Robert Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907–May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard" science fiction. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first writer to break into mainstream, general magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, in the late 1940s, with unvarnished science fiction. He was among the first authors of bestselling, novel-length science fiction in the modern, mass-market era. For many years, Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.

Within the framework of his science fiction stories Heinlein repeatedly integrated recognizable social themes: The importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress non-conformist thought. He also examined the relationship between physical and emotional love, speculated about unorthodox family relationships, and the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. His iconoclastic approach to these themes led to wildly divergent perceptions of his works and attempts to place mutually contradictory labels on his work. For example, his 1959 novel Starship Troopers was widely viewed as an advocacy of militarism and even to contain some elements of fascism, although many passages in the book disparage the inflexibility and stupidity of a purely militaristic mindset. By contrast, his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land put him in the unexpected role of pied piper to the sexual revolution and the counterculture, and through this book he was credited with popularizing the notion of polyamory, or responsible nonmonogamy.

Heinlein won four Hugo Awards for his novels. In addition, fifty years after publication, three of his works were awarded "Retro Hugos" — awards given retrospectively for years in which no Hugos had been awarded. He also won the first Grand Master Award given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for lifetime achievement. After his death, his wife Virginia Heinlein issued a compilation of Heinlein's correspondence and notes into a somewhat autobiographical examination of his career, published in 1989 under the title Grumbles from the Grave. In his fiction, Heinlein coined words that have become part of the English language, including "grok", "TANSTAAFL" and "waldo."

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth. The novel expresses and discusses libertarian ideals in a speculative context.

The book is set in the year 2075 on the Lunar Colonies, a collection of underground colonies scattered across the Moon. Most Loonies (Lunar colonists) are (or are the descendants of) people involuntarily transported to the Moon either for criminal or political reasons. Due to the low surface gravity of the Moon, anyone (including transportees from Earth) who stays longer than a few months undergoes "irreversible physiological changes and can never again live in comfort and health in a gravitational field six time greater than that to which their bodies have become adjusted."

Although the Earth-appointed Protector of the Lunar Colonies (universally called the Warden) is in charge, in practice, except for purchasing and selling commodities at fixed prices favorable to the government (the Lunar Authority), there is little intervention in Lunar society. Transportees, having served their sentences, join Lunar society. If they cannot get along in it, they are generally killed by other Loonies—there is work enough for anyone who wants it.

Luna's hostile environment, and the Lunar society produced by this, weed out those unable to adapt to Lunar society and foster a strong survival instinct coupled with a commitment to responsibility, individual freedoms and family.

"Luna herself is a stern schoolmistress, and those who have lived through her harsh lessons have no cause to feel ashamed" — Professor Bernardo de la Paz addressing the Federated States on Earth after the coup.

The narrator is Manuel Garcia O'Kelly "Mannie" Davis, a one-armed computer technician who discovers that the Lunar Authority's primary computer system has become self-aware. He names the computer Mike (after Mycroft Holmes, brother of Sherlock Holmes), the official name of the computer being HOLMES IV, where HOLMES stands for High Optional Logical Multi-Evaluating Supervisor.

Mike is given almost total control of Luna's facilities because the Lunar Authority wants to save money. His personality responds to this expansion by developing an infantile sense of humor. He is persuaded to help a revolution succeed by Manuel.

The novel is divided into three "books" although the first is by far the largest. The action takes place in the underground warren known as Luna City, the Authority complex, and during a visit to Earth after the coup. The year is 2075, and the Lunar colonies have been established for at least 80 years. The first settlement was called Johnson City and was probably founded in the 1970s on the timeline of the novel, written in the early 1960s. The total population of all the underground warrens, consisting mostly of freed convicts and their descendants, is about 3 million, with men outnumbering women by 2 to 1, down from 10 to 1 in the early days. This has a profound effect on society and its inhabitants.

