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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
2 reviews
emtees's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Sci-fi classics are always a kind of weird read. The typical classic, one that was a contemporary novel at the time it was written even if it involves supernatural or fantasy elements, gives a glimpse into a different time and the way people thought then, but a sci-fic classic is depicting a future as envisioned from the past and that can cause some odd dissonance. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress takes place in the late twenty-first century, but it’s not our twenty-first century - it’s the twenty-first century as imagined 75 years in the past and it’s… interesting. The novel itself is a pretty good adventure story, though it has some flaws that may just be artifacts of the way sci-fic was written at the time, but the way Heinlein envisions the future was the most intriguing part for me.
Manny lives on Luna - that is, the moon. Luna is Earth’s penal colony, where criminals are sent to live out their sentences, and then, because even a short time under the moon’s lesser gravitational pull dramatically changes the human body, they remain stuck there, developing a complex society that works by its own rules. Manny is descended from multiple generations of such criminals and he thinks of himself as a resident of Luna - a “loonie” - by identity. But he isn’t introduced as a character with too much interest in politics, despite his sympathies for those who object to Earth’s continued stranglehold on Luna and its resources. Manny is a computer programmer and his primary interest is his relationship with Mike, the central computer that runs all of Luna. Mike has been accidentally allowed to develop to the point of gaining something like sentience and Manny, Mike’s “Best Friend,” is the only one who noticed. But Mike wants more friends, and so Manny introduces him to Wyoh, a fiery revolutionary determined to bring down Luna’s Warden, and the Professor, an eccentric anarchist and Manny’s former teacher. The four end up forming a movement to free Luna from her oppressors, but revolution proves more complicated than Manny expected.
The plot of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is overall pretty solid. I enjoyed the descriptions of how the revolution was organized, the complex politics they had to negotiate, and the twists of it all. Heilein writes an exciting action scene and a tense “people in rooms talking” scene. Unfortunately, he also does a lot of narrating the plot from high above, covering whole aspects of the revolution from a distance, but I think that’s probably an artifact of the time. Occasionally these sections veered into semi-political lectures delivered by the Professor - Heilein clearly shared his characters’ skepticism of liberal democracy and desire to just have a few smart people take care of what little formal government he’ll admit is actually needed - but for the most part, the focus stays on the story. This is also a hard sci-fi novel, so a lot of time is spent on the logistics of how travel, exporting goods and war on the moon work. But the most interesting part was the depictions of the society on the moon. As might be expected on a penal coloney, the moon runs heavy to people who don’t have much interest in laws and regulations, and Heinlein takes a very idealized view of what a society like that would be like, with the Loonies self-regulating with little help from any kind of organized structure. The polutation is also heavily skewed towards men, with 1 woman for every 2 men, and again Heinlein depicts a society who have handled this imbalance, not with rape and oppression, but by giving women all social power, which he claims is the result of free market economics (women being the scarce resource that therefore claims a high price.) A lot of page time is spent on the complex polyamorous marriages and matriarchies that are the norm of Loonie society - Manny himself is part of a “line-marriage,” an entire clan of married people that’s been continuing for decades. There are a few aspects of this that are a little questionable - a bit too much is made of sexuality of pre-teens, who are allowed to marry in this society, and overall the whole thing is heavily idealized, but it’s still fascinating and creative. A lot of the social aspects of looney life were really fun, like the informal justice system where people with a dispute hire a “judge” to hear their cases.
Manny himself is a pretty good main character. I was worried at first, when he became the leader of a revolution despite repeatedly stating that he knew or cared nothing about politics, that we were looking at a too-talented golden age of sci-fi hero, who would be able to accomplish anything while holding himself above it all. But Manny is more of an Everyman than that, and some of the most entertaining parts of the book are when the more politically savvy in his revolutionary cell leave him out of decisions because he’s better off not knowing. The Professor, whatever you might think of his “no one needs laws, they should just steal what they need and kill if they have to” attitude, is the most endearing character, and Mike himself is a lot of fun, even if I kept waiting for more to happen with his story.One of the problems of reading this book from a modern perspective is that I’m so used to stories where an AI develops to the point that it’s a risk to humanity that I kept expecting something like that to happen to Mike, and instead he just disappeared at the end. It was sad, but also oddly abrupt. Unfortunately, Wyoh, the last member of the revolutionary group, was a disappointment. After a great introduction where she seemed like she’d have a major part to play in the plot, Wyoh was reduced to the “girl” of the group, inspiring the men with her looks and charm but almost always being overruled in their decisions because she’s too naive or ignorant or emotional to have a good idea. There are hints that she’s good at organizing people and leading them where the group needs them to go, but we rarely see this. Luckily, while they aren’t as prominent, many of the other female characters show more initiative and skill. The book is also surprisingly diverse in other ways, with Heilein predicting a Lunar society that is almost all non-white.
