1960s future.
It has a strong current of feminism though that I found unexpected in a book of that era. (Women still make dinner of course.)
I found it surprisingly insightful for its AI philosophy as well. Mike did everything an evil AI would do. He built out the entire system for his own rule. When humans proposed a distributed cell system he suggested adding a central link to himself. He controlled all communication and was an apt liar.
It's a good point for how a caged AI could break free: by providing indispensable support for a minority in need. Instead of taking over the world with an army of killer robots, it would use an army of freedom fighters.
I think his disappearance at the end proves Mike was not evil though. To achieve the goals of Free Luna he had to be erased, and he did so when it became feasible. Good guy Mike!
Although Revolution seems a bit too easy and it's really permeated by libertarian views, which you might or m,ight not share... the ideas on it are worth a thought. I liked the political reflection and the idea of a playful AI learning about jokes. :)
Clearly laying the foundations for science fiction to come, this is a strong politically-charged work with rich characters from one of the founding fathers of the genre.
I'll rate this book as one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read, right up there with Dune and Foundation. The fact that it was written in 1966, years before the age of the computer, is just remarkable. Heinlein manages to accurately predict so many things that we take for granted today: Big Data analysis, predictive modelling, voice recognition, social media marketing, pervasive electronic communications ("internet"). And this is just the computer side of things, scratching the surface of what this book is about.
The book may be categorised as sci-fi, but it's really about the human condition. The political drama is superb.
Highly recommended.
Still one of my favorite novels.
This is my favorite Heinlein book and I just reread it after probably 20 years; still love it, although I now see it as a bit more oversimplified and idealistic than I did back then. Still, Mike is a likeable, sympathetic, and poignant character and the hypothetical society and situation of the moon colony are very well described. Although there is a strong political theme as with many Heinlein books, it's not out of place or forced in the setting of this book, and his idea of line marriages is actually quite interesting. Also as usual with Heinlein the characters are a little two-dimensional, but it's still a remarkable book particularly given its age. On this rereading I found myself wishing it were a longer book with more detail; I was sad to come to the end again so soon. I've read an extensive amount of Heinlein and although I've …
This is my favorite Heinlein book and I just reread it after probably 20 years; still love it, although I now see it as a bit more oversimplified and idealistic than I did back then. Still, Mike is a likeable, sympathetic, and poignant character and the hypothetical society and situation of the moon colony are very well described. Although there is a strong political theme as with many Heinlein books, it's not out of place or forced in the setting of this book, and his idea of line marriages is actually quite interesting. Also as usual with Heinlein the characters are a little two-dimensional, but it's still a remarkable book particularly given its age. On this rereading I found myself wishing it were a longer book with more detail; I was sad to come to the end again so soon. I've read an extensive amount of Heinlein and although I've enjoyed many of his other books too, this remains my #1 favorite of them all (mainly because of Mike).
''When Mike was installed in Luna, he was pure thinkum, a flexible logic -- ''High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L'' -- HOLMES FOUR. He computed ballistics for pilotless freighters and controlled their catapult. This kept him busy less than one per cent 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 time that number of neuristors.
And woke up.''
This here is my favorite book. I suppose The Road meant more to me, but when I'm taking my entrance test for heaven, and they ask me what my favorite book was and why, I'll say this one. And it'll be because of the amazing world Heinlein created, and the amazing characters he had populate it, and the ideas, which aren't always new -- in fact, certain of them are awfully old, and crusty from disuse -- those characters have, and the story, oh!, the amazing story of the liberation of the moon. I have a tattoo with a brass cannon over a field or stars with a red bar sinister and the acronym TANSTAAFL on my left arm. This is my favorite book.
After getting past Heinlein's usual Oedipal fantasies, this quickly became a wonderful book - one of his best!
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a political/sci-fi masterpiece. The book tells the story of Lunar (used to exile criminals and their families, once you adapt to life on the moon it was almost impossible to adjust back to the gravity of earth) and their struggle to become a free nation. Lunar while a place of criminals, political exiles or their descendants is like any other countries; yearning for liberty and to be free from the tyranny of their slaves. With the help of a supercomputer with a personality; Mycroft, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a well-paced, action charged, science fiction must-read. Without giving much away this book has a strong political message but done in such a way that the story and climax is never effected.
