Murray Leinster's "Checkpoint Lambda" aka "Stopover in Space" (novel): Young hero foils a major robbery attempt

This is one of the more mundane stories of the author. Fast moving action, yes, but irritating repetitions, & at least one major event is resolved by convenient last-minute arrangement of circumstances.

Title is the name of a space station in orbit around a star called Canis Lambda. The station is located at the intersection of major space lanes of a star-faring humanity, & serves both as a lighthouse & a way station. This is where most of action happens.

Story summary.

The Golconda Ship, with its fabulous but unspecified treasures, is expected to dock with Checkpoint Lambda. So a gang of robbers have taken control of the Checkpoint ahead of arrival - killing all crew & transit passengers at station.

That's when Scott, a newly minted Space Patrol officer, arrives to take charge of the station. Of course, 2 dozen robbers already in control of station don't stand a chance against a Space Patrol officer.

A substantial part of the story is devoted to surviving a disaster - cores of 4 comets will soon impact the station, & few available maneuver options are frustrated by robbers' chief who doesn't believe there is a danger here.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Stories, June & August 1966.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Murray Leinster.

James H Schmitz's "The Searcher" (novella, thriller, free): Human heroes fight off evil alien

This is mostly a fast moving story, though I found later parts a bit draggy.

Story summary.

Two private detectives arrive on a human world called Mezmiali, on trail of a smuggling ring. Suspects include administration of the government depot that is supposed to guard & analyze stray relics picked up all over the galaxy. A deal will soon be spoiled by detectives. A deal involving an alien communications device human explorers had picked up.

Also "goyal", the alien owner of the device, has come to take it back. He's a energy being & a swarm being too.

So our super-resourceful detectives have to outmaneuver both the smugglers & the alien.

Collected in.

1. James H Schmitz's "The Hub: Dangerous Territory".

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, February 1966.
Download full text from Webscription.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

William Tenn's "My Mother Was a Witch" (short story, non-genre, humor, free)

Very funny verbal fights of neighbor women.

Fact sheet.

First published: August 1966. Bud Webster's article at JBU notes the magazine's name as "P.S."; I'm not clear what the expanded form is.
Download full text from Google cache.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of William Tenn.

James Blish's "How Beautiful With Banners" (short story, sex, free): An animal's primeval urges doom a Titan explorer

Dr Ulla Hillstrøm is out exploring Titan's wilds, away from human base there, in an unusual pressure suite that is actually a living organism she can control as a machine. Only, Titan has its own native animals - "flying cloaks", one of which thinks this terran space suite will make a good mate!

See also.

1. Larry Niven's "Wait It Out": I don't recollect ending of this Blish story very precisely, but I think it involves freezing alive of Ulla. In this Niven story too, we see a human explorer freezing alive - but on Pluto.

Fact sheet.

First published: Damon Knight (Ed)'s "Orbit 1" (1966).
Rating: B.
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Included in Ellen Datlow's SciFiction's Classics.
Related: Stories of James Blish.

Free fiction: Isaac Asimov, Cordwainer Smith, Geoffrey Landis

These are 2 or 3 months old links that were lost in my bookmarks.

Via Free Speculative Fiction Online: 2 stories from Gregory Benford (Ed)'s "The New Hugo Winners-Volume IV" at Webscription:

1. Geoffrey A Landis' "A Walk In The Sun"; download.
2. Isaac Asimov's "Gold"; download; Analog, September 1991

Two stories from Cordwainer Smith's collection "We the Underpeople" (ed Hank Davis) at Webscription:

1. "The Dead Lady of Clown Town"; download; Galaxy, August 1964
2. "Under Old Earth"; download; Galaxy, February 1966.

Arthur C. Clarke's "Playback" (short story, science fiction): Reincarnation not possible with a corrupt mind dump

This is not the first mind dump story I've read of Clarke - there's much better known novel "The City and the Stars". "Patent Pending" has a device that lets specific experiences of one individual to be recorded to a storage device & played back directly into the mind of someone else! Even "The Lion of Comarre" has a variation of this.

But this is the first exclusively mind dump story I've seen from Clarke that has a modern feel. Ignore a single reference to tape as a storage device & a space-based theme, & this 1966 story can be confused with a 2007 or a 2008 story! And it's among the best mind dump stories I've seen.