Manny lives on Luna - that is, the moon. Luna is Earth’s penal colony, where criminals are sent to live out their sentences, and then, because even a short time under the moon’s lesser gravitational pull dramatically changes the human body, they remain stuck there, developing a complex society that works by its own rules. Manny is descended from multiple generations of such criminals and he thinks of himself as a resident of Luna - a “loonie” - by identity. But he isn’t introduced as a character with too much interest in politics, despite his sympathies for those who object to Earth’s continued stranglehold on Luna and its resources. Manny is a computer programmer and his primary interest is his relationship with Mike, the central computer that runs all of Luna. Mike has been accidentally allowed to develop to the point of gaining something like sentience and Manny, Mike’s “Best Friend,” is the only one who noticed. But Mike wants more friends, and so Manny introduces him to Wyoh, a fiery revolutionary determined to bring down Luna’s Warden, and the Professor, an eccentric anarchist and Manny’s former teacher. The four end up forming a movement to free Luna from her oppressors, but revolution proves more complicated than Manny expected.
The plot of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is overall pretty solid. I enjoyed the descriptions of how the revolution was organized, the complex politics they had to negotiate, and the twists of it all. Heilein writes an exciting action scene and a tense “people in rooms talking” scene. Unfortunately, he also does a lot of narrating the plot from high above, covering whole aspects of the revolution from a distance, but I think that’s probably an artifact of the time. Occasionally these sections veered into semi-political lectures delivered by the Professor - Heilein clearly shared his characters’ skepticism of liberal democracy and desire to just have a few smart people take care of what little formal government he’ll admit is actually needed - but for the most part, the focus stays on the story. This is also a hard sci-fi novel, so a lot of time is spent on the logistics of how travel, exporting goods and war on the moon work. But the most interesting part was the depictions of the society on the moon. As might be expected on a penal coloney, the moon runs heavy to people who don’t have much interest in laws and regulations, and Heinlein takes a very idealized view of what a society like that would be like, with the Loonies self-regulating with little help from any kind of organized structure. The polutation is also heavily skewed towards men, with 1 woman for every 2 men, and again Heinlein depicts a society who have handled this imbalance, not with rape and oppression, but by giving women all social power, which he claims is the result of free market economics (women being the scarce resource that therefore claims a high price.) A lot of page time is spent on the complex polyamorous marriages and matriarchies that are the norm of Loonie society - Manny himself is part of a “line-marriage,” an entire clan of married people that’s been continuing for decades. There are a few aspects of this that are a little questionable - a bit too much is made of sexuality of pre-teens, who are allowed to marry in this society, and overall the whole thing is heavily idealized, but it’s still fascinating and creative. A lot of the social aspects of looney life were really fun, like the informal justice system where people with a dispute hire a “judge” to hear their cases.
Manny himself is a pretty good main character. I was worried at first, when he became the leader of a revolution despite repeatedly stating that he knew or cared nothing about politics, that we were looking at a too-talented golden age of sci-fi hero, who would be able to accomplish anything while holding himself above it all. But Manny is more of an Everyman than that, and some of the most entertaining parts of the book are when the more politically savvy in his revolutionary cell leave him out of decisions because he’s better off not knowing. The Professor, whatever you might think of his “no one needs laws, they should just steal what they need and kill if they have to” attitude, is the most endearing character, and Mike himself is a lot of fun, even if I kept waiting for more to happen with his story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
The futuristic society of the book includes marriages between very young teens and adults, though none of that is depicted graphically. A main character, who is described as white, spends a lot of the story in what is essentially blackface; she is doing this to blend in with a non-white society and there is no racist motivation or negative depiction of POC.a_kt's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A grandiose tale about a rag-tag penal colony on the moon getting together to revolt against big Government - whoops I meant the "Federated Nations" on Earth. All so that they can sell wheat for a fair price on the free market-whoops I mean for freedom...
