Pros: They are few....philosophy of family dynamics was interesting as ever.
Cons: They are many....dated. Boring. Dull predictable characters and a "who cares" plot.
The Bottom Line: Don't waste your time unless science fiction that is severely dated combined with "C-SPAN meets Chicks With Guns" is your special cup of tea
snpmurray's Full Review: Robert A. Heinlein - Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
In this story Robert Heinlein transports us to a near future in which he envisages the moon becoming a gigantic penal colony. In warrens under the surface of the moon generations of men and women no longer wanted on earth for a variety of reasons have made their lives. Farming, barter, manufacture and the oldest professions of all thrive here in equal measure. All is controlled by the central authority, the key-holders to this peculiar prison. Naturally, since the inmates/inhabitants of the moon are not free, they do not enjoy an equal footing in trade or rights to their counterparts on earth. This has for some time been causing growing unrest. The unrest is in danger of boiling over into riots any day now when we join the narrative of Luna's number one computer technician, Manuel Davis.
Manuel and his robotic arm are the only parties qualified to work on the mainframe computer which runs the integral systems of the whole colony. As such, it is only Manuel who has come to learn that the computer has developed consciousness as an emergent consequence of being endlessly upgraded.
Manuel is fascinated by and inseparably linked to both the coming revolution and the growing friendship of the computer, who is Mike to his friends (named for Mycroft Holmes.) As the friendship deepens and the revolution begins to take nebulous shape Manuel and his co-conspirators realize that Mike is their ace in the whole, and with the help of the machine they can gain control of Luna despite their inferior position and numbers.
What follows is a recipe for a revolution. From the organization of cells to the diplomatic wrangling required for recognition of a coup state, to how to successfully attack earth from the moon when you have no army, no ships and no weapons, this story has it all. The revolution grows, Manuel becomes embroiled to a degree he never anticipated, and Mike turns out to be more incredible a machine than anyone could have hoped.
Can a bunch of convicts and a computer posing as the leader of a revolution that does not yet exist bring the moon to emancipation?
Will the warden realize his computer has woken up, and pull the plug?
How long does someone born on the moon have to sleep in lead pajamas before they can stand up without fainting down on the Earth?
The answer to these and other testing questions are to be found in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."
And so we are all set for an interesting tale. Or so I thought. Much to my surprise this being Heinlein, I spent much of my reading of this piece wishing I was appreciably closer to the end.
There are some pre-requisites to enjoying a piece of fiction. Countless commentators have said about episode one of “Star Wars” what I have to say about "Harsh Mistress"......the writer has failed to engage me in the story of something I care about. A bunch of disenfranchised farmers and some burly reverse-snobbery trade union workers from the twenty-first century just didn't engage any differentiation on my part as to how they lived out their eternity, be it with a fair price for their wheat or without one.
Whilst Manuel is a perfectly competent commentator, he is little else. In my opinion Heinlein slipped from his own extremely satisfying formula here, in that for once he did not make his ubiquitous "practical-hardy-know-it-all jack-of-all-trades-man-to-have-in-your-corner" person the central character. There is always one in Heinlein, and usually the story revolves around them. In this story Heinlein splits these properties between a variety of characters, some having the intellect, some the go-getter brawn and practical down to earth common sense. Whilst as a gestalt they achieve the same ends as would a Lazarus Long, the charisma is lost in transmutation. The characters in this story are dull and predictable.
Another problem with this story is one unfortunately waiting as a time bomb for any piece of science fiction which projects a now-current technology into the future.....the authors failure to see the superceding of current technology can leave his ideas looking obsolete. I will grant you that in small measures this is quaint. Who has not had moments of wry grin at the odd anachronistic mention of some even-now obsolete technology from the fifties in an old science fiction novel? It is another thing, and another order of magnitude when the entire premise of how the revolution will be planned is based on clever manipulations of the telephone switchboard by the computer. A self-aware computer. Alas, this is now so untenable a combination that it cannot excite me. Not only that, but excited at the time he wrote it, Heinlein goes into extraordinary detail explaining the many clever adjustments the computer is able to make to phone numbers and dialing connections to keep everything secret. Some books are unavoidably dated.
There is a long section when the main characters of Manuel and the renegade professor who is the brains of the outfit are down on Earth pleading the case for their colony to the powers that be. If you have even the vaguest familiarity with Heinlein you understand that the degree to which this is a foregone conclusion is on the same level of predictability as sunrise tomorrow. One bares with such things naturally, but to drag out political machinations to so many pages of waffle is cruel and unusual punishment in my humble opinion. I know where C-SPAN is if I need this kind of action (and I use action in the very broadest sense of the word.)
Usually mere background noise, Bob Heinlein is as always ready to add insult to injury to anyone with the apparently bizarre (according to Bob) opinion that the sexes are equal. As usual in his work, the strong female heroine is strong only in the reflected light of the much stronger male leads. She, as per usual, is big boned and well built, or shall we just call a spade a spade and put her like this...."Big-breasted of (insert world here) is ever ready for brave adventure and daring-do at side of masculine male. Will have own opinions and be independent until instant that sees kitten scrape knee on wonky flagstone, at which point will melt into pile of mushy goo with running make up and torn stockings, and cry until masculine male fixes it for her."
Do me a favor.
So what did I like? Not much.
Again, if you have read other Heinlein I think you can skip this book entirely, particularly if you have read the far superior "Time Enough for Love." There, as here, Heinlein explores many many different configurations of the marriage vows.....polygamy, polyandry, families which are serial polygamies and polyandry’s down through time, the family run like firms...all are explored here. This was interesting and of course the philosophy does not age with time nearly so badly. Philosophy and poetry perhaps survive time travel better than telephone exchanges might be expected to.
The Hugo Award-winning classic that helped launch modern libertarianism, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is Heinlein s unforgettable tale of a Lunar revo...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.