The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, the novel by the classic and famous Robert Heinlein is one of those classic science fiction novels, from the golden age of science fiction, the 50s-60s. TMIAHM was initially released through magazine installments, later as a full novel. The novel won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1967, during the height of the flower power hippie movement.

Which was great timing for Heinlein to write this book. For you see, this book is a good story, but it is also an exercise in literary politics and/or political economy, particularly libertarianism. So it makes sense that Heinlein would publish and write books with this flavor of politics during the 1960s when many young people would be exposed to these, then new ideas for them.

Let's start with the story. This is a story about revolution. A lunar colony on the moon is taking control over the colony, giving it to the people [in this case, our narrators/main characters], and saying, "screw you," to Earth, and all the Earth countries that won't recognize this new regime. 

The new regime comes to be through a particularly striking main character; a sentient supercomputer who befriends the narrator and his two friends. The supercomputer, named Mike, is so lifelike, but the fact that he wants to help humans stage a revolution and succeeds in helping them do so, makes him a lot like a computer Pinocchio. What does he get out of it? Friendship really is all. It's worth it.

The narrator, the main character as well, is a guy named Manuel, who's first language seems to be Russian, so he speaks in a sort of broken English not unlike what you would see in Slavic languages. Sort of like the slang in A Clockwork Orange. The first couple of pages reading it is sort of strange, but then you get a feel for it, and just go with it. After all, you can't expect everybody you talk to, to speak in perfect English, better get used to it. Mannie is Mike's technician, and he isn't a much of a political guy, but he gets roped into this. 

By a woman of course. Wyoming Knott-Davis. She's a beautiful blonde. For a while, she uses advanced technological makeup to make her look African while she's in hiding, complete with an afro. But she's blonde most of the time. She gets Mannie involved with politics, after Mannie saves her from a blood bath, as you see a political secret meeting against the Warden took place, and it was raided by Dragoon Troops, the Warden's hired goons. The action scene that took place in that instant was classic military science fiction, complete with laser guns, blood, and gore. I liked the scene a lot and expected more of this. Ironically, there isn't much actual fighting and action, at least not till the very end. But our three characters needed one more person to help them realize their mission. 

Enter Professor Bernado de la Paz. He's an old teacher who's taught nearly half of Luna. He describes himself as a Rationalist Anarchist, which basically means that the government has no existence but for the acts of responsible individuals, "tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world." He's the true radical of the group but realizes that the need for the government does indeed exist and achieves it.

Some info on the world-building here. Luna is seen as a sort of Old West, and the revolution is reminiscent of the Bolshevik October Revolution as opposed to the American Revolution. People are sent to Luna either to escape bad fate, live a new life, or they're prisoners. Luna is short on women so women are heads of families and families are composed of 'line marriages,' giant families that pool all their resources together. Once when Mannie is in North America he gets arrested for polygamy, as he has multiple wives. Women are so scarce on Luna that they never get hurt, or even raped. They're safer there than on Earth surprisingly, even among criminals.

So we have these characters achieve a revolution. Now what? They do their best to form a government, get the rest of the world to recognize their new independent status. Failing that, they 'throw rocks,' at the Earth, hitting most of the countries with heavy bombs, carefully shot from Luna with the help of Mike, a ballistics expert, who even gets his own human persona, which he creates using images on a screen. What a computer! Probably the best-written computer character I've seen in science fiction. 

After the Earthlings get mad at Loonies [yes that's what they're called] for bombing them, they retaliate by indoctrinating some prisoners and drugging them, telling them that unless they kill as many Loonies as possible, they won't get their freedom back. This results in an epic bloodbath on Luna. More Loonies die in the firefight that ensues, but they kill all the Earthling intruders and come together more than ever. In a blaze of glory!  

Realizing that they failed, the Earthlings concede Luna's independent status and the mission is complete. It's a great read in terms of story, plot, characters, politics, and philosophy, but the thing that can't be overlooked is that this is just a damn good story. Definitely read this is you're a science fiction avid reader. Don't get me wrong, this is not a masterpiece, but it's important enough that it's a must-read science fiction novel, in my humble opinion. 

On a side note, reading this during the pandemic has me thinking a lot about politics. Could it be that the politics that emerge out of this historic pandemic would shift to a more libertarian sort of state? Something to think about.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!", (a common expression on Luna that states one of the main ideas of the book's political system.)