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The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A.…
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The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (original 1966; edition 1997)

by Robert A. Heinlein

Series: World As Myth (Prequel)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
10,389183690 (4.1)377
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:

Revolution is brewing on twenty-first-century Luna, a moon-based penal colony where oppressed "Loonies" are being exploited by a harsh Authority that controls it from Earth. Against all odds, a ragtag collection of dissidents has banded together in revolt, including a young female radical, an elderly academic, a one-armed computer jock, and a nearly omnipotent supercomputer named Mike, whose sentience is known only to this inner circle and who is committed to the revolution for reasons of his own.

Drawing many historical parallels with the War of Independence, Heinlein's fourth Hugo Awardâ??winning novel is a gripping tale bursting with politics, humanity, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom.

Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, winning the Hugo Award for best novel a record four times. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels and is widely considered his finest work.… (more)

Member:burnstar
Title:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Authors:Robert A. Heinlein
Info:Orb Books (1997), Edition: 1st, Paperback, 384 pages
Collections:Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (1966)

  1. 162
    The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (aulsmith)
    aulsmith: A different moon, a different anti-authoritarian community, but the same experience of thinking about other ways to run human societies
  2. 21
    Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (JFDR)
  3. 00
    Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe (psybre)
    psybre: Lunar mayhem, and not just due to rock and roll, either.
  4. 11
    Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson (enrique_molinero)
  5. 11
    Illusions of Tranquility [short fiction] by Brendan DuBois (aulsmith)
    aulsmith: This short story puts a new twist on Heinlein's libertarian moon colony.
  6. 00
    Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson (bertilak)
  7. 00
    Moving Mars by Greg Bear (aspirit)
    aspirit: Similar themes but with a Mars/Earth conflict.
  8. 01
    Moon of Mutiny by Lester del Rey (infiniteletters)
  9. 01
    The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman (MyriadBooks)
    MyriadBooks: For the seeds of revolution.
  10. 01
    Pallas by L. Neil Smith (enrique_molinero)
  11. 02
    The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin (MyriadBooks)
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» See also 377 mentions

English (177)  Swedish (2)  Italian (1)  Catalan (1)  Slovak (1)  All languages (182)
Showing 1-5 of 177 (next | show all)
Complex tale. Another pre-goodreads book i liked. ( )
  nitrolpost | Mar 19, 2024 |
Quite a challenging read with the dialect writing, but probably worth the effort in the end.
This is the earliest scifi mention of creches, also known as clans or lines, that I've come across. Definitely a welcome alternative to traditional childrearing. ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
Many libertarian folks I know do all but sleep with this book under their pillow, and a few have gone so far as to claim that it's a viable model for a Libertarian Revolution, so I figured I'd read the thing finally. Those that want to use this as a model seem to have forgotten two steps:

Step 1: Accidently create a self-aware supercomputer to plan, organize, run, and run the aftermath of the minute details of your revolution.

Step 2: live on the moon.


Despite that, it was a rather fun read.
1 vote Moon_Cthulhu | Nov 9, 2023 |
It tried too hard. Basically a giant propaganda story for libertarianism. Would have liked a deeper, richer story. ( )
  kylecarroll | Jul 13, 2023 |
4.5*
I don't know what I had expected from this Hugo award-winning science fiction novel but it was so much better than I had anticipated! The main reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that Heinlein's personal views on politics (as voiced by Prof) were a little too pushy & some of the Earth politics was dated. However, it remains an insightful look at colonialism & revolution despite those flaws. And I loved the look at how the Luna colonists handled marriage as well as other aspects of life there. To top it all off, there is Mike -- the computer who has become sentient though nobody except Manny knows it at the start of the book!

Lloyd James does an excellent narration & I particularly liked his Russian accent for Manny (though I don't know if a character who is 3rd generation Luna with a name like Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis is supposed to be Russian!). ( )
  leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 177 (next | show all)
None of these complaints are to say that Harsh Mistress is a straight-up bad book. As with any Heinlein book, it offers a lot of food for thought and fodder for argument.
added by lorax | editio9, Josh Wimmer (May 2, 2010)
 

» Add other authors (64 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Heinlein, Robert A.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bergner, Wulf H.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bieger, MarcelRevisorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bradbury, Raymistaken ascriptionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
James, LloydNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lippi, GiuseppeContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moore, ChrisCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Patrito, MarcoCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pinna, AntonangeloTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Warhola, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
For Pete and Jane Sencenbaugh
First words
I see in Lunaya Pravda that Luna City Council has passed on first reading a bill to examine, license, inspect—and tax—public food vendors operating inside municipal pressure.
Quotations
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)
We never did it that way again ... Alvarez was not a scientific detective.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (3)

Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:

Revolution is brewing on twenty-first-century Luna, a moon-based penal colony where oppressed "Loonies" are being exploited by a harsh Authority that controls it from Earth. Against all odds, a ragtag collection of dissidents has banded together in revolt, including a young female radical, an elderly academic, a one-armed computer jock, and a nearly omnipotent supercomputer named Mike, whose sentience is known only to this inner circle and who is committed to the revolution for reasons of his own.

Drawing many historical parallels with the War of Independence, Heinlein's fourth Hugo Awardâ??winning novel is a gripping tale bursting with politics, humanity, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom.

Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, winning the Hugo Award for best novel a record four times. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels and is widely considered his finest work.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Für die ersten Raumfahrer war sie das Ziel ihrer größten Sehnsüchte, doch nun ist Luna ein Hort der Alpträume geworden. Die Menschen haben den Mond in eine riesige Strafkolonie verwandelt. Niemand, der hierher verbannt wurde, hat die Chance, auf die Erde zurückzukehren. Das System ist allen verhaßt, doch keiner lehnt sich gegen die grausamen Unterdrücker auf - bis Mike, der gigantische Computer, für die Loonies Partei ergreift. Und plötzlich scheint alles möglich zu sein - selbst die Revolution auf dem Mond.
Ein Klassiker! Einer der fĂĽnf besten SF-Romane aller Zeiten.
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