---
product_id: 174541323
title: "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress"
price: "€ 28.53"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/174541323-the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

# The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

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## Description

For fans of Artemis —the visionary tour de force from “one of the grand masters of science fiction” ( The Wall Street Journal ). Widely acknowledged as one of Robert A. Heinlein's greatest works, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress rose from the golden age of science fiction to become an undisputed classic—and a touchstone for the philosophy of personal responsibility and political freedom. A revolution on a lunar penal colony—aided by a self-aware supercomputer—provides the framework for a story of a diverse group of men and women grappling with the ever-changing definitions of humanity, technology, and free will—themes that resonate just as strongly today as they did when the novel was first published. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress gives readers an extraordinary, thought-provoking glimpse into the mind of Robert A. Heinlein, who, even now, “shows us where the future is” (Tom Clancy).

Review: A "Classic" That Is Worthy Of Being Read - I often scour the forums in search of my next science fiction book to read. On more than one occasion, I have been presented with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" as one of the greatest science fiction novels in history. The only reservations I have when dealing with novels considered "classics" are their readability. I have frequently read novels considered classics and they are disappointing and outdated. I can say in all honesty, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is undoubtedly a classic that holds up well. It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of a former penal colony on the Moon against its masters on the Earth. It is a tale of a culture whose family structures are based on the presence of two men for every woman, leading to novel forms of marriage and family. It is the story of the disparate people--a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic--who become the movement's leaders, and of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to the revolt's inner circle, who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success. One thing I noticed right away was the way the Loonies use language differently than people from earth do. In fact, it threw me at first -- I couldn't figure out what was going on or why the language was so rough and unpolished and choppy. Eventually, though, I found the rhythm of it and settled in just fine -- I didn't even notice it after a while. It makes sense; Luna started off as a penal colony and has since developed completely seperate from Earth and relatively unmolested. Of course they would have their own dialect and speech patterns! To my mind, their language seems to be as efficent as possible. They trimmed away any unnecessary deadwood -- they don't use articles, for example, and very few personal pronouns, and they seem to prefer to use fragments to complete sentences. Only the essentials remain, much the same as the original colonists/prisoners had to start their lives over with only the bare essentials and sometimes not even that. This book was written about forty years ago, and it has stood the test of time quite well, but there are some aspects of it that do seem rather dated. For example, the idea behind the character of Mike -- the computer that is connected to everything and has "woken up" or become alive -- is one that is very familiar to modern readers, one that we accept easily. Apparently, we accept it much more easily than Heinlen expected his readers in 1965 to accept it, because he spends more time explaining it than he really needs to. When Mannie, the narrator, tells Wyoh about Mike and introduces them via a telephone conversation, she is shocked that Mike already knows what she looks like. He looked up her medical records and found a picture of her immediately after being introduced to her. To modern readers familiar with the internet, this is an obvious step and hardly shocking; we expect it, and Wyoh's shock and apparent need to have every detail and implication of Mike's "life" spelled out for her makes her seem a little bit stupid to us. If we don't remember that Heinlen is using Wyoh to explain things to his 1965 audience that his 2005 audience intuitively understands, then we'll get a little frustrated with Wyoh's denseness. All in all, this is a novel about politics -- a very complex, deep, intellectual and sophisticated look at politics, government, revolution and war. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has a very definite world-view and political philosophy, some of which I agreed with, and some of which I really, really didn't. My agreement (or lack thereof) with the politics espoused in this book didn't seem to have much bearing on my enjoyment of it. This is a book that requires the reader to think. And that, I think, is why I loved it so much. 5 Stars
Review: What are you waiting for - Read This Book! - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a fantastic book, one that I read with regularity because there's always something new to check out, to understand or to appreciate. Heinlein has written several novels around the SF theme of a future society where a few brave patriots fight massive oppression - always something akin to the American Revolution in 1776-83. This book is the best of the lot. It's also Heinlein's fourth and final Hugo Award for the best SF novel of the year. Told in first person by a computer technician in (not on) the Moon, "Manny" discovers that the master computer in the Moon is also now sentient, having so many lesser computers attached that it had enough circuits to parallel the human brain. Mycroft "Mike" Holmes (the Computer) is a big fun-loving kid, whose biggest issue is boredom, and his heart's passion, telling jokes that are funny, and differentiating between "funny once" and "funny always." Manny becomes his first and best friend. Then, a small riot breaks out in Luna City, one of the largest human habitats in the Moon, and a member of Manny's extended family gets involved, and suddenly, Manny and two compatriots - Bernardo de la Paz and Wyoming Knott (who hates the nickname "Wy Knott" - "funny once" joke, as Mike comes to understand it - become involved in a revolution against the oppressive "Lunar Authority" which sees all of the Moon's denizens as indentured servants 9i.e., slaves). But there's a problem. Because most of the water ice found and mined on the Moon is used to grow wheat for the chronically food-short humans on Earth - mostly in India, though this is all but irrelevant. The Lunar Authority doesn't believe this, and keeps demanding higher quotas of grain. In six years, the water resources in the Moon will be gone, and within eight years, the surviving humans will resort to cannibalism. Enough of this story. This is a great, character-driven story that, as is so often the case, loaded with sociology - in this case, with men outnumbering women by around three-to-one, how does society evolve? In Manny's case, he's in a "line marriage" that dates back generations and includes an eclectic assortment of hard-rock miners, beauticians, farmers and a minister for an outlandish offshoot of Christianity. If you love hard SF with a soul, and haven't read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, what are you waiting for?

