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)

The Moon Shall Rise Again

Lloyd James does a wonderful job narrating Heinlein's depiction of the Lunar Revolution. Or as some loonies would put it: "War of Terran Aggression."

Good light read.

Plenty of thoughts and chummy humor. Heinlein puts interesting ideas into interesting environments. The best part is the ends what if.

Great sci-fi book

I have enjoyed this book. The story is good and the characters are great.

The performance, though, is disappointing. Most characters sound alright, vibrant and with appropriate inflections and accent. So it is surprising that the main character sounds so dispassionate, as it he was tired all the time. There are some problems with pauses as well, which I would blame on a rush editing of the audio. From time to time there are longer than expected pauses in the middle of dialogues. But most notably, there is no pause whatsoever between chapters. Right after the final word of a chapter you hear the new chapter number and the first words as if it were all part of the same sentence. It distracts quite a bit from an otherwise very good book.

Interesting Topic;Perhaps Used Too Much

Well, I've known of Heinlein's work for a while. His name ranks up there with the greats such as Tolkein, and Asimov for fantasy and science fiction. In fact I can attest to this as I've read previous his novel Starship Troopers. (boy I wish he would have chosen a better name) I thoroughly enjoyed his thematic take on politics and gov't which comes through even in the science fiction of men in power armor and fighting space bugs. So I come to the book, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" with an idea of what I was to expect. I'm a bit ashamed that both clashes I've had with Robert Heinlein's work has been through the interaction with film or media though. In this case, I have been watching the TV series "The Expanse" (also a very very good novel series). Without going off on a tangent the series deals heavily into the political gaming and interaction of three factions locked in intense social strife with the existence of one another. Earth, Mars, and the Colonies on the Asteroid Belt. Each faction, not quite at war with each other, but through various levels of social stratification (The "belters" are social outcasts and have reached near servant like status)
It was then recommended to me that a book that probably inspired or atleast provided some themes for The Expanse was Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress…

So the book takes places obviously in the future, a few hundred years hence. Now despite the very large differences in our world and the world of the book, including a penal colony on mars, a sort of centralized gov't authority, Heinlein doesn't really give us any deeper details into what life is like on Earth. Aside from it being called Terra now… This is probably my biggest complaint with the book, in that it's very one sided. It provides great detail and attempts to pull great sympathy from the reader, for the Lunar penal colonist, but pretty much villifies Earth without giving them much of a description except how evil, and persecuting they are. We are given a very thick, and well thought out backstory of the "Loonies", they are miners, farmers, and depicted as human beings. We're not given this fleshing out of the Terrans, and (intentionally I assume) they come off as cold, faceless, and very "British-esque" during the Colonial period.

The sentiment among the lunar prisoners is definitely revolutionist. (think OPA before the Cant was killed) The beginning of the book describes the colonists are on the brink of being pushed over the edge. In fact they host revoltist style secret gatherings to discuss their problems, anger and ways to help each other. One of the biggest gripes is their taxation amounts and the idea that they mine ice, and Terra pays them very very little for it. Then they sell the colonists water from the very ice they sold, at double the cost. Then they're forced to use the water to grow mass wheat (wheat on the moon…? Uh..Okay Heinlein!) Then they're taxed on it, and Terra buys it again at super low prices etc.. There's even a reference to "dropping rocks" on Terra. But the colonists have very very little, no ships, no materials, and unlike the OPA, they're under lock and key mostly and have no access to a military weaponary.
Heinlein, with this book, seems to like to use play on words with people's names. The main character is called Mannie or "Man" for short. And one of the women of the revolution he's introduced to is named "Wyoming Knott".
(Why Not…) lol, unfortunately Heinlein sort of rubs this in our face by stating it explicitly to us. It would have been a bit better and subtle if it wasn't just stated openly that "Man" represents an 'everyman' etc…
Also, the pacing it a bit quick, Mannie meets Wyoming, for the first time, stumbles upon a revolutionist meeting which is raided, then suddenly is pulled into there revolutionist ideas. And what's funny is, he never really has a moment of "epiphany" or realization that they're right and that he should join them for reasons X, Y or Z… he just sort of goes a long with it.


What I've found is that while the main human protagonist is Mannie, just as equal of a character is the main processing computer on Luna, named "Mike". (Mike is a sort of abbreviation for his FQDN). Mike, when we're introduced to him, has seemingly become more sentient recently. He's developed a sense of humor, makes jokes, and is eager to learn the human disposition.
At the start of the book only Mannie knows of Mike's…"higher" consciousness, and we're never really given any exposition as to how he came to be more sentient. Now with his new love of the revolution apparently, Mannie tells "Wyoh" about Mike..
Wyomig asks Mannie to sabotage Mike and blow him up as an attack against the Authority. He refuses as he has an attachment to Mike. Wyoh is disguisted and says that she'd be willing to kill herself, Shorty (who's dead after the Raid on the gathering) and even him to continue and further the revolutionist agenda. Mike wants to meet Wyoh to discuss with a "non-stupid". Because Mike is still "learning" he's "lonely " and wants friends. Mannie suggests to instead of blowing him up, but rather befriending him.

This leads to one funny moment of Wyoh reprogramming Mike to be Michelle. Mannie wakes up to hear them talking girl talk like they're old friends. "Michelle" and her plan to talk later.