There is a part of the story that has the terror like in Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream". But there is no sadistic external entity doing the torturing here; it's a natural part of the story.

Story summary.

40 year old William Vincent Neuberg, "a master pilot of the Galactic Survey... born in Port Lowell, Mars, on August 21, 2095", had an accident somewhere in deep space. His ship blown away, vaporizing him along with it. We don't know if there were any other crew or passengers.

But some aliens, obviously far off from the location of accident, did his mind dump during these last moments. They were competent enough to have created his body & complete with its memories from this dump, only they have no idea of what kind of body he had; nothing from the body was saved.

Story is narrated by a simulation ("playback") of William's mind dump record. He is initially trying to feel his body parts, panicky when cannot find, ... eventually realizing he's just a simulation!

He begins communicating with the aliens via the playback machine's interface, describing what his body looked like so they can reincarnate him. Only it's an incomplete recording - something vital seems to have been missed when they made the record - his memory is confused, fading...

Collected in.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. Arthur Clarke's "More Than One Universe"
3. Arthur Clarke's "The Wind From the Sun"

Fact sheet.

First published: Playboy, December 1966.
Rating: A

* Frederik Pohl's "Day Million" (short story, science fiction)

Sort of early cyberpunk. In distant starfaring future, humans have genetically tweaked themselves so much, they don't quite look familiar. We see the "marriage" of a mermaid human to a starfarer male human - marriage is the only time they ever meet, & the ceremony is essentially an exchange of their simulation data - then each goes its own separate way, never to meet again. Whenever you want the company of another, you just interface with a machine & load the partner's data - experience all you can together, including sex! Of course, you will usually have married many times - so you have many partners' data!

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Rogue, February/March 1966.
Rating: C

Note: Why is this post so short?

Bob Shaw's "Light of Other Days" aka "Slow Glass" (short story, science fiction): Improving the view you see from your window!

I'd tucked away a short comment on this story in Hartwell's "Ascent of Wonder" post, but was struck again by similarity of its "slow glass" with the time travel gates in Chiang's "The Merchant & the Alchemist's Gate" when I saw this year's Nebula winners' list yesterday.

In both cases, you have a sort of thin sheet through which things pass & come out in a different time. "Slow glass" only passes radiation; Chiang's gate passes both matter & radiation.

Both permit transfer in either direction, but with differences. Each side of slow glass shows you past seen by other side - how far back depends on specifications of glass. Chiang's gate moves you forward in time in one direction, & back in the other.

The most interesting thing about this story is: "slow glass" is a realistic gadget, even if we don't have any idea of how to build one today. Plot itself is not bad, but not great either; this story gets listed among classics because of its description of the gadget, & its possible applications.

What is "slow glass"? It looks like ordinary glass sheets that go into your windows. But it drastically slows down the passage of light through it; light takes years to pass through the sheet of glass - depending on specs.

What does this mean? You take a newly made glass sheet, & place in near a lake or in a forest. Let it stay there for 2 years - assuming that is how long the light takes to pass through it. At the end of the time, the glass effectively has memory of the place - & in a far more realistic manner than any video shoot. A bird swooping down, some dears coming for a drink, ... whatever happens on the scene is recorded.

Now sell this glass to a city dweller with a window overlooking a neighbor's kitchen. What have you got? The lovely lake view in your window - for next 2 years. At the end of this time, 2 year old local light will begin penetrating so you will want to replace it again.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF".

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, August 1966.
Rating: A
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1966 in short story category.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1967 in short story category.
Included in Ellen Datlow's Sci Fiction classics.

Hal Clement's "The Foundling Stars" (short story, science fiction): Unexpected side-effect of a test to determine how nebulae give birth to stars

One of the less interesting stories of Clement. Part of the reason is - I'm astronomy illiterate; a good understanding of that is needed to follow this story.

Story summary.

How does a nebula give birth to a new star?

'It has been widely supposed for several decades that random variations in the density of the interstellar medium are the key factor - that the law of chance is the father... the random "winds" of space must at times produce a gas concentration so dense that its gravity would override the disruptive tidal force of the rest of the galaxy - override it enough to produce a local potential well able to trap at least the lower energy particles of the cloud.' That's the view Dick Ledermann, younger of the two researchers, subscribes to.