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #27,588 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #52 in Science Fiction Short Stories #319 in Science Fiction Adventures #428 in Classic Literature & Fiction |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 9,133 Reviews |

## Images

![The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/710OpEvH5oL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A "Classic" That Is Worthy Of Being Read
*by T***E on December 5, 2012*

I often scour the forums in search of my next science fiction book to read. On more than one occasion, I have been presented with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" as one of the greatest science fiction novels in history. The only reservations I have when dealing with novels considered "classics" are their readability. I have frequently read novels considered classics and they are disappointing and outdated. I can say in all honesty, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is undoubtedly a classic that holds up well. It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of a former penal colony on the Moon against its masters on the Earth. It is a tale of a culture whose family structures are based on the presence of two men for every woman, leading to novel forms of marriage and family. It is the story of the disparate people--a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic--who become the movement's leaders, and of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to the revolt's inner circle, who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success. One thing I noticed right away was the way the Loonies use language differently than people from earth do. In fact, it threw me at first -- I couldn't figure out what was going on or why the language was so rough and unpolished and choppy. Eventually, though, I found the rhythm of it and settled in just fine -- I didn't even notice it after a while. It makes sense; Luna started off as a penal colony and has since developed completely seperate from Earth and relatively unmolested. Of course they would have their own dialect and speech patterns! To my mind, their language seems to be as efficent as possible. They trimmed away any unnecessary deadwood -- they don't use articles, for example, and very few personal pronouns, and they seem to prefer to use fragments to complete sentences. Only the essentials remain, much the same as the original colonists/prisoners had to start their lives over with only the bare essentials and sometimes not even that. This book was written about forty years ago, and it has stood the test of time quite well, but there are some aspects of it that do seem rather dated. For example, the idea behind the character of Mike -- the computer that is connected to everything and has "woken up" or become alive -- is one that is very familiar to modern readers, one that we accept easily. Apparently, we accept it much more easily than Heinlen expected his readers in 1965 to accept it, because he spends more time explaining it than he really needs to. When Mannie, the narrator, tells Wyoh about Mike and introduces them via a telephone conversation, she is shocked that Mike already knows what she looks like. He looked up her medical records and found a picture of her immediately after being introduced to her. To modern readers familiar with the internet, this is an obvious step and hardly shocking; we expect it, and Wyoh's shock and apparent need to have every detail and implication of Mike's "life" spelled out for her makes her seem a little bit stupid to us. If we don't remember that Heinlen is using Wyoh to explain things to his 1965 audience that his 2005 audience intuitively understands, then we'll get a little frustrated with Wyoh's denseness. All in all, this is a novel about politics -- a very complex, deep, intellectual and sophisticated look at politics, government, revolution and war. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has a very definite world-view and political philosophy, some of which I agreed with, and some of which I really, really didn't. My agreement (or lack thereof) with the politics espoused in this book didn't seem to have much bearing on my enjoyment of it. This is a book that requires the reader to think. And that, I think, is why I loved it so much. 5 Stars

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What are you waiting for - Read This Book!
*by N***T on March 12, 2025*

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a fantastic book, one that I read with regularity because there's always something new to check out, to understand or to appreciate. Heinlein has written several novels around the SF theme of a future society where a few brave patriots fight massive oppression - always something akin to the American Revolution in 1776-83. This book is the best of the lot. It's also Heinlein's fourth and final Hugo Award for the best SF novel of the year. Told in first person by a computer technician in (not on) the Moon, "Manny" discovers that the master computer in the Moon is also now sentient, having so many lesser computers attached that it had enough circuits to parallel the human brain. Mycroft "Mike" Holmes (the Computer) is a big fun-loving kid, whose biggest issue is boredom, and his heart's passion, telling jokes that are funny, and differentiating between "funny once" and "funny always." Manny becomes his first and best friend. Then, a small riot breaks out in Luna City, one of the largest human habitats in the Moon, and a member of Manny's extended family gets involved, and suddenly, Manny and two compatriots - Bernardo de la Paz and Wyoming Knott (who hates the nickname "Wy Knott" - "funny once" joke, as Mike comes to understand it - become involved in a revolution against the oppressive "Lunar Authority" which sees all of the Moon's denizens as indentured servants 9i.e., slaves). But there's a problem. Because most of the water ice found and mined on the Moon is used to grow wheat for the chronically food-short humans on Earth - mostly in India, though this is all but irrelevant. The Lunar Authority doesn't believe this, and keeps demanding higher quotas of grain. In six years, the water resources in the Moon will be gone, and within eight years, the surviving humans will resort to cannibalism. Enough of this story. This is a great, character-driven story that, as is so often the case, loaded with sociology - in this case, with men outnumbering women by around three-to-one, how does society evolve? In Manny's case, he's in a "line marriage" that dates back generations and includes an eclectic assortment of hard-rock miners, beauticians, farmers and a minister for an outlandish offshoot of Christianity. If you love hard SF with a soul, and haven't read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, what are you waiting for?

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book, loved the plot!
*by D***S on July 31, 2025*

I read this book after seeing it advertised in the television series "Black Mirror" Did not disappoint. I loved the character of Mike best

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- Starship Troopers

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*Last updated: 2026-05-23*