A review by fowadijaz
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

4.5

Excellent book, really brilliant. Really brought the author's vision to life, with perfect descriptions, perfect omissions, perfect terse language, perfect slang and jargon, and perfect humour. The only thing that was a little offputting was how easily the main characters succeeded in everything they tried, and how the AI was just a macguffin for the broader story of how the moon got its independednce; once its task was complete it just vanished into the void. Then again, I guess this was just a fun little romp and not really looking to get into the philosophy of what it means to be human, and so forth. 

Synopsis: Manuel Davis is a tech contractor working for the Lunar authority who discovers that the mike, the central computer controlling the lunar colony has become sentient. At the same time, he is caught up in a political meeting that goes awry.

He meeds Wyoming Knott, and together with his friend Professor Garcia, they plot to overthrow the lunar authority and become an independent nation-state. Mike predicts the failure of resources in 7 or 8 years because resources only go one way. The status of the moon on earth is purely as a prison colony that also grows crops for them. Manuel and the others orchestrate a propaganda war as well as a war on paper to help manage the perceptions of the lunar inhabitants on earth, even going down as envoys to help manage the narrative. THe ploy fails, but thta is part of the plan. They end up making the earth look like aggressors, then toss down strategically placed boulders to show that they still have some fire power. Just as they are about to run out of any more canisters to throw, their demands are met and earth surrenders.

Mike is damaged in the attack and goes back to being a dumb machine, the professor dies after having been president and seeing the moon achieve independence, and Manuel welcomes wyoming into his family as a wife