The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

One day, while visiting Lunar City, Mannie saves the life of a tourist named Stuart Rene LaJoie. The core revolutionaries set up their base on the farm of the sympathetic Davis family, and Mike takes on the human persona of Adam Selene, leader of the revolution. The group has trouble finding a coherent ideology since they are all from different places and have different ideologies, but Prof manages to unite them by reminding them that they all hate the current exploitative government. The revolutionaries form covert cells that remain in touch with one another by way of Mike. The group decides to stage a revolution to achieve lunar independence after Mike calculates that such a revolution has a relatively high chance of success. Professor Bernardo de la Paz warns them that the lunar colony must stop exporting wheat to earth or else it will exhaust its water supply and suffer from famine. Mannie, in turn, introduces them to Mike, and the computer deems them intelligent enough to communicate with them. When the meeting is raided, Mannie flees with an agitator named Whoy, who introduces him to her former teacher and several other members of the resistance.

A large group of anti-authority rebels has sprung up, and Mannie reluctantly attends one of their meetings. The lunar population produces food that is transported to Earth. Since men outnumber women, most people practice polyandry. The lunar colony has a population of about 3 million people who live in underground cities.

Mannie talks with Mike, convincing him not to play any more pranks. Technician Mannie Garcia O’Kelly-Davis arrives to fix the computer.

Mike has become self-aware and pulls pranks on the humans, such as vastly inflating the paychecks of janitors and other low-wage workers. The novel is about a colony of prisoners and their descendants on the moon who are overseen by a supercomputer nicknamed Mike. Also a Prometheus Award Hall of Fame novel, it is one of the top ten novels published before 1990, according to the Locus Poll Awards. In 1967, it won the Hugo Award and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1966. Heinlein, was serialized in the magazine Worlds of If in 1965 and published as a complete work in 1966. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a science fiction novel by Robert A.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein