The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress: Soap-box on the Moon
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Heinlein’s libertarian creed is TANSTAAFL ("There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"), and this book is probably the most complete expression of his political ideas about self-government, attempts to empower women while still being incredibly sexist and condescending, and some pretty good hard SF extrapolation of what a moon colony’s technology, politics and economy might be like. Oh yeah, and there happens to be an omniscient, all-powerful AI named Mike who helps the Loonies stage their revolution against the oppressive Lunar Authority (can you say DEUS EX MACHINA?). The outcome is never really in doubt, so what we are given instead is a 300-page lecture on what Heinlein’s ideal society would be.

Basically Heinlein thinks that most politicians are self-serving and corrupt (tough to argue with that), nothing important can be decided with more than three people, and intellectuals are useless yammerheads that just do a lot of talk-talk. However, for someone who doesn’t like talk-talk, I’d say about 85% of this book was just that, with almost a complete lack of action or tension and rest being an ultra-detailed description of how a revolution could be planned and executed. The critical flaw here is that none of the revolution would work without the comprehensive computer powers of AI Mike. The rest of the revolutionaries are simply depending on him to work his magic. So what does that say about the realizability of a libertarian utopia like the Free Luna State??? Deep down, I don’t think Heinlein really believes that any such society could ever come to fruition, since regular people just aren’t smart enough to pull it off.

In the end, it’s pretty clear that Heinlein can only really be satisfied with two types of people in the world: The super-competent blue-collar engineer-type everyman that most of his protagonists are, and the super-intelligent, totally-sexy, and yet thoroughly subservient women that dig guys like that. The only thing better is a polyandry/group marriage society where you can be married to several of these delectable creatures! It’s too bad the story takes such a backseat to the political daydreaming, since Mike the AI is such a likeable super-computer and the Loonie society is carefully constructed.

There are many readers who think this is probably Heinlein's last readable and thought-provoking novel before he went off the deep end into his libertarian, female-worship, crotchety old man stage, and I would certainly be in agreement.

3.75ish stars.

It's the mark of a talented writer that a book that's basically 75% socio-political exposition is somehow entertaining. The narrator, Mannie, isn't particularly charismatic, lovable, or relatable enough to latch onto emotionally, but it works because he's funny in a deadpan sort of way, and loyal enough to admire. Obviously the star of the novel is Mike, and the best parts of the book were of Mike settling into his humanity. Overall, a satisfying story with a satisfying ending, but not one that will stay with me throughout the years like other classic sci-fi.

The audiobook version narrated by Lloyd James is highly recommended.

Señor/a Anarquista del Futuro:
Cuando vaya usted a rebelarse contra la tiranía de la Tierra para liberar la Luna acuérdese de este libro, que le dará todas las claves necesarias para montar una Revolución como Dios (o Lenin) manda.
Eso sí, espérense a tener un ordenador superinteligente con conciencia de sí mismo para poder tener éxito.

Heinlein cuenta aquí una historia universal: la rebelión del pueblo contra la tiranía, la lucha para conseguir esa utopía y los problemas para mantenerla una vez que lo consigues. Todo ello situado en el contexto del conflicto Tierra-Luna y aderezado con un personaje interesantísimo: el ordenador con conciencia de sí mismo Mike.
Heinlein demuestra que en el año 1966 supo ver lo que está ocurriendo hoy en día o está por ocurrir: la dominancia en la economía de China o la creación de ordenadores que controlan el funcionamiento de una sociedad.

No le pongo las 5 estrellas porque no puedo con el nivel de detalle del autor al especificar durante páginas las variaciones del precio de los cereales y la devaluación de la moneda.
Por lo demás gran novela.

I read Stranger in a Strange Land twice. I loathed it with a passion the first time I read it, sometimes in the Eighties. I tried again in 2008 when it was a selection for one of my GoodReads groups. I thought maybe I was missing something, so I decided to go for the re-read. It was just as awful the second time. Because of my experience, I vowed I would never read Heinlein again. Several people told me that Stranger in a Strange Land wasn't really his best work and that I should try The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress instead. After listening to the discussion on the Sword & Laser podcast about this book, I decided to give it a try. (A $4.95 sale at Audible really decided it for me.) I will hereby vow never to read anything by Heinlein again. You will never convince me to read Starship Troopers or The Puppet Masters or any other Heinlein book. There just aren't enough reading hours in a lifetime to spend trying to discover why this author is considered to be a science fiction great.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress started off promising. A computer repair guy learns that the computer he's working on has become sentient and they become good friends. Computer guy gets involved with revolutionaries and computer becomes a key figure in the revolution. However, the novel quickly digresses into lecturing about politics, gender relations, economics, and a plethora of other topics. It was a primer on revolution. There was a lot of talking, but not much action. Even if the book were cut in half, there would still be too much exposition.

The only thing that brought this book up from one star to two for me was the narrator. He did a great job with the voice of Manuel and with the other characters. He made the unbearable slightly tolerable.

