The Moon is a Harsh Mistress / Robert A. Heinlein

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

by Robert A. Heinlein

science fiction

copyright 1966

re-read in May 2017

rated 7/10: well worth reading

This is my favourite Heinlein book. Hmmm. Perhaps it's the only Heinlein book that I really enjoy. The science is good, the social views are possibly unworkable but still interesting, his attitude to women is embarrassing.

As a teenager I remember a Heinlein book where two characters spent half a chapter discussing some aspect of Heinlein's views on a better society. Boring, I thought. The rest of the book was not much better.

As a young adult I read Stranger in a Strange Land. Rubbish, I thought. Even at that age -- in an age before female emancipation -- I thought it was stupid when the women went off to make sandwiches while the men discussed the future of the world.

In The Moon, women are emotional creatures. The wolf whistle and ogling is the standard man-meets-woman greeting. The women's role is -- again -- preparing food. And encouraging the male troops. And breeding.

Yes, in a crowded Lunar environment, when all a man wants is air and water and adequate living space, the key role of a woman in a marriage is to be bred.

Then there's the attitude of the leaders of the revolution. They are willing to lie and cheat and occasionally kill, in order to achieve the results that they *know* are best for everyone. They are fanatics who demand change. Whether you agree -- or care -- or not. Whether you want it or not.

On the other hand, I do still support one idea from this book. A political idea: the free Lunar government is set up so as to make it as difficult as possible for the government to pass any laws. Pre-communist Hong Kong had a thriving economy with an ineffective government. I still believe that it should be as difficult as possible for any government to pass laws. Less... in government, in my opinion :-) ... is definitely better.

Robert Heinlein was a pre-eminent science fiction author, in the days when science fiction was a niche market for authors. He was strong on science and strong on right wing social and political ideas. You think that the second half of Stephenson's Reamde is somewhat right of Genghis Khan? Heinlein spends pages explaining how to go right and why it is so absolutely right...

Yet The Moon is still a readable book. With lots of scientific, social and political ideas. Whether or not you agree with them. And Heinlein is a famous author.

For all those reasons, this book is well worth reading. And if you think that Heinlein's ideas are embarrassing, well... don't read any of his other books.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"The man who has no imagination has no wings." … Muhammad Ali