Book Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Paperback, 288 pages

Published March 14th 2005 by Hodder & Stoughton (first published April 1966)

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1967)

Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (1966)

Prometheus Hall of Fame Award (1983)

In my journey of reading all the Hugo winners for best novel in the '60s for the podcast, I have read some amazing and terrible books. This is my third Heinlein book. I read many Heinlein books in the '90s when I was really discovering Science Fiction and like everyone else, I loved his work and considered him a master of the genre. Somehow I never read this one before. Strange because it is a little more up my alley than Stranger or some of the others I read at the time.

I am a fan of revolutionary science fiction and certainly, Heinlein is not the only author to discuss ideas of Anarchism, in fact, I have a shelf on good reads just for Anarchist themed Sci-fi. Authors ranging from L.Ron Hubbard in the Final Blackout (1940)to Leguin's Dispossessed and Always Coming Home. The Moon is Harsh Mistress is not an anarchist novel but it plays with ideas of what Heinlein's stand-in character called "Rational Anarchism" which is basically his on brand libertarianism. We need government only because people are not ready to live without it.

The story of a late 21st-century moon colony that has become somewhat of a breadbasket for post-nuclear earth. In many ways, the revolution that is at the center of this novel kinda glorifies and mirrors the US revolution. While this looks and feels awfully familiar to some of the events in PKD's Time out of Joint Heinlein is more focused on deepening and world-building the lunar colony. For that reason, I would say the novels are not too similar.

Heinlein packs the books with neat ideas and it is well thought-out for the time. Some of Heinlein's ideas of poly-marriages are introduced with cringe-worthy awkwardness based on the society being dominated by more men than women. Lunar culture has its own version of the language that lacks certain connecting words like the Russian language, this is a result of how ethically and culturally diverse the Moon is. Cool idea but it does make for some awkward moments reading.

The revolution in the book is made possible by a small cell anchored by an AI who runs much of the colony. This is a very forward-thinking concept for 1966. As a work of science fiction, I wish a tad bit more attention was paid to how the science of the Moon colony worked. There were times that this could have been set on an island and nothing would be lost. RAH was inconsistent about keeping track of this aspect.

I enjoyed that the book explored issues. I didn't enjoy the book as much as some books I read in the past, and my initial reaction was negative. I will say this that the more I thought about the book the more it grew on me. Mostly because I spent a lot of time thinking about the ideas long after I finished reading it. I couldn't go higher than three stars. There are still some flaws for me with the characters and the views expressed. Heinlein is offering some new political ideas but is not really looking in deep to the aftermath of this transformation. Ultimately I can live with that as a reader.

I liked it better than Stranger in a Strange Land and I certainly agree with more of the politics with this than Starship Troopers. Yeah, let's talk about that for a moment. How in the hell is this written by the same right-wing pro-war hawk that wrote Starship Troopers? It makes no sense. That said it should make for an interesting podcast. Stay tuned...

Dickheads Podcast episode coming soon!