--=[ Slightly Chipped ]=-- --=[ The Moon is a Harsh Mistress ]=--
A book about book collecting, book writing, the love of books, buying books, book conditions... You get my drift. It's a good read, and I finished it quickly. Not terribly long, but the vignettes are all well placed and plotted. You'll gain an appreciation for book making and appraisal after reading this. Skip the section about 'online' book collecting.
Aside: As a book about books and authoring books and so on, it contained a large number of typographical and editing errors. Normally I let this go, but I do appreciate a glass of fine irony every now and then.
This is attempt number two for myself and Heinlein, the first (Stranger in a Strange Land) having ended when safety concerns became too much to ignore. I was getting severly beat up, what with my head smacking the table so many times from falling asleep while reading it. (*rimshot*) (crickets)
This one was much, much better. Mycroft Holmes leads the moon in revolt against the Earth, drawing strong intentional and unintentional (to him) parallels to the American Revolution. Assisted by a few well-written characters (some with a few secrets to hide), it's a compelling story from beginning to end. Heinlein did an excellent job of plotting his libertarian paradise this time, without so much heavy-handedness that Stranger had. He's still got a touch of the chauvinism going on, but he cloaks it in a female-poor society, reversing the common roles played by his characters.
I feel compelled to write a little more on this. It's an intriguing gender setup that Heinlein sets here. The line marriages seem to be an invention of his, one that he defends well in the book. The balance of gender power that is usually out of whack for him is salted with the idea that the Moon has a terrible ratio of men to women, similar to typical frontier areas. Some of the social ideals I find a little fantastic, but he plays it straight and tries not to do too much flag waving.
A good book, highly recommended.
This is attempt number two for myself and Heinlein, the first (Stranger in a Strange Land) having ended when safety concerns became too much to ignore. I was getting severly beat up, what with my head smacking the table so many times from falling asleep while reading it. (*rimshot*) (crickets)
This one was much, much better. Mycroft Holmes leads the moon in revolt against the Earth, drawing strong intentional and unintentional (to him) parallels to the American Revolution. Assisted by a few well-written characters (some with a few secrets to hide), it's a compelling story from beginning to end. Heinlein did an excellent job of plotting his libertarian paradise this time, without so much heavy-handedness that Stranger had. He's still got a touch of the chauvinism going on, but he cloaks it in a female-poor society, reversing the common roles played by his characters.
I feel compelled to write a little more on this. It's an intriguing gender setup that Heinlein sets here. The line marriages seem to be an invention of his, one that he defends well in the book. The balance of gender power that is usually out of whack for him is salted with the idea that the Moon has a terrible ratio of men to women, similar to typical frontier areas. Some of the social ideals I find a little fantastic, but he plays it straight and tries not to do too much flag waving.
A good book, highly recommended.