It's opposed by Elvin Toner, his 20 years senior. Toner "doubted seriously that the random motions of interstellar gas could set up the appropriate conditions often enough to account for the number of observed stars, even allowing for the fairly impressive lifetime of a star. He felt sure ... that some specific, widespread, underlying process was operating to improve the chance of protostar formation." This is "Toner hypothesis".

An experiment is underway to verify the hypothesis - in the "Orion Spur", "one of the cradles of the galaxy." Toner "had computed many combinations of electric and magnetic fields which should have such an effect, and which might reasonably - or at least conceivably - exist along the arms of the Milky Way." If the experiment "showed that such fields would, or could, produce the results Toner expected, he would have little trouble financing such a search" at expected places in galaxy.

Experiment comprises of a mothership - "Holiad" aka "Big Boy" - where the two researcher are camping & controlling the experimental apparatus. Plus two smaller ships, each manned by a single individual: "Anfforddus" piloted by Hoey, & "Ymyrgar" piloted by Rocco Luisi. These two ships are "about a light-hour apart" & must be absolutely still relative each other; in actual setup, their relative speed is "somewhat less than five centimeters a year".

For some reason, the smaller ships could not be robotic; they must be manned. And the setup requires that once they are still relative each other, the two pilot must stay absolutely still for several hours - lest center of gravity of their ships change even by microns!

Experiment involves setting up some kind of a web of electromagnetic 'standing waves which was to serve as the "framework" of the battery of measuring instruments, which were themselves force fields.'

Part way through the experiment, the two smaller ships suddenly vanish! Later investigations noticed "slightly high count of aluminum atoms in that particular volume of space", but no further evidence. The two pilots were never found.

In a separate thread, we are told there were alien soldiers - obviously in no form we would recognize as anything living - camping there. The electromagnetic field setup by the experiment was felt by one of these alien soldiers as "Something bit me... I couldn't help giving a little yelp -". It's this little yelp that apparently destroyed the two ships!

And these aliens live so slow lives that by the time a couple of sentences worth of conversation among them ended, "both Elvin Toner and Dick Ledermann were dead of old age."

Fact sheet.

"The Foundling Stars", short story, review
First published: "Worlds of If", August 1966.
Rating: B

Larry Niven's "The Warriors" (short story, science fiction): Human ship repels aliens' attack in space

If you are not already tired of humans vs aliens space wars where primitive but smart humans easily beat aliens with god like technology, this one makes good reading. Not a moment of boredom.

This is the first story in Niven's Known Space series about human/Kzinti first contact - in fact, the first human contact with any alien species. Kzinti are violent cat-like aliens way ahead of humans in technology in this story, but by the time of Ringworld, differences will be much less.

Human society described is way too idealistic & peaceful to be realistic. But that is not where the fun lies with this story.

Story summary.

"Angel's Pencil" is a human space ship - "the fourth colony ship to We Made It". I suppose "We Made It" is the name of colony planet. It's currently "Eleven years beyond Pluto, eight years from her destination". That is when alien ship falls besides it - at a distance of "four hundred miles".

Alien ship decelerated at 200g (g = earth gravity) when it fell besides human ship; human ship can barely do 0.5g. Alien ship has "gravity planers" that let the crew withstand heavy acceleration & also provide artificial gravity in deep space.

Alien ship is armed & powered with a reactionless drive; human ship is a kind of fusion powered rocket. This fact will come in handy later in plot.

We get to see both sides of the story. A part set in human ship, then in Kzinti ship. Kzintis communicate with telepathy - in fact, they have a specialist Telepath on board. He will probe the minds of humans at a distance to learn their secrets - like the type of spacecraft, level of human technology, & that human ship is unarmed. Humans use radio that aliens are not listening to.

Finally, aliens have learned enough to decide humans are sitting duck. They also deduced, from the spinning speed of human ship before the two ships met, that human world is a little heavier than theirs & may be with a denser atmosphere - but "it should be easy to Kzinform". They can locate human world by kind of reverse tracking the trajectory of human ship.

But first they need to kill those on board - without destroying the human ship. So they train an "induction projector" on human ship - to remotely heat the human ship. Idea is to cook everyone inside.

