The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is considered to be one of legendary science fiction writer Robert Heinlein’s greatest novels. Originally appearing in serialized form in Worlds of If between December 1965 and April 1966, it was ultimately published in book form later that same year.
This idiosyncratic provenance afforded the unusual opportunity for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to be nominated as Novel of the Year at the Hugo Awards in both 1966 and 1967 on the basis that in its original serialized form it met the rules of eligibility for two different years. This quirk quickly initiated a rule change preventing such a circumstance from happening again in the future. Curiously, while it lost the award in 1966 (to Frank Herbert’s Dune) it won on its second chance (most notably beating out Flowers for Algernon among other nominees).
The story told in this novel is generally boiled down to being one which tells of the planning and execution of a revolution. Set in a penal colony on the moon in the year 2075, the contextual background of this story of revolution includes a computer which has gained self-awareness and extensive incorporation of Libertarian ideology. In fact, the novel gave rise to the phrase “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” as the unofficial slogan of Libertarian economic theories in the 1970s.
In addition to losing and then winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the book was nominated in the same category at the 1967 Nebula Awards. In this instance, it actually lost to Flowers for Algernon. Initial critical reception matched the acclaim dispensed by those involved in literary awards. Of interest, however, is that this near-universal recognition of the quality of the novel resulted from an unexpectedly broad range of critical interpretation of its content.
While those subscribing to Libertarian political theory extolled the virtues of its sincere demonstration of their ideological views, other reviewers placed a critical premium on the story’s satirical undermining of these very same foundations of Libertarian economics. Likewise, a great deal of positive reaction to the novel is based upon celebrating its support of subversive revolutionary action while other critics insisted on reminding readers that ultimately the revolution is a failure as the newly imposed authority inevitably reverts back to the dead-end systemic party-based bureaucracy that existed prior to the revolution.
Somewhat surprising given that the novel was published just before science fiction exploded into a blockbuster genre in Hollywood, there has never been either a film or television series adapted from the source material. In 2015, it was announced that Twentieth-Century Fox had acquired film rights with the intent to adapt the novel's story under the title Uprising with Bryan Singer producing. As of summer 2020, that project had still not moved any closer to actually commencing with production.