“The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” – what a title, sometimes I wonder if this book is considered such a classic in large part due to that title. Despite some imperfections, it does have much to offer, especially being published in the mid-1960’s. The setting revolves around a former Lunar penal outpost, which has evolved into a highly functioning colony with ice mining and successful grain farming. The colony is tightly managed by the Lunar Authority which is controlled from Earth. Set in the later 21st century, Heinlein imagines an intriguing future, publicizing some groundbreaking technology and ideas. We not only have sentient computers, rail guns, fusion power, space battles with laser guns, we also have a Lunar dialect, unique family and marital structures, and different social norms, sprung out of living in a harsh and compact environment. After establishing this future, the book explores a lunar revolution. Take the American Revolution narrative, mix it with the Australian evolution from a penal colony to an independent nation, stir in some libertarian ideology and you have the plot.

When I first read this book in the mid-1980’s it was later high school or early college years, I can’t quite remember. I was astonished by the concepts in this book. I was intrigued by the sentient computer and the concept of using a rail gun for space travel/supply logistics. Moreover, It was the first time I was truly interested in politics and political principles. I mean, I had some lessons in high school around government, but I found it mind-numbingly boring. This book triggered something intellectually that made me think deeply about government philosophy. Since then, I’ve considered the book one of my favorite science fiction books, if not overall favorite books. So, I almost regret this reread, afterwards, as I just couldn’t ignore some of its flaws.

The primary issue with this book is sexism. I’m sure at the time of its writing it was probably considered progressive in terms of how it treated female characters. I mean one of the central figures of the revolt is a woman. And the women on the moon control large, extended families with polygamous relationships. Women are revered and sexual advances are not allowed without permission. Advanced thinking for the early 1960’s, right? Well, unfortunately, you only need to go one step deeper to dig down to the issues. Women are only revered and not touched or raped due to their scarcity. The constant threat of other males tossing violators out an airlock is what creates this situation. It’s still socially acceptable to catcall and ogle women, and in this reality, women enjoy this type of lecherous attention because they don’t have to worry about rape. While one of the central characters is one of four founding members of the revolution, her role is often to gain interest and support due to her attractiveness. And when miners are reluctant to main defensive laser positions, the solution is to provide pretty women at the posts as well, problem solved!

Another issue includes a tremendous amount of exposition. It does help that its written in first person, so at least the infodumps are coming from the mind of the protagonist, instead of an anonymous narrator. The exposition also serves to move the plot along quickly at times, when complex setting, political, and technical information needs to be established. However, it did limit my enjoyment to continuously run into large blocks of narration.

Despite these flaws, it’s still an important book. Using science fiction to explore political affairs and alternate social structures set a foundation that many future authors built upon. Might we not have “The Handmaids Tale” without this book? Possibly. Was it brave in the 1960’s to explore alternate social structures such as polygamy? Definitely. Did the book popularize some intriguing concepts such as the importance of the moon’s weak gravity well, sentient computers, and rail guns? Absolutely. In the context of history, I still rate this book highly. However, I feel compelled to take away at least half a star in recognizing some underlying issues – TANSTAAFL! Four and a half stars, rounded up to five for this Hugo Award winning, philosophical yet action packed tale.

ترجمه بیشتر مواقعا بسیار گنک و نامفهوم. ایده داستان و پیشبردش نسبتا خوب. این بین دوست دارم خود مترجم یکبار دیگه کتاب رو بخونه و ببینه میفهمه چیزی از داستان یا نه.

“Chaotic crossed with psychotic.”

Disappointed. I read this story fifty years ago and loved it. On re-reading it now, I found it not only trite, but disturbing. This is going to be long, but I must justify dropping a former five-star rating to two. (I gave a star back for literary merit. Heinlein was a great storyteller.)

“He really did think he was Sherlock Holmes’s brother Mycroft … nor would I swear he was not; ‘reality’ is a slippery notion.”

The star of the story is Mike, more properly Mycroft, a “gigantic” self-aware computer.

“I will accept any rules you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”

Professor de la Paz is Heinlein’s anarchistic Yoda; and Manuel is everyman. This book is fictionalized propaganda for the kind of ugly libertarianism advocated by Aleister Crowley and Ayn Rand, as practiced by Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, etc. The Prof declares himself a rational anarchist: The ends justify the means. Murder and theft are okay, if done by your side. If the other side does it, it’s an atrocity. Sound familiar?

“I stopped three paces away to look her up and down and whistle. She held her pose, then nodded to thank me but abruptly—bored with compliments, no doubt.”

Misogynic. Even for the sixties, Heinlein is quite the sexist. Evidence also of the incest and pedophilia themes which would dominate his later works. “Ludmilla is a sweet little thing, just fifteen and pregnant first time.” “She’s below the age of consent. Statutory rape." “Oh, bloody! No such thing. Women her age are married or ought to be. Stu, no rape in Luna. None. Men won’t permit.” Did he believe that?

“One first thing learned about Luna, back with first shiploads of convicts, was that zero pressure was place for good manners.”

