This is one of Heinlein’s best books; it won the 1967 Hugo Award and was nominated for the 1966 Nebula. It’s imaginative, original, and has some interesting things to say, especially on the subject of government and getting along without it. The story is mostly gripping, it stays on track and keeps to the point, unlike some of Heinlein’s other books.

It starts in 2075, by which time the Moon has been used as a dumping ground for criminals (like Australia) for a long time: several generations. This isn’t plausible, it would be too expensive, but in 1966 I suppose Heinlein wasn’t to know; and we just have to overlook the problem.

In some ways, it deserves four stars from me, but my enjoyment of it is limited by the sketchy characterization, the lack of memorable scenes, and the oddly downbeat ending. In theory, the ending is mostly happy, but it feels rather sad.

I bought this book in 1975, though I’d already read it earlier. In those days, I liked Heinlein more than I do now, and would probably have rated it higher. ( )

Not a huge sci-fi fan, this was an enjoyable read, more 3.5. Took time to get used to the style of writing, but some interesting scenarios. The characters grew on me, although it wasn't easy to assimilate the different lifestyles on the moon. Another poignant example of the futility, stupidity of war, due to the need, desire to dominate and exploit. ( )

I haven't read this book in many many years. I found I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. The story moves along really well, and while it does contain some lecturing, and some of the juvenalistic libertarianism he sank into, but it's not as bad as in a lot of Heinlein -- maybe most Heinlein after this book. It was very interesting to see how Heinlein portrayed computer technology, with the first AI in the book; he got a lot right, or, as he does, made you feel that it was right, but there were lots of interesting misses. Landlines (even on the moon) are used, as are print newspapers (on the moon!), for example. And I find it hard to believe that the moon would ever be able to supply grain to Earth.

Heinlein is really good at making you feel you understand his society; this one has group marriages, or serial marriages, between generations of people, and he portrays this dynamic very well. Though I am not sure if the very unbalanced ratio of men to women would lead to the society he portrays, he does make you feel that it would. After a while, the latent sexism of the society (or author?) kind of wears on you.

But all in all, quite the ripping read. ( )

Robert A. Heinlein's Hugo-winning novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is politically-oriented "hard" sf from the 1960s. Even if we are still fifty years short of the date of the story, being more than halfway to it exposes a few failures of prognostication. On the technological front: We are well behind Heinlein's schedule on extraterrestrial settlement and way ahead on synthetic video simulation. Sociologically: Heinlein anticipated more intransigence on racially mixed marriages than we have shown in the 21st century, and certainly didn't foresee the legitimation of gay marriage. As was typical for him, he did make some jabs at racism, and his Looneys defy contemporary American mores with various forms of marriage, including the "line marriage" that he invented in this book.

The whole central cast of the story is structured much like the one in Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which was written five years earlier. The narrator Manny O'Kelly Davis takes the place of Ben Caxton, Wyoming Knott stands for Jill Boardman, and Bernardo de la Paz is Jubal Harshaw. Of course, Mike is Mike: in both cases the preterhuman agent facilitating social transformation has the conversational name Mike, and I have to wonder if the artificial general intelligence of the HOLMES IV supercomputer in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is intended to be a manifestation of the Archangel Michael, just like the Martian Mowgli of Stranger.

Manny's narrating voice is in a Lunar dialect that incorporates a dash of Russian pidgin and a neglect for grammatical articles. After the first chapter, this style became fairly transparent to me, although almost all the other principal characters seem to speak standard English most of the time. There were a very few instances where the simplified grammar tripped me up, and I had to re-read to catch the meaning.

The events of the book transpire on the 300th anniversary of the American Revolution. But the Looney rebels are all convict transportees or their descendants. There is no slaveholding Lunar elite joining their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor to the cause. Thus it is perhaps a bit more like the Haitian Revolution--if the Haitians had a way to attack France, I guess. The third and shortest of the book's three parts is almost entirely an account of the Lunar War of Independence.

This book must have had a strong influence on Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Although the two authors have pretty different political philosophies, their willingness to demonstrate those philosophies and some of their methods of doing so in sfnal speculation are conspicuously similar.

Complex tale. Another pre-goodreads book i liked. ( )