Anyway story evolves to getting the Lunar colonies mobilized, charged up and focused. We're given blatent attempts on both sides to use lies, propaganda and hiding truthful events in order to sway their respective population's views. The story is undoubtedly pro libertarian in it's view point. It throws government and it's affect on its populace in a pretty negative light.
Eventually the occupation on the Lunar colonies is overthrown, and revolt has won out. Unfortunately, everyone wants to be the boss. They make constant calls and suggest new ways of doing things with themselves in charge or in some seat of power. It was time to get to work establishing a new system, but many many didn't actually want to do the work to pull this off.
Debate starts on what should be included in the guaranteed principles of what the gov't should provide. First Air, water ….then air water, and food…then air water food, and space…. Then air water, food, space and heat..then power.. Etc.. People keep adding wants. Then more women, so ratio is equal. Women are seen almost as a commidity. And even throughout the book's writing, Heinlein depicts women has 'silly' having childish idea's, and not as mature and seemingly belittled in the narration. I'm not quiet sure if this is the intent of just the book's theme, or (hopefully not) Heinlein's actual views.

As the story progresses, Mike becomes more sentient… and looking back on it.. I notice that the story here, isn't so much focused on Mannie, but more on Mike's evolution to become less machine and more human. Now this is interesting in it's own right.. But I feel this story could have been far far more expanded upon and focused on if it wasn't added on to this story of revolution and political satire. The very interesting story of an AI becoming more human should have it's own story, not be a sub, sub plot to another story. So it feels a bit tacked on. The mixing of both story threads don't really pair well together, as I'd like to focus on either one story or the other. Either make this a political story of Libertarian/Anarchistic ideas, or make it of AI intelligence and sentience.

Despite this, the story is still entertaining. It moves a bit quick as some events are glossed over and others are described in more detail, but nothing that really stands out as unreadable.
One thing though that I would have appreciated is a more detailed description of just how the moon was able to "throw rocks" and use the concept of the gravity well, and rail guns/ mass drivers. It's never really explicitly said or stated what the moon's "Catapults" where. If it wasn't for books like The Expanse series, I probably would have literally thought they were actual catapults.
The catapults in question here, for people not familiar with the book, are kilometers long tubes with electromagnets capable of accelerating payloads to the escape velocity of the moon/earth. (Catapult is the term they use in the book) I am wondering if these can ever be feasible to cheaply launch objects into orbit.
They now want people to see the impacts. They don't want to kill Terrans, but place shots for maximum viewership.

I actually really liked and disliked the ending the of the book. While it did a great service by not being so cliché as to killing the main character (which I really thought was coming), it wrapped up rather abrubtly and suddenly. I mean a few pages before the moon was engaged in a bombardment campaign, trying to hold their own, and suddenly Earth just surrenders and that's that. A bit to clean and convient but… alas, it didn't try to make it out to be *too* climatic and cinematic I suppose..

I really enjoyed it, but it did have it's problems. I felt the story was a bit one sided, the I would have liked to see some more political musing, but less of it dictated to us rather than we should have been 'shown'. The book does a great job in presenting the sympathy of the lunar colonists, and their lives. Presented some very original (for the time) idea's of marriage, life in space, and AI… a good read, don't expect to be blown away by it from our current perspecitive, but for it's original release time frame, this one is a damn good read.

Timeless classic

The political undertones of this story resonate in 2016 as much as they did in 1966. An excellent story, with humor and allusions to the Future that in some cases we have already seen.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Would you consider the audio edition of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress to be better than the print version?

I've never read the print edition.

Have you listened to any of Lloyd James’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

The audiobook adds so much

Where does The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I liked the book but I love the audiobook. I don't mean I like the book and I want to add emphasis. I mean I love the audiobook, the characters, the language, and accents, the families. I listen to it time and time again when I want to be back at the Davis's dinner table.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress?

The beginning where where Manny introduces himself and the ending which I won't discuss, Gaspadine.

What does Lloyd James bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The choice of a Russian as narrator adds at least 50 % to the book.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" - I don't mess with fantastic books.

Any additional comments?

Some of the beatnik speak was hard to understand but added color.

Top 5 SiFi of all time

What did you love best about The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress?

The plot is simple revolution and it takes place on the Moon. The setting is absolutely fascinating...even today. Maybe especially today. Just imagine a time when man has developed a society on the Moon. The population is at the threshold of revolution. Then introduce a character we love and maybe fear. Mike. The character development is masterful. You fall in love with all of them. The story is simple but the depth and texture RAH lays out is enveloping and will compel you to keep going.

What did you like best about this story?

Simply a master piece.

Have you listened to any of Lloyd James’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

He's in my top five picks of narrators.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

a.k.a. Mike.

Any additional comments?

If you only read/listen to one Heinlein story. This should be it.

Great Story, poor accent

Would you listen to The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress again? Why?

Great story overwhelms the poor accent someone decided the narrator should use. One of the masterworks of science fiction.

What did you like best about this story?

Interesting look at possible ways people would behave in the future and possible changes in culture, and sex roles.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Like I said the accent was hard to get used to and narrator slipped out of it a few times.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

From the Master of Science Fiction

Great Listen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I am a Heinlein fan from way back and I have always loved this book. Lloyd James really brought the characters to life. I felt as if I was on the moon with these people. Top Notch.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Manny was my favorite character. I never really thought of him with a Russian accent but it worked for me.

What about Lloyd James’s performance did you like?

I loved the way that he could slip in and out of accents. He also made the characters come alive in my mind. He gave a wonder performance.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me think. Could a computer come to life. If so, would it think I was stupid or not stupid?