The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

First off, I liked The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress better than The Time Machine. I thought Heinlein fleshed the story out better than Wells did, but this could be a result of the length of each story. With 382 pages I expect lots of details about the world and history. There is room for improvement in The Time Machine, but for its serial-length story the detail of the setting is alright.

Jumping right in, Mannie was the rough around the edges protagonist who didn't know exactly what he was doing, but knew that it was for the right reasons. And Mike's character surprised me. At first, I was weary to trust this self-aware supercomputer. The revolutionaries became very dependent on Mike, which I was unsure about, hoping on each page that Mike would not betray them. Throughout the book, Mike had the largest character development, even developing sub-characters "Adam Selene" and "Simon Jester", until the end when he was practically as human as Mannie or more. In humanizing Mike, I thought that he might display some negative characteristics of human nature, such as betrayal or dishonesty. By having Mike as a main character and not some tool in the background, Heinlein brings forward this fear of technology taking over and questions what kind of role it should play in our lives?

I also liked the "melting pot" feel Luna had. Terra consolidated into larger countries, but there is still isolation between all the countries, as seen when Mannie pits each country against each other. Meanwhile Luna represents all of these cultural centers like Hong Kong Luna and Novy Leningrad. On Luna ethnic heritage doesn't matter unless the Loonie wants to return back to their native country on Terra. This blending on Terra doesn't seem possible unless forced like it was upon Luna (being stuck in a harsh environment/situation where country of origin doesn't matter).

The book is the best example (so far) between the social/science/fiction link. I can't wait to see what comes up in discussion in class.