HomeScience FictionThe moon is a harsh mistress

Cover of The moon is a harsh mistress

Science Fiction · 1965 · PG

The moon is a harsh mistress

by Robert A. Heinlein

A computer named Mike helps plan the Lunar colony's revolution against Earth—and discovers what freedom actually costs.

For10+GenreScience FictionLength382 pagesRead time~10 hoursCommunity ratings0

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Some

Revolutionary violence and some combat; the colony catapults rocks at Earth

Language

Barely any

Mild language; Loonie slang throughout

Sexual Content

Barely any

Marriage customs in the Lunar colony include polyandrous line marriages, described rather than depicted

Substance Use

None

No substance use

Emotional Intensity

Barely any

Libertarian ideology woven throughout; the cost of revolution in human lives

What this book is about

Luna, Earth's penal colony, is running out of grain and patience. Computer technician Manny, professor Wyoming Knott, and a revolutionary named Professor Bernardo de la Paz decide it's time for revolution—and recruit HOLMES IV (Mike), the colony's self-aware computer, to help plan it. Heinlein's 1966 Hugo winner is a brilliantly constructed political novel that doubles as a manual for insurgency, wrapped in a first-person narrator whose breezy Loonie dialect makes the philosophy go down easy.

Notes for sensitive readers

Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.

Revolutionary violence

Libertarian political philosophy throughout

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