The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.

Winner of the 1967 Hugo award, this novel marked Heinlein's partial return to his best form. He draws many historical parallels with the War of Independence, and clearly shows his own libertarian political views.

©1965 Robert A. Heinlein (P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, 1967

"Adrenalizing, mind-stretching, conviction-testing...unmatched by any contemporary!" (Theodore Sturgeon)

Excellent Narration

The narrator really brings this story to life and does a great job with Manny's way of speaking. Very enjoyable.

one if my favorite Heinlein novels

I read this book back in grade school and it's been in my top 5vlist ever since. the story moves along at a great pace, and Heinlein is at his best here. the audiobook was just as engaging!

A study in revolution

Slow burn, incredible insight. Should be mandatory reading in polysci corses. A few too many characters and some unnecessary filler story lines.

surprised by the story

what an enjoyable listen, it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I got the feeling this was a cyberpunk novel, and it was . maybe even sets the stage for future cyberpunk. The narration is ok, wasn't fan of the russian or French accent.

Ultimate favorite

This book is one of my all time favorites. Best feel good brain candy that I love to indulge in regularly. It's nice to have it in an audio version now.

This presentation isn't the worst, though it is filled with poorly edited cuts that are sometimes jarring, the voice selections and accents chosen are fairly done and entertaining.

Great classic Heinlein

The moon really IS a harsh mistress! Read/ listened to this 3 times. Enjoy it

One of Heinlein's most excellent works!

This story is set just 50 years in the future! The moon population is ready to be free from the terrible abuses of distant government. The characters are drawn with great care and it is easy to fall in love with the way they lead their lives. Heinlein's system of living life is a breath of fresh air.

A classic novel of unattainable ideals

Though I have my issues with Heinlein’s views, I found this book to be a classic example of science fiction's potential to explore political ideas, to challenge readers' assumptions about the how world should work. While showing its age in places, this 1966 novel deals with a lot of themes that still remain as fresh as ever: machine consciousness as an unplanned phenomena, how to overthrow an unjust system, what kind of laws and rights a society should provide, family and living arrangements that fit a society's needs, and how to find the weak spots of a much more powerful but clumsier opponent. And, of course, there's Heinlein's ability to create a polyglot culture, and his signature wit, taking the form of memorable catch-phrases and quips.

The story imagines the moon as a 2075 penal colony, a dumping ground for Earth's undesirables. Inhabitants live a tough life, growing crops to export to Earth at artificially low prices, but have evolved their own informal customs for managing their affairs, including polyamorous marriage arrangements to deal with the 2-1 male-female ratio. Enter Mannie, a lowly engineer who maintains the Lunar Authority's main computer, named Mike. Somehow, Mike has achieved self-awareness without anyone but Mannie noticing. Heinlein has a lot of fun developing Mike as a character, including his naive efforts to understand humor, his existential loneliness, and his ability to adopt different personas, some of which come to influence his own behavior.

Meanwhile, discontent on Luna begins to boil, and Mannie finds himself drawn into a revolutionary independence movement. With him, naturally, comes Mike, whose ability to disguise communications and perform complex calculations give the movement chances it wouldn’t have had otherwise. But can Mike be trusted? Can a war of independence succeed against the far better-armed nations of Earth? It was fun to watch the plotting unfold.

Heinlein, of course, is a controversial author and I didn’t love everything about this novel. For one thing, I there are his attitudes towards women. While I admire that he wrote capable, independent heroines before it was in vogue, he doesn't entirely break away from traditional ideas about gender and has male characters mansplaining things to female ones.

However, my main issue with this book is that Heinlein seems so intent on demonstrating the merits of his libertarian-anarchist ideals that he does a lot to stack the deck in favor of his heroes, which I find a weakness of both the story and his argument. Between Mike's unique ability to wreak Anonymous-like mischief, engineer new weapons, and make long-term predictions, and the Professor's brilliance as a tactician and political strategist, there's never much doubt what the outcome of the revolution will be. In addition, he makes the opposing side so abusive, distant, corrupt, and incompetent that no one seriously defends its merits. Also, I found Heinlein's apparent approval of murder, as deemed necessary by the enlightened, a little repugnant. (Where, oh where have we seen problems with THAT sort of thinking before?)

Yet, in the last chapters, Heinlein seems to step back and recognize that ideals and pragmatism can reconcile only so much, when the benevolent dictatorship that ran the revolution sees that it can't hold the reigns forever. And therein lies the inherent contradiction of libertarianism: that giving people perfect freedom to choose will inevitably lead to more laws and government. This is what makes the book's signature phrase, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch", so wonderful -- in the end, the multiple meanings becoming clear. I also enjoyed how beautifully the bittersweet conclusion to Mike's story fit in, though I won't spoil it.

In sum, definitely a book worth adding to a tour of sci-fi history. The audiobook narration is decent, but I really liked the producers' decision to give Mannie a Russian accent. It just works. Mike also has a nice "machine" personality, but not an overly mechanical one.

Classic Heinlein, scifi and social commentary

This is one of Heinlein's best in my opinion, and even 45 years after it was written, it still holds up very well. The colony of Luna is very well thought out, and the structure of the society very interesting. Not only is the technical side of this novel very good, but you begin to see the ideas form and take root that burst into life in later novels like Time Enough For Love, and the Cat Who Walks through Walls.

My only complaint about the novel is the Russian accent the main character is portraided with, it is a little overdone, and sometimes I had a hard time understanding it.

Wow! Wasn't expecting such a good book!

While there are some slow parts, this book is surprisingly good! The voice accents definitely make it that much better and the story is great