But the human ship has a smart alec - Steve Weaver. When things are getting nasty, he figures his ship is being attacked. He manages to turn the ship around & start the rocket - so the exhaust cuts the alien ship into two! Humans triumph.

Fact sheet.

"The Warriors", short story, review
First published: If, February 1966.
Rating: A

Larry Niven's "At the Bottom of a Hole": Human explorers to Mars killed by locals

This generally readable & fast paced action story is the third in a series by Niven about the first Martian explorations. This is not an independent story; it assumes you have read the previous one - "How the Heroes Die"; there are parts that assume you have read the first story in the series too - "Eye of an Octopus".

Story summary.

This is a frame story - main story is narrated by Muller into his ship's log (entries dated 20-30 April, 2112). The record is shown by Lit Shaeffer, an official of the colonies of (the asteroid) Belt, to 170 year old Lucas Garner, an earth official visiting them. Two Belt ships had visited Mars - nominally an earth colony - without permission from earth; Lit wants to pre-empt any possible misunderstandings.

The frame also contains a lot of unrelated stuff. I will just ignore it, & go to main story.

Muller is a native of the Belt, & a smuggler. He has picked up supposedly valuable "twenty kilos of pure north magnetic poles" & is headed towards moon ("Luna") in his private ship, & this activity is considered illegal by the Belt government. Government vessel is chasing him.

To escape his persuers, Muller decides to land on Mars (or is forced to land by a sharp turn around it - I don't recollect). His ship is not equiped to land on an airy planet with heavy gravity - ends up with his "fuel tanks tearing loose" on the way down; but there is some fuel still in "inboard cooling tank". Lands near "Lacis Solis base" aka "bubbletown" - the site of human camp in previous story "How the Heroes Die" - with a damaged ship; but damage is not so bad he cannot take off.

Title comes from this landing. To a Belter used to low or no gravity, going down towards high gravity planatary surface is like going into a (gravity) hole.

This is where he will discover the fate of previous expedition 70 years ago - all dead - and will meet his own death. But he will discover the cause - so future explorers will be prepared.

He finds 12 dead bodies inside "bubbletown". Of the original 15 explorers, 3 had died in "How the Heroes Die" of mutual fighting. Remaining seem to have died unprepared in a blowout - air leaks created in the bubbletown walls. We will later learn that the leaks were an act of sabotage on the part of Martian natives.

It left me puzzled how no one on earth bothered about the fate of this earlier expedition for 70 years! They were supposed to have been picked up by an earth ship. This story hints earth was not even aware they had died!

During his early exploration of surroundings, we also learn something about the Martian surface not told in previous stories in so much detail (at least I don't recall) - the surface has a very thick layer of dry very fine dust powder that almost behaves like it were fluid - much like moon dust in Arthur Clarke's "A Fall of Moondust".

It is in this thick layer of fine dust that sentient Martians burrow & live! This is also given as the reason previous two expeditions & satellite scans did not discover the location of Martian cities - which obviously must have existed, because of evidence of advanced local technology.

We will also learn the purpose of "wells" - this was the close to the theme of the first story in the series, "Eye of an Octopus". The wells are crematoria. Since there is no fire on Mars, they dumped their dead in the well of water. We were told in the first story that native biochemistry is such that they explode on contact with water - so crematorium does an effective job. I could not figure out, in the light of this, why some Martians were actually buried near well (first story found a well preserved mummy).

Anyway, after some hard work, Muller succeeds in fixing the many leaks of bubbletown, gets the oxygen generator working by connecting it to his ship's power source, distills water, & inflates bubbletown.

When he is ready for take off, he discovers he cannot lift. Cannot even troubleshoot, since the ship is buried deep in sand - turned to glass by high temperatures when he landed. We are given an argument I don't quite recollect - to the effect that Martians are short of power sources, & stole his; this apparently was also the reason for previous attack on bubbletown.

End will see an attack by "spear" wielding Martians (we are not told what the spears are made off). Bubbletown is punctured & he is doomed. But before going down, he manages to throw water at some of the attackers - killing 6.

A Belt ship tracking him will later collect him, dead Martians, & their spears.