Quibbles: Manual has a pseudo-Slavic accent which carries into the narrative. But no one else, not even his family, have accents anything like it. “started tub” Admitted water shortage on moon, yet they take baths. “Sundown Tuesday to sundown Wednesday, local time Garden of Eden (zone minus-two, Terra) was the Sabbath. So we ate early in Terran north-hemisphere summer months.” (No, you’d eat later because the sun sets later in the summer.)

“Easier to get people to hate than to get them to love.”

One positive theme: race is no big deal. Most Loonies are mixed race and proud of it. The United States is moving that direction today, if the white and black racists would let go of their real or imagined privileged positions.

“Parliamentary bodies all through history, when they accomplished anything, owed it to a few strong men who dominated the rest.”

The backstory economics make no sense: prisoners are transported to the moon to grow wheat for export to earth.

“All Terran satellites could accept high speed as sixty-to-one.” Slower than a dial-up modem. Remember them?

Things he guessed wrong: computers; his were still programmed with punch cards; apparently had no solid-state memory. (He shouldn’t have missed that one: semiconductor memory had already been invented by 1966. In fact, Moore’s Law was written in 1965.) “Got empty memory bank?” “Yes, Man. Ten to the eighth-bits capacity.” (A mere 100 megabits, not bytes. 100 megabyte chips were available in 2002.) Wireless communication. “needed to stay on phone and longest cord around ….” Things he guessed right: solar panels, “escape-speed induction catapult.”

“Tanstaafl. ‘There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.’ Anything free costs twice as much in long run or turns out worthless. One way or other, what you get, you pay for.”

This is a famous SF almost utopia novel by one of the greatest SF authors of the 20th century, Robert A. Heinlein. I read is as a part of monthly reading for April 2020 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The novel won Hugo, was nominated for Nebula and is an important book for libertarian movement.

The book follows the life of Manuel Garcia "Mannie" O'Kelly-Davis, a computer engineer and a second generation Loonie (an inhabitant of Luna/Moon). He runs repairs on ”High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L”—a HOLMES FOUR, a computer that achieved sentience (which is initially known only to Mannie).

The Moon is used by the Earth the same way Australia was used by the British – as a penal colony. The lower gravity severely affects muscle mass and even after the term is over, ex-convicts cannot return (even if they have the funds to pay the fare, which they usually don’t) except as a permanently disabled persons.

Like most SF works of the period, this novel assumes overpopulated Earth unable to feed itself, with Moon working as a grain basket – lower gravity allows to send grain to Earth with just a powerful catapult. The Luna is governed by Luna Authority, highly authoritarian government at least partially based on socialist bloc countries (Heinlein visited the USSR in 1960, so his critic is based on the first hand experience), while convicts are not only criminal but political dissidents as well. Therefore, there are people able and willing to start a revolution. As an anti-thesis for authoritarianism the revolutionaries go for maximum liberty, here libertarian utopia as their goal.

Maybe an unexpected glance of the novel I got upon the re-read is its environmentalism. The Earth-Moon trade is unsustainable, because Moon sends its limited water (as grain) and if this continues the system will collapse.

The 1960s are the Golden age for Heinlein adult SF, he is full of new ideas but still listens to editors when they cut his grumbles about politics and other issues. Later his failing health and disillusion in where the US is heading will make him more bitter. Highly recommended book.

DNF@43%

I'm certain Heinlein was a groundbreaking, revolutionary and insightful author and that to many, this book is all that and more.

Unfortunately I was bored into a deep slumber where I dreamed of the many engaging and entertaining books I could be reading instead.

It's too bad that technology today isn't what it is in Robert Heinlein's world. His books are filled with fascinating ideas and philosophies, and this book is not an exception.

I can only imagine what life would be like on Luna. While this isn't happening now, Heinlein makes it sound believable, from what he reveals to us of Loonie life, and the philosophy also makes sense. This book is also full of practical knowledge and commonsense, and it seems that our own government could learn a thing or two from this book. It's also a good romp as a simple sci-fi novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like sci-fi and philosophy, you will too. If you're not really into either, then oh well. :)

İthakinin çevirisi ve editörlüğü(berbat olsa da) bu kitabın güzelliğine gölge düşürememiş.

Moon is one of my favorite of Heinlein's novels. It is a near-future story where the moon has become a penal colony. Harsh survival conditions grow an admirable culture and the story surrounds a revolution for freedom and independence from the jailors.

Unlike some of Heinlein's novels, the plot is solid from beginning to end. Characters are amazing as always with Heinlein. The libertarian backdrop and plausibility of both the culture with which we start and the actions taken in revolution are satisfying. For adults approaching Heinlein, this is an excellent start.

As of my 2012 reading, my seventh, this is a still a favorite. The end still makes me cry and the novel still makes me happy throughout. This was a perfect addition to my current "literary comfort food" binge.

In 2013, I tried this one with the kids, and it was a bit much. I mostly ended up skipping ahead and revisiting it on my own.