The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

This book has been described as Heinlein's masterpiece. Not sure about that, but it's a fun read. Essentially it documents how the lunar community, used and abused by their earth masters, stage a determined and violent revolution. The narrator's voice is quirky and he takes a high level view of events so the first few chapters read more like a history book than a regular novel. It took me a while to get used to, but once accepted it worked ok. This is an old book and the dialogue is sometimes cheesy and even controversial, but again it's all part of the charm. I'm not a huge fan of Heinlein, I always preferred Clarke, but this is well worth reading.

My first Heinlein book, and it won't be my last, although Heinlein is definitely not for everyone.My initial impressions were bad, as the main character speaks/thinks with grammatically incorrect sentences (I presume this is supposed to be how they speak in the future) which I found very jarring & a struggle to read. It took maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the book before I stopped noticing the really bad grammar, and so could enjoy the story.The story itself is a good one, with mostly well realised/believable characters, who have their own motivations & views on acceptable behaviour. Possibly the least believable character is the AI/computer, as there isn't sufficient explanation given as to why it has such a poor view of most humans.The society on the moon is unlike anything on present-day Earth, which rather unusual social norms, but it's told with sufficient detail & history that it feels fairly believable - the author evidently put a great deal of thought into it. I suppose the bad grammar was intended to help make this future world feel authentically different, and continually remind us their society follows different rules.

I bought this book thinking that a story about an (ex) penal colony on the moon staging a revolution probably wasnt going to be all that good, even though i do love science fiction, but having previously read a couple of Heinlein's books (Stranger in a strange land & the number of the beast), then i thought this would be worth a read.It certainly was worth a read, at least as good as the other 2 books and considered by many to be Heinlein's best book.The characters, particularly mannie, the main character talk in a slightly strange way (sounded like a russian trying to speak english crossed with some future new language with new words added), but dont let this put you off in any way - if anything it adds to the quality of the reading experience.I wont talk about the plot or the general gist of the book, etc as you can read this in the description and in other reviews - suffice to say that if you like sci-fi then you will like this. It's not space opera, but it is rather brilliant.

Robert A. Heinlein's book is a rarity amongst science-fiction of its era in portraying political decisions and political decision making with a depth and subtlety quite unlike the embarrassingly bad seen in highly praised books such as Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves (where asking one question once of one Senator and not getting the answer you like is enough to give up on government, democracy and all). Heinlein's tale of a revolt on a lunar colony which then seeks independence from Earth has strong parallels with the American War of Independence and gives a long hearing to libertarian ideals, but it is not an uncritical homage to life without government (especially given the reliance on insider dealing and printing of money to fund the libertarian efforts). Whilst some characters are enthusiastic libertarians, there is enough material for readers to draw very different conclusions.The narrator has a very distinctive syntax along with a special Lunar vocabulary, reflecting how the English language will most likely continue to change in the future. This can make for tough reading at times if you do not like the style but also makes the audio version of the book particularly good, especially given the fine performance and accents by the person who reads the main audio version available.The attempts to generate a version of English for the future is part of a general attempt to paint an internally consistent and plausible future, where the impact of the Moon's low gravity is thought through in its many different impacts on the colony. Where the future now looks very off is the failure to appreciate how computers and communications technology would get smaller (no need for the massive mainframe of the story now nor the reliance on popping into phone boxes) and how having more and more advanced computers now no longer seems to be a sure route to enabling them to be able to answer almost any question and predict almost everything about the future.Heinlien's plot has other holes - especially the Lunar authorities's inability even to investigate the cause of malfunctioning sewage and air supplies. This is more than compensated for by the good mix of action and thought, intelligent variation of pace through the plot and absence of (too many) predictable twists and turns in the storyline. A good read all in all.

A very unique style of writing that is reminiscent of Lee Child. Some interesting predictions about a World federation that seems ever closer with a looming New World Order with India and China at the forefront. A great book for anyone interested in libertarianism and the art of revolution. Don't worry if you're not a fan of sci-fi; this book caters for anyone.