science fictions

I've read a fair number of Heinlein's books, and loved them all. Forced at gunpoint to pick a favorite, I'd go with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It is creative and extremely well-written, and I couldn't put it down. I won't give away the plot like the other reviewers, but I will give a couple reasons to read it.

If you're the type of reader who likes what Heinlein has to say but don't like the way he says it (i.e. you think to yourself, "Starship Troopers has no plot" or "The Howards are just a bunch of redheads who want to have sex with each other") then read this book. It's got a fairly conventional plot line and four well-developed characters. Also, while it gets preachy in some places, it's no libertarian manifesto (and NOT Atlas Shrugged lite). There's no Col. Dubois or Juibal Harshaw telling you the way things are. You DO have to get used to lunaspeak; if you didn't like A Clockwork Orange or Huckleberry Finn because of the dialect, you might have trouble with this. However, I find that as long as you don't say to yourself every 10 minutes "the grammar sucks!", you should have no problem with it.

If you've never read Heinlein be warned: most of his novels are "love it or hate it." While The Moon is a Harsh Mistress tends to get a less extreme response than most of his other stuff, there are still those who loathe it. That said, the majority don't loathe it. I'd recommend this book any any open-minded person, whether or not you like science fiction. If you're a fan of everything Heinlein and have not read it, I can only shake my head....

All in all, a good story about getting what you pay for and paying for what you get. TANSTAAFL!

I have read three other Heinlein books, two of which are considered his masterpieces. Moon is a Harsh Mistress really outshines them all. Mike the intelligent computer is an interesting character, the godlike child who helps the libertarian revolution. Professor De La Paz is a radical with a heart of gold, typical Heinlein "old man with philosophies that no one in the bood ever truly understands." And Manuel O'Kelly makes a great unwilling narrator and participant. The book is about American ideas (attempting, of course, to debunk them), morality, love, friendship, and most importantly, what it is to be human. It is also about what it is that a just society has to be based on. Here are the Loonies, far away from home, starting something new, and in that new beginning they have a chance to truly find the basic needs and rights of a society. Heinlein, through the Prof, explores their options thoroughly, thought-provokingly, and humorously. He has a light touch when needed and is heavy when that is needed. Read this book and you will definitely be hit by the moonrocks!

Written at the peak of Robert A. Heinlein's creative powers in the mid-sixties, "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" ranks with "Stranger in a Strange Land" as his most popular and acclaimed novel. Heinlein was furiously ingenious at this stage in his career, and this novel is an incredible feat of imagination, intellect, and writing talent. It is, however, a difficult and heavy novel (much like "Stranger in a Strange Land"), loaded with hard science and even harder politics: Heinlein at his best is a writer who attracts and repels the reader at the same time, and no one could read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" without forming some very strong opinions about it.

The story follows a revolution on the lunar colonies against Earth authority. The lunar colony was originally a penal colony, but even though the lunar residents ("Loonies" as they call themselves) are no longer technically prisoners, they have become economic slaves of the Earth. Also, because of their adaptation to the Moon's lower gravity, they cannot safely return to live on Earth, so their exile is a permanent one. Amidst growing but unorganized discontent amongst the Loonies, four remarkable individuals begin the meticulous planning of a revolution to free the Moon: Mannie, an engineer and our narrator; Prof. de la Paz; fiery Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott; and a newly sentient supercomputer named Mike. Starting from this small group, the resistance spreads across the Moon. But how can the nearly defenseless colonists and miners face down the juggernaut of the nations of Earth? Mike has an ingenious solution: "Throw rocks at 'em"...literally!

Told through Mannie's point of view, the novel is written in a clipped, abbreviated style that represents the Loonie version of English: many pronouns and articles are dropped, leading to sentences like: "Stomach was supposed to be empty. But I filled helmet with sourest, nastiest fluid you would ever go a long way to avoid." This takes a few pages to get accustomed to, but soon you won't notice the odd style at all and accept it as part of the book's revolutionary spirit.

Heinlein unfolds the revolution in a meticulously detailed style, using lengthy conversations between the characters about how to step-by-step overthrow the authority of an overwhelming power. Heinlein not only provides in-depth details on the technology, but also of the philosophy of revolution and the unusual customs of the Loonies (such as their group marriages). Like most of Heinlein's great novels, this is a trip for the mind, and you have to be prepared to do plenty of thinking along with the passages of action. The novel does tend to drag somewhat in the middle, but the last hundred pages are feverish with both action and ideas.

Where Heinlein really triumphs in this novel is in the characterization of Mike the computer. Mike, along with Hal from "2001," is one of great artificial intelligences in science fiction. You will quickly forget, as Mannie does, that Mike is a disembodied voice from a machine, and instead think of him (or sometimes 'her') as another character. Mike's growth from his shaky beginnings as a thinking being is fascinating and one of Heinlein's great achievements as an author.

However, if you are new to Robert A. Heinlein (or science fiction in general), this isn't the novel to start with (and neither is "Stranger in a Strange Land"). You should ease yourself into Heinlein's brilliant mind first through his novels from the 1950s, most of which were aimed at teenagers but are nonetheless wonderful books that anyone can enjoy: "Have Space Suit -- Will Travel," "Starman Jones," and "Citizen of the Galaxy" are good places to start. Also recommended: "The Puppet Masters" and Heinlein's short stories from the 1930s and 40s collected in "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and "The Green Hills of Earth." You should definitely read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" -- it's an essential classic of the genre -- but you may need to build up to it. After all, as Loonies say: "TANSTAAFL!" ("There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!")