# The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress ![Book cover of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress](/books/covers/the_moon_is_a_harsh_mistress.jpg) by [Robert A. Heinlein](/books/authors/robert_a_heinlein/) Awards: [Hugo](/books/by-award/#hugo-award), [Prometheus Hall Of Fame](/books/by-award/#prometheus-hall-of-fame-award) ★★★☆☆ ## Review _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_, by Robert A. Heinlein, is a Hugo Award-winning classic of libertarian science fiction. It chronicles the revolt of a lunar penal colony against its terrestrial rulers, a revolution orchestrated by a small group of rebels and their self-aware computer. I first read _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ about 20 years ago and I loved it. A bunch of plucky rebels, having been pushed around by Earth for too long and with their backs against the wall, decide to declare independence and start dropping rocks down the gravity well until they get their way. And they have a sentient computer backing them up! It wasn't my first time reading Heinlein---that was _Starship Troopers_ and _Stranger in a Strange Land_---but it became my favorite. I even went out and bought a hardcover copy to display on my shelf after finishing the paperback. The only other books I've done that for were [Clarke](/books/authors/arthur_c_clarke/)'s _2001: A Space Odyssey_, Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_, and Moore and Gibbons's _Watchmen_. I didn't like _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ as much this read-through. The story is still engaging, but the long libertarian digressions are much harder to tolerate now. Maybe I was more libertarian-curious in my younger days, or maybe 20 more years of experience has made it clearer how selfish the ideology is. Or maybe the rise of greedy fascism in the modern political climate has soured me on the whole idea. Whatever the reason, I now prefer stories that celebrate community over individualism, like [Wells](/books/authors/martha_wells/)'s [_Exit Strategy_](/books/exit_strategy/), to libertarian apologia in the vein of Smith's _The Probability Broach_ or Rand's _The Fountainhead_ and _Atlas Shrugged_.[^orcs] [^orcs]: It's clear from the above paragraphs which side of [John Rogers's][orcs] line I fall on: > There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: > _The Lord of the Rings_ and _Atlas Shrugged_. One is a childish fantasy that often > engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to > an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with > the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. [orcs]: https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html For all its lecturing, _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ does show some of libertarianism's warts: lynch mobs, lack of vaccinations killing thousands, the hypocrisy of the "self-reliant" relying on theft from each other. Taxes are theft, but theft is fine, apparently. The best character is Mycroft "Mike" HOLMES IV,[^holmes] the sentient computer named after Sherlock's brother from Doyle's _The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter_. In some ways, he's a standard sci-fi AI: logical, good with numbers, able to compute probabilities from limited information. But he also behaves like today's generative AIs: he writes jokes and poems, tries to understand humor, and generates real-time video of his "Adam Selene" persona. Mike raises the classic question of machine consciousness, a theme explored in works like [Wells](/books/authors/martha_wells/)'s [_The Murderbot Diaries_](/books/series/the_murderbot_diaries/) and [Watts](/books/authors/peter_watts/)'s [_Blindsight_](/books/blindsight/) and [_Echopraxia_](/books/echopraxia/), that has become very real with the rise of LLMs. Mike is also the ultimate free lunch, able to oversee the revolution and paid only in companionship and jokes. [^holmes]: Highly Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV The pidgin Mannie speaks mostly reads like the mixed English--Chinese from _Firefly_, but occasionally the slang sounds off, almost a "codder-shiggy" problem as in [_Stand on Zanzibar_](/books/stand_on_zanzibar/). Also like [_Stand on Zanzibar_](/books/stand_on_zanzibar/), _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ deals with overpopulation and environmental collapse, themes that resonated in the late '60s and were exemplified in Paul and Anne Ehrlich's _The Population Bomb_. _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ tells a revolution story much like [Williams](/books/authors/walter_jon_williams/)'s [_Metropolitan_](/books/metropolitan/), but unlike [_City on Fire_](/books/city_on_fire/), it doesn't really explore the aftermath. There's a quick reference to the professor reading Keats, almost certainly _Hyperion_. Its theme of a new order overthrowing the old fits perfectly here, just as it did in [Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/)'s [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/). _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ wasn't as great as I remembered, which makes me both excited and a little nervous to revisit _Starship Troopers_---which I loved---and _Stranger in a Strange Land_---which I hated. I still plan to get back to the [_Hyperion Cantos_](/books/series/hyperion_cantos/) with [_The Fall of Hyperion_](/books/the_fall_of_hyperion/) and the [_Bolo_](/books/series/bolo/) series with _Old Guard_, but for now, I'm keeping my break from those going with [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/), maybe _World Breakers_ and _Snow Crash_. And of course, I've got to fit in our next book club pick, [_This Is How You Lose the Time War_](/books/this_is_how_you_lose_the_time_war/), too. Hopefully, I'll get plenty of time to read over the holidays. ## Reviews that mention _The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_ - [_All Systems Red_](/books/all_systems_red/) - [_The Honor of the Queen_](/books/the_honor_of_the_queen/) - [_Last Stand_](/books/last_stand/) - [_Red Rising_](/books/red_rising/) - [_The Rise of Endymion_](/books/the_rise_of_endymion/) ## Related Books - [_Field of Dishonor_](/books/field_of_dishonor/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★☆☆: Field of Dishonor, by David Weber, is the fourth book in the Honor Harrington series. It reduces the scale of the narrative, trading fleet battles for political maneuvering and personal grudges. - [_The Short Victorious War_](/books/the_short_victorious_war/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★★☆: The Short Victorious War, by David Weber, is the third book in the Honor Harrington series. Harrington takes command of the battlecruiser Nike as the People’s Republic of Haven makes its move and a revolution brews in Nouveau Paris. - [_The Honor of the Queen_](/books/the_honor_of_the_queen/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★☆☆: The Honor of the Queen, by David Weber, is the second book in the Honor Harrington series. Harrington must forge an alliance with Grayson, a planet of religious conservatives who don’t believe women belong in uniform, while Haven plots to stop her.