The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress in SciFi and Fantasy Book Club

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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Oct 23, 2012 Oni rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, favorites

This one easily falls into my favorite rack. It has all things about my favorite: colonization, revolution, and artificial intelligence. But still, you need to be a wordsmith in order to weave all of that into a wonderful story.

Let see the first issue, colonization. This book does not tell a whole story about colonization, like Red Mars for example. The colony in the Moon is already there in the beginning. It is the telling of how they live in the Moon that is interesting: how the recycling of w This one easily falls into my favorite rack. It has all things about my favorite: colonization, revolution, and artificial intelligence. But still, you need to be a wordsmith in order to weave all of that into a wonderful story.

Let see the first issue, colonization. This book does not tell a whole story about colonization, like Red Mars for example. The colony in the Moon is already there in the beginning. It is the telling of how they live in the Moon that is interesting: how the recycling of water is the utmost important fact of life, how to live in a world only one sixth of Earth's gravity, how to live in a zero pressure environment, etc. And the most important part is how that the harsh environment and a unique demographic mix create a new way of living that differ so much with the Earth, even repulsive for some Earthworm (to use the Loonies lingo). This fact alone makes this novel a very interesting hard sci-fi as well as a soft sci-fi.

The second issue, revolution. Who does not like the story of a revolution? And this is one the best story of a revolution. It is comparable with my all time favorite: The Dispossessed. The Lunar Penal colony finally decided that they want their own free government. In this novel you will find many tips for starting a revolution. I don't know whether it will work or not. Anyway, to quote the book itself, we are all amateurs in revolution.

I know that for some readers, politics in novel is a major turn-off. Well, not for me. It is actually a major turn-on, as long as it is well written. It is really clear that this novel advocates libertarianism, or as it is said in this novel: "rational anarchism". I am actually more into anarchism, but I still find that Heinlein is doing a great job in advocating libertarianism, just like what he has done in Starship Troopers. The best part I think is when (view spoiler)

The third issue, AI. Mike, a sentient computer in this novel defeat my old favorite from 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL. Mike is witty, with sometimes a strange sense of humor. He (or she) evolved from a "mere" sentient computer to be a fully realized individual, with many times our brain processing power. It is really interesting to see how a sentient computer become the center stage of the story of a revolution.

This is why that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress indeed deserves to be in my favorite rack. ...more

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