The moon is a harsh mistress

Science fiction

Print length: 382 pagesOrb, 1997

Description

In 2075, three million people live in underground cities on the Moon, where society is largely self-regulated. Prolonged exposure to low gravity leaves lunar residents effectively unable to return to Earth, while the colony must supply Earth with wheat. Computer technician Manuel O’Kelly-Davis discovers that the colony’s governing computer has become self-aware. He then joins political agitator Wyoming Knott and rational-anarchist Professor Bernardo de la Paz in planning independence from Earth. Their revolt drives a science-fiction novel concerned with liberty, voluntary association, free markets, and the costs attached to both resources and political freedom.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Direct · Technical

Pace

Moderate

Tone

Cerebral · Irreverent · Philosophical · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Ideas · Plot · World

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

CommunityFreedomOppressionPolitics and ideologyTechnology and societyWealth

About Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein was an American science fiction writer, engineer, and naval officer whose work helped establish hard science fiction and carry the genre into mainstream magazines. His futures are built through indirect exposition: unfamiliar tools, customs, and institutions appear in use before they are fully explained. Direct, conversational prose carries technical problem-solving and sustained arguments about competence, liberty, citizenship, and social convention. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress combines a revolt plot with low-gravity constraints, resource economics, and debates over voluntary government, all narrated by a computer technician. Starship Troopers alternates combat and military training with classrooms devoted to suffrage, discipline, and the moral meaning of force, so a soldier’s coming of age also becomes an argument about civic duty and political power. Stranger in a Strange Land changes the method by placing a Martian-raised human inside Earth’s culture. Dialogue and satire make religion, sexuality, politics, and everyday custom appear contingent. Even when the action turns on warfare, escape, or engineering, ideas are tested through decisions and social systems.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Orb
Language: English
ISBN: 9780312863555

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