That Dinkum Thinkum

After a "repair job" - which consists of persuading Mike not to issue any more joke paychecks for $10,000,000,000,000,185.15, the last five digits being the actual amount - Mannie does Mike a favor by sneaking a recorder into an anti-Authority political meeting Mike wants to hear. Caught in a surprise raid by nine Authority guards armed with laser guns, he flees with Wyoming "Wyoh" Knott, a statuesque blonde agitator from the warren of Hong Kong in Luna.

They hide in a hotel and decide it would be unsafe for Wyoh to return home or even go out undisguised. Mannie introduces Wyoh to Mike via phone, and Mike, eager to flatter a new friend, develops a female personality called Michelle for her. Mike is able to simulate either a male (Mike) or a female (Michelle) sexual identity (cf. the inspiration for the Turing test), and is mainly interested in learning to understand the human sense of humor.

Using Mike's control of the phone system they locate Mannie's former teacher, the elderly Professor Bernardo de la Paz, who was addressing the political meeting when the guards arrived. The Professor is also in hiding, moving around in disguise. He meets them in the hotel, and explains his speech of the previous night, in which he said that Luna must stop shipping hydroponically-grown wheat to Earth or face exhaustion of its resources.

Mannie introduces Prof to Mike, because Mike can tell them if Prof is right. Prof. Paz initially objects to bringing in the Authority computer — "Why not invite the Warden himself?" he asks — but once Mannie tells him that nobody in the Authority knows Mike is self-aware, they ask Mike to work out Luna's future.
Mike's news is devastating. Luna will be so exhausted as to experience food riots in seven years. Wyoh and the Professor know that this means one thing — revolution. Mannie is persuaded to join when Mike tells him the odds of success: only 1 chance in 7. A "Loonie" (Luna inhabitant, born and bred) to the core, Mannie will take any bet that offers better than a 1-in-10 chance of winning. The three of them, with Mike, declare the Revolution and form the first covert cell of an organization which will eventually grow to thousands.

There are many problems to plan for, but one looms above all. What to do when Earth tries to take its colony back? A Loonie joke about the Authority is "What can we do? Throw rocks at them?" Mike proposes to do just that. Luna sends wheat to Earth using an electromagnetic catapult. Mike realizes that loads of rock, arriving at 11 kilometers per second, will impact with the energy of a small atomic bomb. However the Authority catapult is an inviting target. They will have to build a second, secret one.

The rest of the first book deals with the myriad issues of planning a revolution. Mannie, Wyoh, and the Professor begin recruiting their own covert cells, in Mannie and Wyoh's case from within Mannie's own family. They use Mike's ubiquitous presence in Lunar society to provide communications between cells. As the movement grows, they frustrate all attempts by the Authority Security Chief Alvarez to penetrate it. All his previous spies are carefully placed in cells where they can inform on each other or be fed false information. New "finks" are found out almost as fast as he can recruit them. Mike adopts the persona of Adam Selene and deals with cell members over the phone using his ability to handle many calls at once.

A carefully executed financial swindle, covered up by Mike who does accounts for all major banks in Luna, allows them to set up "LuNoHoCo" (from LUna City, NOvy Leningrad, and HOng Kong Luna Company), a corporation with interests both on Earth and in Luna, dedicated to various ventures, but actually intended to buy up equipment to dig a kilometers-long tunnel for an underground catapult. A stroke of luck results in Mannie encountering a rich tourist, Stuart Rene Lajoie, who becomes their contact on Earth, helping to build a favorable climate of public opinion.

Suddenly, in May 2076, the Revolution begins without warning. Some soldiers, part of a regiment shipped up as unrest mounted, rape and kill a Loonie girl, then kill another who finds her body. Loonies riot, attacking soldiers and Authority offices. Many more Loonies die than soldiers, but the result is never in doubt. With all communications severed by Mike, the Warden and his few remaining guards and entourage are trapped and knocked out as Mike reduces the oxygen level in their complex. The revolutionaries break in, seize the complex and its disabled residents, and end Authority rule.

A Rabble in Arms

The new nation's problems have just begun. Nothing is ready, especially for defense against invaders, and so the fiction of the Authority must be maintained. Mike impersonates the Warden in messages to Earth, and grain shipments continue, even as the Authority's scrip money falls in value relative to the "Hong Kong dollar", an unofficial but stable currency circulated by bankers in the Hong Kong in Luna colony. Mike is able to simulate a video image of his Adam Selene persona, so he can address the nation by video as leader of the "Emergency Committee of Free Luna". Everything is done to maintain the economy as it was, even to encouraging convicts serving labor sentences to stay at their jobs, although they are now free citizens. Meanwhile thousands of armchair revolutionaries, petty authoritarians and religious zealots demand a say in running the new state. The Professor sets up an "Ad-Hoc Congress" which spends most of its time arguing with itself.
In time the facade crumbles, as Earth scientists on Luna rig a clandestine transmitter under the noses of their guards. When the Earth side of the Authority demands that the Warden deny the truth of the message, Luna responds with a different message: "In Congress assembled, July 4th 2076....." By carefully packing the informal Congress with loyal comrades, Prof. Paz causes his own version of the United States Declaration of Independence (packed with his ideals, many of which he believes he shares with Thomas Jefferson) to be adopted.

Now more than ever, representatives of the new government must be sent to plead their case on Earth. Mannie and the Professor go, not in a ship, but stuffed inside a load of grain bound for India. (Wyoh has been opted into Mannie's "line" family as the newest wife prior to their departure.) The accelerations involved almost kill the Professor, but Stu LaJoie's organization is ready when they are picked up from the Indian Ocean, and he survives. Mannie recalls his previous trips for computer training. The high gravity, the crowding (Earth's population is 11 billion, North America's is 1 billion) and the rampant diseases such as colds and influenza make Earth a nightmarish place for a Loonie.

Confined to wheelchairs, with some diplomatic legerdemain from Stu, the Free Luna delegation are received by the Earth Federation. The investigating committee members turn out to be Authority stooges. The committee insists on restoring the old system, or failing that, granting limited autonomy with continued commitments to ship grain and receive convicts. The Professor states that any such commitments must be negotiated with his government, and when pressed, he and Mannie stage a scene where both collapse. This gains them some sympathetic coverage in the press.

The delegation embarks on a world tour, with Mannie touting the benefits of Luna for commerce and industry, while pushing the leaders of various countries to build a catapult that can return vital materials, water and trace elements, to Luna in exchange for grain. The result is a roller-coaster ride of hostile press conferences, secret meetings, and public speaking, culminating in Mannie being arrested in Lexington, Kentucky for polygamy.

Returned once more to Federation HQ, the delegation is presented with the Earth's final word on their request: "No". Troops will be sent, Mannie and the Professor will be interned, Luna will be converted into a tightly controlled economy, with everyone having the choice to work for the Authority at an assigned job--or return to Earth and die. In a secret meeting, Mannie is offered the job of Warden, with a strengthened military presence. The Authority hopes that a Loonie as Protector (the title officially granted to the Warden) will cause other Loonies to accept the new Regime. Mannie stalls for time. This is the event they have waited for. Mannie and Prof. Paz are smuggled out of their quarters by Stu LaJoie's organization and placed on a ship leaving for Luna. Stu goes with them. As he says, he's saving the Authority the trouble of shipping him as a convict.

When they return to Luna, Mannie thinks they have failed. On the contrary, according to Mike and the Professor, the mission was a success. Opinion on Earth is fragmented where once it was neutral or hostile, while on Luna the news of Mannie's arrest and the attempt to bribe him have unified opinion against Earth. The Authority's hard line, carefully encouraged by Prof, has ensured that Luna has no choice but to fight to be free. With the exception of the farmers themselves, Loonies are now ready to sever all ties. The grain shipments stop.

