My review is here:
http://moosplace.blogspot.com/2009/04... ( )

A classic use of a sf setting to explore political and economic concepts. In later books, RAH became much more heavy-handed. Here, the RAH character (the Prof) is secondary, and gets on his soapbox only occasionally. The book was published in the mid-60's, and I read it for the first time over 40 years later (2009). I found a few interesting points. One, the AI character "Mike." Mike is a computer that attains consciousness. No one seems to be aware of this other than the narrator, Manuel. Forty years later, the idea of a computer becoming sentient has spawned a whole subcategory of sf, based around the complete paradigm shift this event will cause. (The event even has a name: the Singularity.) Gone are the quaint old chatty chums of Heinlein and Clarke and Asimov. In TMIAHM, the computer becomes sentient more as a plot device than anything else. Mike is not explored as a character. His "birth" is quickly established and he is moved offstage pretty much for the rest of the book. The book is not, after all, about AI. It's about economics and systems of government.

The other part that struck me was the end, when the Moon begins to lob large objects at the Earth during the fight for independence. It takes days and perhaps hundreds of impacts each equaling an H-bomb in devastation before the Earth backs down. Think what America was like on 9-11 when three buildings were hit. It felt like the world was coming to an end. I can't imagine that it would take more than one or two "rocks" hitting before we gave up the fight. After all, the Moon is a small concern in the book, hardly worth losing thousands of lives over. But RAH had lived through WWII, and had seen England and Germany endure months of heavy artillery and missile bombardment. He assumed America would tough it out, as well, but I wonder, after 9-11. ( )

Superb! The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is I feel only "Starship Toopers" of his works(I've read) deserved that.

Want to know how &what the English, American & French 'rebs' thought? How they waged successful and seditious wars? Why they're still very much a going concern. Read all about it here.

Like others of R.A.H's works that I know of, this is a truly intriguing insight into a political philosophy far more than a work of Gee Whizz 'hard science' prognostication. What there is is relatively basic and acceptable; a sentient supercomputer (unlike HAL, not a psycho but a versatile 'actor'), vacuums and Ye Olde Mass And Weight enigma, among very few.

Can't really say much more without going too far into the plot so I'll just say this is definitely worth putting on your public library reading list, at the very least. ( )

This is a likeable tale about how to pull off a revolution with the help of the world's best supercomputer. This story incorporates an English-like lunar language for much of the text.

A great work of Libertarian science fiction. A society that is somewhat similar to our own with too much governmental control and government created monopolies with business. This story tells about the liberation of the people of the moon as they seek to throw off domination of earth. ( )