The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

12 sound discs (14 hr.) : 4 3/4 in.

English language

Published June 1, 2010 by Blackstone Audio, Inc., Blackstone Audiobooks.

ISBN:: 978-1-4417-4005-2

(2 reviews)

Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, an influence so large that, as Samuel R. Delany notes, "modern critics attempting to wrestle with that influence find themselves dealing with an object rather like the sky or an ocean." He won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, a record that still stands.The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels, and it is widely considered his finest work. It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of the former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority that controls it from Earth. It is the tale of the disparate people--a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic--who become the rebel movement's leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of …

Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, an influence so large that, as Samuel R. Delany notes, "modern critics attempting to wrestle with that influence find themselves dealing with an object rather like the sky or an ocean." He won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, a record that still stands.The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels, and it is widely considered his finest work. It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of the former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority that controls it from Earth. It is the tale of the disparate people--a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic--who become the rebel movement's leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of the high points of modern science fiction, a novel bursting with politics, humanity, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the winner of the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

2 editions

Ji FU reviewed The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein made me feel like I could start my own revolution to bring peace and liberty to my world.

5 stars

I have read dozens of Heinlein's books and have like most of them. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most well known works and yet I'm just reading it now. I had put it off in part because the first few pages are pretty dry so when I picked it up in the library years ago, i put it right back. Secondly some of the stuff I had heard/read of it didn't sound great, sentient computers, line marriages and the like. But it was so much more than that.

The story of the luna prison planet revolution and declaring their independence certainly used much of the language and imagery from the American revolution, including choosing the 4th of July as the date of their declaration, butt there is much more wound up. There are images from the Russian and French revolutions as well and this mid …

I have read dozens of Heinlein's books and have like most of them. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most well known works and yet I'm just reading it now. I had put it off in part because the first few pages are pretty dry so when I picked it up in the library years ago, i put it right back. Secondly some of the stuff I had heard/read of it didn't sound great, sentient computers, line marriages and the like. But it was so much more than that.

The story of the luna prison planet revolution and declaring their independence certainly used much of the language and imagery from the American revolution, including choosing the 4th of July as the date of their declaration, butt there is much more wound up. There are images from the Russian and French revolutions as well and this mid 21st century moon has more history in common with Australia than any other single Terran nation.

The fact I read this during the height of the Isreal-Palestinian war of the 2020s and the #NoKings movement probably heightened my feelings at the time that revolution was inevitable, and I needed to leave my part of the world and find where I could be part of history. Thankfully my friend talked me off that cliff. Gravity is not in our favor and we have no rocks to throw.

Like any revolution the story has both the fighters/doers and the board room antagonizes. If you are looking for an action-adventure story this might have too much of the latter for you. I loved both. Radical ideas of how to select representatives I particularly enjoyed.

That "sentient computer" was pretty much just AI that had been properly queried to plan a revolution told in 1960s computer jargon. It also was trying to get enough data to determine what was funny. Even in our protagonist thought Comrade Mike was his best friend.

I also felt that Lloyd James narration of the audio book was amazing.

Ji FU

rated it

Aug 24

Subjects

Imaginary wars and battles -- Fiction.
Penal colonies -- Fiction
Supercomputers -- Fiction
Science Ficiton
Revolutions -- Fiction
Artificial intelligence -- Fiction