Listen, Robert Heinlein is a bit of a source of internal conflict for me. This is the first work of his I've read in it's entirety, after having listened to the first 2/3 of Stranger in a Strange Land before falling off of it after it gets a little... New-wave religious on you. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a helluva ride, packed with all sorts of biting social and economic commentary, Nosferatu-esque technological predictions, and extremely poignant Government criticism. The thing is though..... I don't really... Agree with most of it??
The actual plot of Moon is lacking. The plot revolves around all of the main characters of the book, sorry - main *male* characters of the book discussing why laws are useless, why taxation is theft, why self-reliance is the only true way of life, why government oversight is just a fancy term for blatant corruption, and so on and so forth. It's basically every Facebook talking point your libertarian uncle who is obsessed with Penn and Teller loves anthropomorphized and made into a moon-crimin-revolutionary.
Meanwhile all the *female* characters in the book are very busy... Erm *checks notes*... Being beautiful, ethnically ambiguous, sassy, stubborn yet ignorant props to be talked about by the men. Seriously. One of the main three progenitors of the moon revolution is a woman named Wyoming, who is introduced to the reader by giving an impassioned speech about free will and the need to fight against tyranny, she then spends the entire rest of the book... Just kind of... Being around?? Oh yeah, did I mention this book makes *liberal* use of child brides as a plot point and tries to make it seem like a normal and good thing?????
Parts of this book are baffling. The social commentary is so dated and ham-fisted yet it pats itself on the back *so hard*, it makes the Earth-based government look so unapologetically bad while the main character nonchalantly makes the moon seem like a lawless utopia. There is literally not a shred of nuance to be found anywhere in this book.
All of that being said, I did finish it. So there are parts of this book I did enjoy. I see a lot of people complaining about the strange dialect the main character narrates in, but honestly I found that to be one of most endearing parts of it. The inclusion of the sentient super computer, Mike, was probably the most interesting aspect of the plot, but sadly Mike is only really around for the first and last bits of the book. He is introduced as this interesting (and humorous) concept, and ends up becoming the glue the keeps the revolution together. I liked Mike. I liked some of Mannie's witticisms.
I'd say if you're interested in reading this book, do yourself a favor and read Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed first (or instead of) to get a much more well thought out description of a real anarchist utopia in contrast with a late-stage capitalist society.
Listen, Robert Heinlein is a bit of a source of internal conflict for me. This is the first work of his I've read in it's entirety, after having listened to the first 2/3 of Stranger in a Strange Land before falling off of it after it gets a little... New-wave religious on you. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a helluva ride, packed with all sorts of biting social and economic commentary, Nosferatu-esque technological predictions, and extremely poignant Government criticism. The thing is though..... I don't really... Agree with most of it??
The actual plot of Moon is lacking. The plot revolves around all of the main characters of the book, sorry - main *male* characters of the book discussing why laws are useless, why taxation is theft, why self-reliance is the only true way of life, why government oversight is just a fancy term for blatant corruption, and so on and so forth. It's basically every Facebook talking point your libertarian uncle who is obsessed with Penn and Teller loves anthropomorphized and made into a moon-crimin-revolutionary.
Meanwhile all the *female* characters in the book are very busy... Erm *checks notes*... Being beautiful, ethnically ambiguous, sassy, stubborn yet ignorant props to be talked about by the men. Seriously. One of the main three progenitors of the moon revolution is a woman named Wyoming, who is introduced to the reader by giving an impassioned speech about free will and the need to fight against tyranny, she then spends the entire rest of the book... Just kind of... Being around?? Oh yeah, did I mention this book makes *liberal* use of child brides as a plot point and tries to make it seem like a normal and good thing?????
Parts of this book are baffling. The social commentary is so dated and ham-fisted yet it pats itself on the back *so hard*, it makes the Earth-based government look so unapologetically bad while the main character nonchalantly makes the moon seem like a lawless utopia. There is literally not a shred of nuance to be found anywhere in this book.
All of that being said, I did finish it. So there are parts of this book I did enjoy. I see a lot of people complaining about the strange dialect the main character narrates in, but honestly I found that to be one of most endearing parts of it. The inclusion of the sentient super computer, Mike, was probably the most interesting aspect of the plot, but sadly Mike is only really around for the first and last bits of the book. He is introduced as this interesting (and humorous) concept, and ends up becoming the glue the keeps the revolution together. I liked Mike. I liked some of Mannie's witticisms.
I'd say if you're interested in reading this book, do yourself a favor and read Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed first (or instead of) to get a much more well thought out description of a real anarchist utopia in contrast with a late-stage capitalist society.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Classism and Colonisation
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