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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein, was serialized in the magazine Worlds of If from 1965 to 1966 and published as a complete work in 1966. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1967 and received an honorable mention for Nebula Award for Best Novel (1966) from Science Fiction Writers of America. Many people consider it one of the best science fiction novels ever written; it is also included on lists of top ten science fiction books published before 1990.
The novel is about a group of prisoners on the moon and their descendants. They’re overseen by a computer named Mike, who’s become self-aware and likes to play pranks on them. Mannie Garcia O’Kelly-Davis arrives to fix the computer, but he doesn’t want Mike to continue playing pranks on them.
There are 3 million people living on the moon. Most of them live underground in cities, and since there are more men than women, most lunar residents practice polyandry (the custom of marrying several husbands). The lunar population produces food for Earth, which is transported using space shuttles. A group of rebels has formed an anti-authority movement and Mannie reluctantly attends one of their meetings.
When the meeting is raided, Mannie flees with an agitator named Whoy. She introduces him to her former teacher and several other members of the resistance. They all meet and discuss how they can overthrow the government. Mike, a computer that Mannie brought along, offers some advice on what they should do next in order to be successful.
The revolutionaries unite to fight the government, but they have trouble finding a cohesive ideology. They’re from different places and have different ideologies, so Prof helps them by reminding them that they all want to overthrow the current exploitative government. The core group of revolutionaries sets up their base on a sympathetic family’s farm, and Mike takes on Adam Selene as his human persona.
One day, Mannie saved a tourist from getting killed. The tourist was grateful and decided to help the revolution by starting a campaign on Earth that would change people’s opinions about the revolution.
Soldiers from Earth are brought to the moon to help suppress a rebellion there, but after the soldiers kill two local women, rioting breaks out and the revolutionaries take advantage of that. They modify a wheat transport system in order to defend themselves against an attack by Earth.
Mike pretends to be the Lunar Warden and convinces Earth that they still control the Moon. Prof comes up with a plan to stop the rioting on Earth; he buys enough time for his team to put their plan into action. They declare independence from Earth, and Prof goes back with Mannie as part of a diplomatic mission. However, when he arrives at Earth, Mike is arrested but freed by Stuart who accompanies him back to the moon colony.
Stuart tells Mannie that on Earth, there are many who support Lunar independence. On the moon, most people now support Mannie and his group because they heard about his arrest on Earth. During the first election on Luna, Mannie is elected to a position of power.
People from the Lunar Republic demand that Mike’s alter ego, Adam Selene, appear in public. However, he refuses to do so because Earth forces are attacking the moon and bringing it back under control. The people of the moon come together to defend themselves against this attack; they barely succeed. Mannie spreads a rumor that Adam was killed during battle in order to stop demands for him to make an appearance before the public.
Mike launches rocks at sparsely populated areas, which causes the people to turn against his nation. Earth plans another attack on the colony, but they think that they have destroyed Mike’s catapult. However, Mannie has made another catapult in a secret location and uses it to bombard Earth until their armies withdraw.