While Mannie was away, an election was held with Mike running the vote count, so Mannie, Wyoh and the Professor are all elected to the new Congress, though Mannie suspects that Mike rigged the vote. Unfortunately the new body is effective where the other was not. Before they can undo his work, the Professor addresses them. He wants no taxes, no standing armies, and a minimum of government interference in the lives of its citizens. The Congress protests, asking how they will pay for "necessary institutions". Prof responds "That's your problem." If they need government so much, perhaps they should pay for it themselves, or run lotteries.

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." — from Professor de la Paz's speech to Congress. Stu LaJoie, meanwhile, encourages the formation of a monarchy, this being the only institution that can save the people from "the worst of all tyrants, themselves." He wants Prof as the first King, with Mannie as adopted heir. Mannie buries his head in his hands and groans.

TANSTAAFL!

Months pass and the Revolution may be running out of steam. Then the invasion from Earth happens. Avoiding Mike's radar, ships land and troops enter Luna City. They are wiped out to a man. In other warrens the result is the same, although the details differ. Loonie casualties are very high, but the invasion is stopped dead. Revolutionary troops deal with ships on the surface and in orbit using mining lasers. In one warren, Churchill Upper, air pressure is lost and many perish. The news is spread that Adam Selene is one of the casualties. This removes the need for Adam to appear in the flesh, or even by video. Selene is more valuable as a martyr than as a "talking head".
The failure of the invasion is, in hindsight, no surprise to the revolutionaries. The troops were not used to the low gravity. They could not run from one position to another, especially when descending ramps. Their weapons, firing bullets, shot high. Loonies, furious when roused, attacked with any available weapon in defense of their homes. Even when gas was used the invaders lost.

Mike initiates Luna's response. Cargoes of rocks are targeted to sparsely populated locations on Earth with warnings to stay away from those places transmitted to the news media. People ignore the warnings and go to the targets to watch the show. As a result, thousands die. Public opinion on Earth is now in favor of wiping out the new nation. Even some Loonies are dismayed. The revolutionaries know it is too late to turn back. The bombardments continue. Mannie is sent to run the guidance computer, a former bank accounting machine, at the new secret catapult. While there he learns that another attack has taken place, using nuclear weapons. The original catapult has been destroyed. Cut off from the rest of Luna, he keeps firing rocks even while Earth's news media tout the end of the Lunar Menace. Once Earth is convinced the rocks will not stop (in actuality, Luna is quickly running out of missiles), one nation after another recognizes the new nation. At last, Earth capitulates.

Mannie returns in triumph to Luna City. Professor Bernardo de la Paz, as leader of the new nation, proclaims victory to the crowds gathered in the warren's largest public space, and then collapses and dies. Mannie takes over briefly, but soon steps aside in favor of other revolutionaries. Mannie and Wyoh eventually retire from politics. The Davis family elects Stu LaJoie as a new husband. Mannie realizes that the destruction of the original catapult was part of Prof's plan, kept secret even from Mannie and Wyoh. With no convenient transport to the new catapult, it will be impossible to export grain in any significant quantity until Earth has a chance to build a return catapult, assuring that Luna will not run out of food or water. But Prof saw Luna's future as a transport hub, not as a farm.

Mike is gone. In the final attacks (Mannie, with communications cut off, did not learn of them until he returned to Luna City), the Authority Complex was badly shaken although all Mike's hardware remained intact, buried deep in a chamber designed to withstand nuclear attack. However, Mike's personality is gone. He functions perfectly, but as a computer. In the final paragraphs (set, as is the novel's first paragraph, many years after the other events), Mannie complains how the Lunar government is always passing taxes and regulations, and ignoring all the Professor's ideas. There is a "Sons of the Revolution" meeting that night, and Mannie considers going but thinks better of it. Loonies are moving out to the asteroids. Maybe he'll go with them... "My word, I'm not even a hundred yet."

.


Robert Heinlein