Also see "The Number Of The Beast"
Posted on 12/01/2016 7:38:11 AM PST by CharlesOConnell
Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis, or Mannie for short, goes on a routine computer repair job… only to learn that the super computer has gained self-awareness. It's just another day in a science fiction world, really. Mannie befriends the personality—naming it Mike—and helps it gain an understanding of human behavior. To this end, Mike requests Mannie bring a recorder to a "Sons of Revolution" rally.
When the Warden's bodyguard busts in to arrest everybody, Mannie helps revolutionary Wyoming Knott escape, and like all classic heroes, he gets dragged into a fight that isn't his. The duo hides in a hotel room and eventually contacts another revolutionary, Professor Bernardo de la Paz. Mike reveals to these three that under the Authority's rule, Luna will exhaust its resources, leading to food riots and eventually cannibalism.
Deciding he draws the line at cannibalism, Mannie joins the revolution. The group begins planning for the day they will overthrow the Authority: creating covert revolution cells, laundering money, and setting up an imaginary figurehead through Mike called Adam Selene. After a group of Peace Dragoons rape and murder a Luna woman, the Loonies riot, killing the Warden and the Security Chief and claiming Luna as their own.
Mike sends false information to Earth to buy the revolution time. Meanwhile, Prof creates the first Luna Congress as a governmental front for his own political scheming. Mannie and Prof decide to head earthside as diplomats to convince the Federated Nations to accept Luna as a free state. The night before he goes, Wyoh opts into his family as the sixth Davis wife.
On Earth, Mannie and Prof embark on a public tour to garner support for Luna. They also enter committee meetings with the Authority to state their side of the story, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Eventually, Mannie is arrested for polygamy, and he and Prof must escape back to Luna.
En route, Prof tells Mannie that failure was always the goal. Mannie's arrest and the Chairman's attempt to bribe him rally the Loonies under a banner of patriotic spirit—the revolution is now on like Donkey Kong.
The Federated Nations send troops to reclaim Luna, but the fierce Loonies fight them back. Mannie begins Operation Hard Rock, and Mike begins launching moon rocks at the earth's surface to warn the nations there that the moon can—and will—fight back.
The Federated Nations attack with war cruisers, destroying the catapult, but Mannie and Mike have a secret weapon: another catapult. A game of galactic cat and mouse begins. Mannie continues launching rocks while trying to keep the catapult's location hidden from the F.N. cruisers, and just before he runs out of ammunition, the nations of Earth begin recognizing Luna as a legitimate state. The Loonies win.
But victory comes at a cost: Prof dies immediately after claiming victory for the state, and Mike's self-aware personality is deleted after his hardware takes damage. Withdrawing from politics all together, Mannie contemplates what life would be like on the frontier of humanity—the asteroid belt.
Loved the book. Great speech on how to organize a government. Wasn’t there a hint/suggestion that Mike was only “hidding”?
Also see "The Number Of The Beast"
That was a great read, back in the day.
Just read it again last month!.....................
Heinlein was a great writer. It is what made him so dangerous and loved by the left.
Unfortunately, he promoted a lot of really bad ideas and lies.
Loved that, way back when.
That was one of his weird ones..............had characters from his other books in it...............
Still is, if you discount the science that has been learned since then............
And for some strange reason he was constantly describing the bathrooms the characters used..in great detail...lol
Refreshers..................
Mike was destroyed when the attack on the Luna City communications network severed some of Mike’s neural net, just enough that he lost his consciousness, but still able to work as a computer...........
Another GREAT Jimmy Webb song that is made extraordinary by Linda Ronstadt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x3ajF-ZKYA
There is a rather sweet juvenile that I read in high school entitled Podkayne of Mars. In his posthumous Grumbles From The Grave he reveals the original ending. And why it couldn't be published, and why it ought to be.
Red Badger wrote: “Mike was destroyed when the attack on the Luna City communications network severed some of Mike’s neural net, just enough that he lost his consciousness, but still able to work as a computer...........”
I remember that but I also remember Mannie would often wake up imagining that Mike was still conscious and would talk to him in his dreams. As I remember, Mannie wondered if this was just wishful thinking or if Mike was still conscious but afraid to allow anyone to know.
Mannie was just missing his friend Mike, like a normal grieving human being................
This is my all time favorite book...
Must have read it at least 10 - 12 times now.
TANSTAAFL! Great acronym.
Heinlein started out a Leftist. After marrying his wife Ginny, his politics definitely shifted Right. Most of his sci-fi books are infused with libertarian philosophy (TANSTAAFL) and the power of the individual.
I have read just about every Heinlein book I could find.
I used to be a big fan.
You are correct, he started as a leftist, essentially a “progressive”. Unfortunately, when you start drilling down, “progressive” ideas are bedrock to most of his books.
The libertarianism is just a thin veneer over the progressivism.
Great writer. Excellent talent. Unfortunately, used to destroy much of the bedrock of the West.
As an example. A bedrock principle of Heinlein writing is that all religions are equally believable. To Heinlein, no serious difference exists between Christians and Muslims. That is one of the reasons we are where we are at today with Muslim immigration in the U.S. and Europe.
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