The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress in The Alternative Worlds

Jan 08, 2012 mark monday rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-60s-70s-80s

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 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 game they know they'll win. my little nephews seem to have a really enjoyable time kicking my ass at their various new-fangled video games. personally i don't get it, but they seem to love illustrating how easy and exciting it is, the thrill of watching all their strategies and skills coming to predictable fruition. even when there is no real competition. their eventual win is obvious. and that's the impression that i'm left with after reading the enjoyable Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

the novel is about a revolution on Luna by its oppressed permanent labor force. far in the future, the moon is the newest Prison Island... once you are transported there, you can't come back. and there you work, mainly to export grain, and live a life of economic exploitation by The Lunar Authority. you will alway live in this proletariat society. overall, it is actually not a horrible existence. the "Loonies" are an enjoyable lot, unpretentious and down to earth, concerned mainly with beer, gambling, and the ladies. Heinlein creates an odd and i suppose semi-utopic world, with a pleasing lack of laws (a kind of libertarian anarchy of sorts) and a surprisingly liberated view on women. basically, women are the social/family/romantic Boss of It All... not truly a matriarchal society per se, but rather one built around the need to make sure women are completely empowered. apparently due to the 2-to-1 status of men to women on the moon, and the need for women to be 'available' to much more than monogamy, if they so chose.

still, despite the basic lack of horror in this odd world... it's no fun to be exploited by bureaucratic overseers. and so must come REVOLUTION! we have our friendly & no-nonsense Everyman, we have our bewitching & passionate Lady in Hiding, we have our amusing & highly intellectual Idealistic Professor. and of course we have our sentient computer Mike, who likes to play games. and revolution is just another kind of game, right?

the writing is breezy, casual, and in a sort of pidgen english - a kind of cross between baby talk and our very own text messaging style. that style should be annoying but actually isn't. much like with HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, we have a fascinating computer who provides all of the genuinely emotional and resonant moments in the narrative. and - perhaps because of the time period in which the novel was written, but certainly topical today - we have a step-by-step account of How To Make A Revolution Work. Heinlein's passions come across mainly in the world-building of this almost-utopia and in the very detailed expression of how exactly to overthrow the chains of oppression through revolution (and i suppose a bit of terrorism, at times).

so back to my original point. i liked this novel, but i would never consider reading it a second time. it was fun. but the outcome was never in question. Heinlein loads the dice by making sure that everything happens as projected, each step of the way. no tension... and a tension-free revolution is a curiously child-like enterprise. child-like but not childish. there is a sweet naïveté to it all. Heinlein jerry-built this revolution to be won and so i never felt any kind of nervousness, i never worried. the only stakes that were meaningful to me were the (rather slight) emotional stakes around Mike the computer: his past loneliness, his concern about whether he is actually sentient, and his need to have friends, to talk to people who are 'not-stupid'. aww... that's adorable! Mike, i'm not super-smart or anything, but i'll be your friend! cute little revolutionary computer minds are very appealing to me. ...more

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Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: faves, revolution, the-best, sci-fi, political, to-read-again

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 worth fightin ...more

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Jun 29, 2009 Wealhtheow rated it it was ok

Shelves: pocmaincharacters, sci-fi

Moon is used as a penal colony. Generations of "Loonies" have grown up knowing nothing but minimal gravity, rigid social conventions, and the grasping Lunar Authority. The Loonies are tired of being Earth's grain producers without receiving appropriate recompence, but have no political power or weapons. Luckily for them, computerman Mannie teams up with the first AI, Mike, an old professor, and a professional revolutionary from the Hong Kong colony, the beautiful Wyoh. Together (although not rea ...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Simon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, sf-masterworks

This is your anarchist's revolutionary handbook. If you're being oppressed by imperialist overlords that treat you little better than slaves and you want to organise a revolt to liberate yourselves, this is an ideal guide to doing everything from setting up an effective underground communications network, how to know when (and what) to strike, when (and how) to netogiate with your oppressors and how to win a war when outnumbered and against a better equipped and supplied enemy. Of course, it hel This is your anarchist's revolutionary handbook. If you're being oppressed by imperialist overlords that treat you little better than slaves and you want to organise a revolt to liberate yourselves, this is an ideal guide to doing everything from setting up an effective underground communications network, how to know when (and what) to strike, when (and how) to netogiate with your oppressors and how to win a war when outnumbered and against a better equipped and supplied enemy. Of course, it helps if you have a near ompipotent and omniscient super computer who's your best friend and can organise everything and tell you what to do, but that goes without saying.

Heinlein has envisaged a near future (around one hundred years) in which the moon has been successfully settled and has been used as a penal colony; somewhere to dispose of all those social undesirables without having to inhumanely execute them (or worry about the expenditure of imprisoning them). I suppose it's a bit like what Australia used to be. However, once people have served their sentences, they can never return as after a few months of living with lunar gravity, it becomes impossible to survive in earth's gravity for any real length of time. Now there are millions of people living on the moon, most of which are not under sentence but they don't have their freedom as they are also forced to work to produce grain for export to earth and get little in return. An oppressive warden watches over them making sure they meet their quotas. The people are not happy, they want their freedom.

This book is the protagonist's account of their struggle, from his position, as one of three, at the top of their insurgent organisation. He was never that political, and wasn't that keen on becoming so, but is led by events into the heart of the stuggle.

This is a great story, told only as Heinlein could tell it, but there was something abrasive about his writing style here that made it harder work than it should have been. Perhaps it was something to do with the psudo futuristic way of speaking (not as bad as some cyber-punk novels) or the many didactic paragraphs where the characters told it like they (Heinlein?) saw it. For me, this stood in the way of my judging it to be a masterpiece.

I had high hopes for this book, I wanted it to be my first Heinlein story that really blew me away but somehow, his books always manage to fall short. A very good book nonetheless. ...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Jack Burnett rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

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 ha ...more

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May 10, 2012 Kelly rated it liked it

3.5 stars. Too often it read like Heinlein's how-to book on launching a libertarian revolution, which is fine and all, except I would have liked some more actual plot. ...more

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