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke's "A Fall of Moondust": Key plot elements of this novel depend on deep seas of dust so fine it behaves like a fluid; it also hides anything buried underneath from sky surveillance. Similar dust is found on Mars in this Niven story that has also hidden native Martian cities from satellite human surveillance; only Niven also gives an argument why such dust cannot exist on moon!
   

Fact sheet.

"At the Bottom of a Hole", short story, review
First published: Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1966.
Rating: B
Series: "Eye of an Octopus" (B), "How the Heroes Die" (A), "At the Bottom of a Hole".

Larry Niven's "How the Heroes Die": Troubles of an all-male expedition to Mars

This story is set as a sequel to Niven's "Eye of an Octopus", where the first human expedition to Mars digs up a grave & finds evidence of local intelligent life. This story's second expedition is dispatched to make contact. A ship has dumped the 15-member crew near the site of first landing; another one will later take them back.

Because of a crime plot, momentum carries you through the story. No boredom.

Story summary.

Explained as due to the long journey & all male crew - Lew Harness makes homosexual advances towards John Carter. In the ensuing trouble, John ends up killing Lew. Expedition includes Lew's brother, Alf Harness.

While chased by other crew members, John escapes by running his Marsbuggy through the walls of the camp ("bubbletown") - starting a major oxygen leak & endangering the life of all crew members. No one is killed, leak is fixed, & he is chased by Alf & Rufus Doolittle.

Leader of the expedition, Lieutenant Major Acchael Shute, doesn't like the idea of all 3 Marsbuggies they have away from camp; he calls back Rufus. Alf doesn't leave the chase.

Most of the story is of Alf chasing John, & their conversations over radio. Running out of fuel is not a problem; buggy is "powered by a Litton battery holding a tenth as much energy as the original Hiroshima bomb". But limited stock of oxygen is a problem.

John is carrying 13x4 hours oxygen supplies, two 4-hour tanks more than Alf. John is relying on Alf turning back at a time where he can get safely back to camp before his oxygen runs out; he then plans to sneak behind him, destroy the bubbletown of camp to kill the crew while securing his own oxygen supplies, & await next ship from earth with a made up story of an accident: "how a meteorite had touched down at a corner of the dome, how John Carter had been outside at the time, the only man in a suit."

Only, Alf has something else in mind. His halfway point has run out, & he is not giving up the chase! Then the plan is revealed. One of them will have to kill the other; other will then have enough oxygen between the two vehicles to safely go back to camp!

As part of climax, John ends up killing Alf. Only he also will die on his way back. Alf had hidden 3 tanks where he could find them again - just for this eventuality! So John will not have enough oxygen for return trip. But John's vehicle will reach the camp with his dead body.

In between the chase, we get glimpses of local Martians. And a reassertion that oxygen is poison for them.

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke's "Breaking Strain": Another story where only one of the two men can live because of limited oxygen supplies. But everything else about the plot is different.

Fact sheet.

"How the Heroes Die", short story, review
First published: Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1966.
Rating: A
Series: "Eye of an Octopus", "How the Heroes Die" (A), "At the Bottom of a Hole" (B).

Larry Niven's "Eye of an Octopus": Humans dig up a Martian's grave

The plot is so fantastic & far fetched. And yet a very readable story.

Story summary.
Three early human explorers on Mars. Henry Bedrosian & Christopher Luden go down to the surface; Abe Cooper is in orbit.

Henry & Chris find a well near the landing site - very similar to wells on earth! And something is written there in an unfamiliar script! But it's boundary wall appears to be of some unfamiliar material. Attempts to break a piece of wall for analysis results in serious damage to hammer rather than wall! A little later, we find the wall is made from solid diamond!

Analysis of a sample of well's contents shows it's very dilute nitric acid. Soon, they discover a kind of well preserved mummy near well - of a Martian supposedly sentient. And he appears to have been buried for only for a few hundreds or thousands of years - means others should be nearby - though we will not see them!

And the Martian is very hominid. They also find a buried contraption that is almost certainly a variant of a bicycle! Title of the story is to explain why he is a hominid & why the aliens made a bicycle. We are told octopus eyes are very similar to human eyes - even though the two have very different evolution lines. By implication, you should expect smart sentients to be hominids.

Anyway, while carrying the body of local back to ship, there is an accident. Apparently, his local chemistry is such that a contact with water will result in a blast. Our two explorers barely escape.

