You have to pay attention to the little colored
balls now. I, Sven, am not really a fan of Heinlein, with the exception
of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Bjorn, however, loves the guy, one
of his few genuine lapses of good taste.You have to pay attention to the little colored
balls now. I, Sven, am not really a fan of Heinlein, with the exception
of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Bjorn, however, loves the guy, one
of his few genuine lapses of good taste.
The first question you will probably ask is, "Why
are 'Is A' capitalized in the comment above, but not in the heading?".
The answer, of course, is that i have no idea. none At all. soMe oF the
most proFOund mysteries of life are never sOlved. get usEd to disapPointment.
In truth I love this book. Heinlein is at his best exploring alternate forms
of social organisation, usually with no government (a personal fetish of
his). While I do not share his political views, I find the experiment to
be rewarding to think about. The residents of the Moon have no government.
They police themselves, and are mostly self-sufficient. Their special situation
sets up this Heinlein-topia; the Moon is a prison colony, where escape is
virtually impossible at first, and completely impossible after physiological
changes have occurred. The completely lethal enviroment and dearth of females
makes social cooperation required, not optional, and cooperation is enforced
by the locals (who are as lethal as the enviroment). I think readers of
Kim Stanley Robinson's and Greg Bear's recent (and excellent) "Mars
settlement" books would be rewarded by a visit to Old Man Heinlein's
vision of the Moon.
Heinlein explores the issues of social organisation, political sovereignty
of a colony, and machine sentience, all in about 200 easily readable pages.
Robert Jordan could take some lessons on the merits of brevity from this
book.
"To the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines
the name, shines the name of Rodger Young !"
Let me start this off by saying that I am generally a Heinlein fan (Sven, generally, is not). I went through
a period of time about eight years ago where I wolfed down a number of his
books, and found myself liking many of his characters and agreeing with
much of his philosophy.
That being said, while I liked Starship Troopers, I don't think it is by
any means one of his best works. However, it is still a very interesting
and well written novel. Heinlein does a very good job of placing you inside
Rico's mind as he goes through his early military career, and of giving
you the sensation of being a part of his life and military training.
One important note (and a surprise to me, especially since I read the book
after seeing the movie) is that this is not an action novel, by any
stretch of the imagination. This, like most of Heinlein's writing, is a
character-based novel which overlays an exploration of a societal philosophy.
The philosophy that Heinlein presents in this book is certainly interesting
- I'm not sure that I agree with some of the theories he puts forward, but
as always, he definitely makes for a good read.
On the whole, however, I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book. It
is certainly a better purchase than a ticket to the movie. Oh, and if you
are wondering what that quote means at the top of the review...well, you'll
just have to read the book.
My summary of this book: interesting as social philosophy
(8) , lousy as action (2). So I gave it a 5. If you want far cooler space
action, check out John Steakly's
Armor.