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Dec 17, 2009

She-Who-Reads rated it:

This is an excellent novel, action-packed, exciting, and deftly-plotted, with fascinating, complex characters and some interesting science-fictional ideas. I also enjoyed reading about Luna's culture; I thought the marriage customs were particularly interesting.

One thing I noticed right off was the way the Loonies use language differently than people from earth do. In fact, it threw me at first -- I couldn't figure out what was going on or why the language was so rough and unpolished More...

4 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2011

Ron rated it:

HAL before HAL. One of Heinlein's best.

5 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

mark rated it:

do you play games where you know the outcome of the game itself is without question... where any fun to be had is not so much in the winning - that's predetermined - but in figuring out how exactly you will win, what moves you will make, how you will overcome all those minor hurdles along the way? that's sometimes how i feel when playing chess with some folks. for me, it's not the most exciting thing in the world; it's a little eye-rolling. i think others may have more excitement when playing a More...

8 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2008

Kelly rated it:

This is quite possibly Heinlein's most politically charged book. People speak of Stranger in a Strange Land as being socially revolutionary, but this book is both that (polygamous marriage to form extended families, murder generally allowed, but insults to women punishable by death) and politically charged (Libertarian, Libertarian, Libertarian, though not exactly that kind of loopy American Libertarian Party kind, but a kind based more strictly on a dismantling of governmental power).
It More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

S.A. rated it:

A rare Heinlein that I enjoyed immensely, I will buying a copy of this to join my long-beloved Stranger in a Strange Land. I can only admire the skill it takes to come up with a believable slang and "voice" for the narrating character and to stick with it evenly throughout the novel. While on the surface, the story seems to follow a rather boring formula (a professor, a pretty blonde, and a jack-of-all-trades join with a master computer for a revolution), Heinlein spins enough creativi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2007

Tatiana rated it:

My favorite book by Robert Heinlein, and he wrote some good ones. Like all Heinlein, this one is a page-turner with lots of engrossing action. Though we do get the standard Heinlein irascible opinionated character along with much political and social commentary, it's all integrated so seamlessly with the story, and is so clever and well-written that we hardly notice we're being preached at. =) The ideas and the technology are really fun. I love the lineal marriages. I totally want one. =) More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2008

David rated it:

A brilliant science fiction adventure based on a libertarian theme. Although I like Heinlein, this is one of the few of his books that I've managed to finish. The reason I usually give up is because they tend to be episodic and one story ends before the next one has begun.

In this case there is a unitary theme about people in a colony (the Moon) who are being short-changed by their colonial masters and who realize that their only long-term hope is to "dissolve the political bonds More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2011

Knowledge Lost rated it:

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 p More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2009

Kim rated it:

Quaintly libertarian. I'd forgotten how much Heinlein likes his characters to talk... and talk... But you gotta give the guy credit, he came up with some interesting ideas about how societies might evolve. The pacing on this was kind of slow for me - it's told like a diary or historical recounting, so there isn't much immediate action going on. Also, the narrator uses a kind of shorthand, so it's a little like having the entire book read to you by Rorschach (except without, you know, all the ran More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Dan rated it:

My favorite Heinlein novel - a great revolution story, a great AI story, and a great Hard Sci-Fi, if the science in question is political.

What I learned from this book:
1. History bends and melts over time.
2. The first AI we meet might not be intentional.
3. Throwing rocks can get serious over interplanetary distances.
4. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2009

Joe rated it:

I couldn't help but compare Heinlein's fictional description of life in a Lunar Penal Colony to the way life was for these United States of America struggling for independence from England.

It is written from the perspective of a citizen of Luna (the penal colony on the Moon) who was born there, so it takes a chapter or two to get used to the dialect he uses. It's really just abbreviated English with some Russian words and words from a few other languages.

I was immediately More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2008

Mark rated it:

Ah, Heinlein: SF's great paradox artist. I am fairly certain that I have personally held every possible wrong viewpoint on the man. Namely, that he was:

1) A radically forward-thinking visionary of libertarianism
2) A raging fascist, homophobe, and misogynist
3) Any point on the sociopolitical spectrum in between.

