The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

It's curious. I first read this story as a teenager. Upon re-reading it, I realized that I'd forgotten much of the story, but the political ideas he explores had made a huge impression.

Heinlein gets a bad wrap for exploring socio-political ideas in his stories. (cough-cough 'Starship Troopers') . Personally, as long as it isn't actual propaganda, I think sci-fi is a fantastic medium to explore such ideas. Look at how many amazing and important sci-fi stories do this. Think 1984, Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World. In some ways, this is what sci-fi is about.

In this story, Heinlein explores another type of political ideal. Another one that today. as a mature liberal minded adult, I find impractical and unrealistic; because humans are so very human. But I did get a sense of coming full circle, which was very interesting.

Apparently, he wrote this story either during or shortly after visiting Australia. The influence on the story is noticeable with his take on some Aussie lingo and post-colonial/post-convict attitudes shining through.

I was also blown away by his depiction of AI. While some of the technological ideas of the 1960's have been and gone - his AI character is still very relevant and spot on in terms of being a bit of a "black box" and similar to a modern "LLM".

Heinlein's depiction of life on the moon also aged well (not the cultural bits) - It turns out, the moon is an even harder mistress than he envisioned, as evidenced by the current challenges just getting remote drones to land safely and operate in its harsh conditions. Any attempt to establish a permanent base or colony will still have to overcome these same challenges - and he thought of all this before humans even got there!

I say, this novella is well worth the read, despite the very dated 1960's attitudes and cultural extrapolations.