The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

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Summary: A superb thriller -- and more.
Review: This is an excellent political thriller. The story moves nicely, the characterization is excellent, and the description is superb. It's just a great story. Beyond that, it is a surprisingly sophisticated analysis of constitutional first principles (so much so that it has spawned at least one well-regarded law review article on Heinlein's constitutional thinking). Like "Starship Troopers," it addresses what remains a core problem: how do you maintain a free society when (1) doing so requires self-discipline and hard work; and (2) most people don't want to engage in either? A tour-de-force.

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Summary: And I thought I didn't LIKE Science Fiction!
Review: Wow- what a great book! I never would have picked it up if my beloved "Award Winners" Book Club hadn't selected it. We tend to pick the Bookers and the Pulitzers- thank goodness someone had heard of the Hugos! A genius mind lurks behind this beautiful story. Truly a not-to-be-forgotten tale. Don't pass it up!

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Summary: Outstanding and Believable
Review: I know a lot of people fault this book for it's choppy English, but by omitting the articles and occasional prepositions, Heinlein points up the fact that those living on Luna have become a different culture, complete with its own language and idioms. And, to be fair, one of the novel's most important characters, Pfr. de la Paz, speaks flawless English. But nitpicking over the occasionally missing "a," "an," and "the" makes no sense when discussing this novel. Consider: Heinlein portrays a lunar colony so well thought out, one wonders why it hasn't been built already. And the plot's construtcion is airtight: follow the course of the revolution detailed in this book and by the end, you'll share in the characters' patriotism for their fledgling state. Nowhere else do you get such a concise picture of Heinlein's "You get what you pay for" philosophy. Definitely my favorite work of Heinlein's and one that stands up to repeated rereading. TANSTAAFL!

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Summary: A boring piece of ...
Review: Mike was likable, Wyoh was tolerable, but Mannie was an annoying fool. The book went into irrelevant and booooring mathematical descriptions, went overboard on characters and the way characters left out words like "a" and "the" was annoying

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Summary: Genius
Review: The best. Almost all of the complaints about this book were concerned with the wording. The main character is of Russian descent and if you've ever heard a Russian speak English without a strong grasp of the language, well he did it perfectly. If your grasp on the English language is so poor that this could confuse you I recommend books with smaller words. A brilliant novel of political revolution. Scientifically the book was fine. I've seen some interesting complaints about the science but ignore them. The focus of the book is political philosophy and it did a wonderful job.

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Summary: Excellent Novel
Review: This marks the fourth Heinlein book I've read, the other three being Stranger In A Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and The Door Into Summer. After Stranger, I was extremely turned off to his writing and sincerely thought I would never read another one of his books. Fortunately for me, however, I heard that Starship Troopers was being made into a movie , and that reintroduced Heinlein to me as a great writer. I think if I hadn't read it, I would have gone on disliking even the idea of reading one of his books. Door Into Summer and Starship Troopers are pretty well tied for the title of "My Favorite SF Novel", and this is very close behind the other two. Even if you don't appreciate his political views, this is a very important book. READ IT.

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Summary: probably his best other than Stranger in a Strange Land
Review: A wonderful Pinocchio story. Covers many of Heinlein's favorite political and social themes, sometimes better than his more well known classic Stranger in a Strange Land. It takes a little preseverance to get used to the invented English/Russian pidgin of the first-person narrative, but it's worth the effort.

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Summary: Books Shouldn`t Be this GOOD!
Review: Heinlein`s most controversal novel is also one of his best. The only problem in the entire novel was the fact that Terra woulf make Luna into a Penal Colony.

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Summary: What if HAL-9000 was a nice guy?
Review: The chief supporting character here is a computer, one that's advanced enough to be able to think. But in "Mike's" case, he has a human techie who respects computers almost as people. For some odd reason, Manuel O'Kelly gets a lot better results than Dr. Chandra--Mike becomes a person. One with a basic dignity that allows him to reciprocate the respect given him. Like I said, a nice guy. A solid type that can be put in a position of trust in a revolution Mannie's new girlfriend is spearheading. This book comes after "Stranger In a Strange Land" in Heinlein's series of socially-conscious novels, but in the aftermath of that book's success, it was only noticed by Heinlein freaks like me. It's also the source of an aphorism I use to this day: TANSTAAFL--an acronym for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." This book was written over thirty years ago and yet that axiom is still relevant. I think of it every time I'm unlucky enough to have to listen to one of those "tax rebs". Open the pod bay doors, Mike!

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Summary: Outstanding look at how "America" should be!
Review: A fantastic look at a society that our founding fathers would want "America" to ge. TANSTAAFL is not an opinion, but a universal fact! Not only is Heinlein's philosophy right on, but his unique prose style added to the flavor of the book. Those who had trouble with it are way too anal, or don't have any imagination!! One of his very best!