It's not my fault. Over the course of his career, Heinlein seemed to espouse every possible viewpoint on religion, government, and gender relations ( More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 23, 2009

Manny rated it:

Robert Heinlein was a good friend of AI legend Marvin Minsky (check out his people page! It's interesting!), and I've heard that they often used to chat about AI, science-fiction, and the connections between them. Here's a conversation I imagine them having some time between 1961, when Stranger in a Strange Land was published, and 1966, when The Moon is a Harsh Mistress appeared:

"Bob, this book's not so bad, but I felt it could have been so much better! OK, love the idea of the More...

11 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2010

Brad rated it:

I’ve read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress twice in twenty years. Two decades between readings and it still holds up surprisingly well. Heinlein’s Lunar Revolution, his benevolent AI, Mycroft (aka Mike), and Professor de la Paz’s ideas for government were all exactly how I remembered them. Yet I found that my favourite part of the rereading experience was the tale it told about me.

When I read this book the first time, I was an idealistic youth who believed that change was possible and w More...

16 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2008

_inbetween_ rated it:

2 stars, but I didn't like it. Can you answer my QUESTION in the end?

As I mentioned with Asimov, I had been so (stupidly) looking forward to this book, planing to get more of Henlein. I'm not sure how I got the idea he was on ok guy - maybe I confused him with what I'd read by Aldiss, maybe it was still "The Door into Summer" (which I always confuse with Willis "TSNOTD" because I can't remember anything but the ingenius first chapter for which I bought Henlein's n More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Johnny rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It deals with the ever-popular "sentient computer" and the question of whether or not a computer can achieve self-awareness and if it does, whether it is truly "alive." The computer becomes one of the main characters in the story, which is a tale of a moon colony and its eventual independence from earth. I am not a scientist, so I don't have any idea whether the science in this story is plausible or not, but the characters and the study of future More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

Corinne rated it:

Humans have colonized the moon. At first the moon was a penal colony - criminals were sent there instead of being executed. As time went by and as children were born - a lunar culture evolved as life became more sustainable, yet life on the moon was always under the thumb of the "Lunar Authority," which was headquartered on earth.

Enter Mannie, the one armed computer programmer, Prof, the aged but savvy professor and Wyoh, a political activist. These three, with the help of More...

0 comments like

Dec 19, 2008

melydia rated it:

My first taste of Heinlein was Stranger in a Strange Land a few years back. It was, in a word, bad. So I gave up on Heinlein all together, figuring if his most famous and critically acclaimed book was no good, what chance did the others have? This conviction was met with protests from Heinlein fans, saying I need to read some "good" Heinlein before making the call. So I did, though it took me an unusually long time to finish. I just couldn't get into it. The characters were two-dimensi More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Pvw rated it:

I think this is Heinlein's most controlled book. It shows great mastery in the language. The book is written from the perspective of a lunar colonist, who uses a gramatically simplified language with many invented slang words. After striking you as peculiar on the first page, you immediately stop noticing the special diction and the idiom just makes itself clear, without the necessity to explain the new words. On the other hand, the language keeps conveying the 'strangeness' of the Moon, the ide More...

0 comments like

Feb 06, 2012

The Fza rated it:

Pay your debts. Collect what is owed to you. Maintain your reputation and that of your family... In 2075, on the underground colonies scattered across Earth's Moon, that's what life amounted to.

I've been a Heinlein fan since I read Have Space Suit—Will Travel as a young man. After which I made a point of reading Heinlein books. He imbued his characters with a sort of 'Rational Anarchy' that made them both strong and venerable. This accompanied with his straightforward story tell More...

0 comments like

Jan 25, 2012

Bruce rated it:

One thing that had always bothered me with Heinlein books are their tendency to be self-validating to an annoying degree. For example, Starship Troopers is one gigantic endorsement of aggressive military policy, and lends absolutely no credit to pacifists. The single differing opinion expressed in that book turns out to be a trick: a recruiter spouts anti-war rhetoric to weed out improper candidates. In that sense The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a bit relieving; surely, there are dominant ideas More...

