Review of "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress"

A resident of my district, no longer a constituent but formerly involved in New York’s Free Libertarian Party, had highly recommended a book to me on several occasions. It is Robert Heinlein’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘐𝘴 𝘢 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 (1966), which he and the book’s press had called a Libertarian novel.

Around the year 2075, the Federated Nations of the Earth use the moon as a penal colony, and for around a century they have been deporting convicts and undesirables thereto. The lunar colonists – called Loonies – survive by honeycombing the moon with interconnecting tunnels, drilling into underground deposits of ice for hydration to grow hydroponic crops (though a Libertarian novel, no “happy” crops are mentioned!). The colony in fact generates value by shipping produce to Earth via a massive hydraulic catapult which propels containers of produce into orbit for controlled landing on Earth.

Problem is that for nearly all convicts shipped moonwards, it is intended as a one-way trip, which meant that convicts had to make the most of their circumstances and adapt to conditions at hand. This they did by way of multi-generational, polyandrous marriages since males outnumber females about four to one. Marriages meant that children are born on the moon, free from condemnation for their parents’ crimes, and under no obligation to tolerate exploitation by the overseer Lunar Authority. After numerous generations of free-born children, a distinct experiential identity sets in, and they seek collective recognition of independence from the Earth, only for Earth to tell them that it won’t give up the colony without a fight!

The novel is engaging yet playful, narrated from the robotic-armed protagonist Manuel García O’Kelly (everybody on The Rock is multi-ethnic) in a futuristic pidgin of English interspersed with Russian, which takes some getting used to. Manuel’s out-of-the-box thinking at the novel’s beginning gains him a friend and powerful ally in a self-aware mainframe computer called Mike (short for Mycroft), which makes for some comic relief as the computer progressively learns how to behave more humanlike. The action covers numerous fields of human endeavor such as statecraft, warcraft, espionage, propaganda, astronautics, economics, historiography, cryptography, and many others.

In short, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘐𝘴 𝘢 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 is enjoyable and speaks to quintessential truths about the human condition and conflict. Hopefully when the day comes for humanity to populate the moon or other planets, we’ll do so by cultivating consent over coercion.

Originally published on Facebook, April 12th, 2023.