It is the late 21st Century and the Moon has been colonized — as a giant, open prison. Every aspect of life is overseen by the Federated Nations “Lunar Authority”; until one day when a self-aware Super-Computer, a Jack of all Trades Technician, an Anarchist Professor, and a beautiful Blonde Revolutionary decide to change their world.
TANSTAAFL! There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch!
Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was the last of his four Hugo-winning novels and is widely considered his finest work. It is a tale of revolution, following the rebellion of the former Lunar penal colony against the Earth-based Authority.
The story centers on a disparate group — a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic — who become the rebel movement’s leaders. And then there is Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution’s ultimate success.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a high point of modern science fiction, bursting with politics, humanity, passion, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom.
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Pioneering hard science fiction through rigorous scientific accuracy and engineering plausibility, the speculative fiction of Stranger in a Strange Land helped establish modern mass-market science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein became widely known as the "dean of science fiction writers" and was celebrated alongside Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke as part of the genre's recognized "Big Three."
His work raised the standards of literary quality in speculative fiction, breaking into mainstream general periodicals such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s with unvarnished science fiction. As one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors in the genre, he helped pioneer bestselling novel-length science fiction for modern readers.
Born in Butler, Missouri, in 1907 and raised in Kansas City, Robert Anson Heinlein graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929. After five years of naval service, he retired due to ill health in 1934 and studied physics and mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began publishing science fiction professionally in August 1939 with the short story "Life-Line" in Astounding Science Fiction. During World War II, he served as a civilian engineer at the Naval Air Experimental Station in Philadelphia before returning to writing full-time, eventually authoring more than thirty novels, writing the screenplay for the 1950 film Destination Moon, and earning six Hugo Awards over a career spanning nearly five decades.
Heinlein's writing is distinguished by its emphasis on technical plausibility, personal self-reliance, and critical thinking. His plots frequently introduced provocative scenarios that questioned conventional social mores, exploring themes of individual liberty, competence, military duty, and social organization. To manage his prolific output across pulp magazines and anthologies, he also published under several pen names, including Anson MacDonald, Lyle Monroe, John Riverside, and Caleb Saunders.