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Dec 22, 2011

Ken rated it:

This classic sci-fi tale is as exciting today as when I first read it nearly twenty years ago. While I know that Heinlein is a bit of a controversial writer given some of his later work, he is a master story teller and in Moon he is at the height of his powers.

The book involves the revolution of the convict and former convict population of the Moon in 2076. Heinlein envisions a future in which the corrupt regimes of Earth use the Moon as a dumping ground for dangerous criminals and po More...

0 comments like

Nov 18, 2011

Heatherwilliamson rated it:

This book makes you think. A lot. You think about who you are, why you are the way you are, how you developed your tastes, why you choose to be in certain groups or with certain people. In short: This book makes you think.
The plot: Luna is an open penal colony and the regime is a harsh one. Not surprisingly, revolution against the hated authority is planned. The key figures who end up leading the revolt are an unlikely team: Manuel Garcia O'Kelly, an engaging jack of all trades, the beaut More...

0 comments like

Oct 16, 2011

Sarah rated it:

(My reviews aren't intended to recap the story. You can read the book jacket for that. The spoilers are here by accident, only because I felt I wanted to comment on this or that aspect of the story. It's really just my random thoughts.)

Loved the actor who did the audio on this one. He did a great job differentiating all the characters and maintaining the various accents. Quite a challenge in this book!

This is one of those classics of sci-fi that was on my long list to rea More...

0 comments like

Aug 31, 2011

Fungus rated it:

In the late 21st century, the residents of the Moon, all of them criminals and other personae non gratae banished from Earth (together with their descendants), rebel against the economic servitude imposed from the mother planet. As is often the case in Heinlein’s work, the hero of the story is Heinlein himself, disguised this time as an apolitical computer mechanic who is pressed by the rush of events and his own personal affections to play a major role in the revolution. It is this character More...

0 comments like

Aug 16, 2011

Steven rated it:

I started reading Heinlein novels back when I was a teenager, and managed to plow through the Heinlein library between the ages of 16 to 25. This set of thought has played a large role in shaping who I grew up to be. And re-reading those novels now makes me think how amazing it was that I *did* read those novels at the time, and happy that I did.

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is one of my most favorite of Heinlein's novels, but one which I haven't re-read (until just now) sin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Russell rated it:

I read this years ago when I was a preteen and liked it then. In truth, I approached with some trepidation, what once was enjoyable when young doesn't always have the same appeal when older. However, I wasn't disappointed. Heinlein published this in 1966 at the height of his powers as a hard SciFi author. What is a fairly straightforward plot, the residents of the moon rebel, is just a cover for Heinlein's ability to expound to the reader with ideas Heinlein had been brewing on. The dialogue co More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Felix rated it:

This is pretty much my favourite Heinlein book. I started reading this about two years ago before I headed off on my epic trip around the Indian Ocean having bought it from Readings on Lygon Street, but had to interrupt it until a few days ago. In the book, a band of rebel libertarians living in a penal colony on the moon organise and fight for freedom. Eventually they're liberated, but the battle to remain independent from Earth has only just begun. So many excellent concepts are introduced More...

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Jun 26, 2011

Kristin rated it:

This was my first experience with Heinlein, and it took me a bit to get used to his style. Fortunately, the story is interesting and the characters likable, so a reader can get lost in the words quickly. The basic premise: the moon is established as a penal colony that will supply water to Earth; however, after a few generations the inhabitants lobby for independence. One of the great things about the characters is that he includes SF mainstays like the sentient computer and the unassuming-but More...

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Jun 21, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This book was a very weird reading experience. I would always get tired of reading about a page exactly before the end of a chapter and push myself to finish it, only to find myself eagerly turning the pages onward once I’d reached the goal. I was either completely engrossed in what was going on, or saying “huh?” There was a lot of action in this book. A lot of fighting and scheming, even a little romance. And there was a ton of politics and international relations talk-talk going on. That was w More...

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