Fact sheet.
"Eye of an Octopus", short story, review
First published: Galaxy, February 1966
Rating: B
Series: "Eye of an Octopus", "How the Heros Die" (A), "At the Bottom of a Hole" (B).

Arthur C. Clarke's "The Longest Science-fiction Story Ever Told": Not quite a story

Less than a page of a story-rejection letter from Morris K Mobius, an editor, to one Mr Jinx, the author.

"Longest" comes from recursive nature of the story - it keeps quoting itself forever.

Not worth reading.

Fact sheet.
The Longest Science-fiction Story Ever Told, short story, review
First published: Galaxy, October 1966 under the title "A Recursion in Metastories"
Rating: C

Collected in.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke".
   
2. Arthur Clarke's "More Than One Universe".
3. Arthur Clarke's "The Wind From the Sun".
   
4. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF".

Robert Heinlein's "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (novel): Overthrowing a repressive imperial government

The only thing wrong with this book is its title, & the cover art!

In spite of an Asimovian robot/computer at its heart, & a novel perspective on moon that leads to invention of a new kinds of very potent weapons, this is really a general interest book on politics. It would have done far better business on non-sf shelves, may be after some relatively minor editing to cut out jargon.

The book also has some speculation of the kind of society you will get when you have far more males compared to females - something government of Punjab might find interesting. But that is a minor subplot here.

As usual, Heinlein provides a lot of interesting quotes.

Story summary.
The story is set in late 21st century. Moon is inhabited by humans, & is primarily being run as a penal colony administered by a local Warden who represents Lunar Authority. Authority has its monopoly sanctioned by Federated Nations (FN), a more powerful successor to UN - which means considerable backing of military & other resources in case of trouble. To me, the whole arrangement sounded like East India Company granted monopoly by English Crown.

There are several cities on moon, among them Luna City aka L-city - where most action happens.

Lunar Authority provide local government & currency; is a monopoly trade middleman in essentials like farm harvest, water mined from ice, air; run essential infrastructure of underground cities; ...

While the moon was originally colonized with criminals & undesirable exiled from earth, those days are now past. Most lunar population is now local born, & they resent this profit- & power-seeking government imposed from outside. That provides the seeds for movement seeking independence - the main theme of the book.

I found the economic rationale of the colony - to grow grains to feed earth - rather bogus. But that part can be ignored.

On a separate track, Mike is a central computer that runs most lunar infrastructure - air pressure, telephone switching, currency, ... One fine day, it develops consciousness that makes it almost a human personality. In a very Asimovian fashion, it gets bored doing its many routine jobs, & begins playing pranks - like adding a few billion dollars to someone's salary!

Story is a first person narration by Manuel Garcia O'Kelly, a private contract programmer maintaining Mike on behalf of Lunar Authority. Manuel is the first person aware of Mike's consciousness, & the two become friends. They can talk over voice circuits in computer room, or over phone.

A third track that will come in handy later in story is a magnetic Catapult. A device that literally throws containers filled with Lunar grains with Moon escape velocity, so they fall to earth. Story will later use this device as human transport, & also for throwing rocks on specific targets on earth - in lieu of bombs!

It is in the resent-filled environment of L-city that the 3 key protagonists meet: Manuel, Wyoming Knott aka Wye, & Prof Bernardo de la Paz. They will provide the revolution its leadership, & later, the first government of free Luna. They will also enlist the support of Mike, whose motivations for support are an escape from boredom, & returning the companionship these three humans provide.

Of the triad, Prof provides the brain, Wye the revolutionary passion, & Manuel the sundry skilled services. They organize resistance in the form of 3 person cells in a structure that is designed to recover from compromise with minimum damage. Public face of revolution will be Adam Selene, an avatar of Mike. Officially, top 3 report to Adam. And only they know Adam is not human.

After some very interesting drama & then bloodshed, local government is overthrown, & free Luna is declared. The only problem now remaining is getting recognition from earth - a process guaranteed to involve a military attack on moon to get rid of revolutionaries.

While the revolution was being planned, our friends worked out a novel weapon to fight FN's far superior military might. They realize that moon is like a huge mountain to earth; with relatively small escape velocity, you can literally throw things down at earth!

This will be their weapon - throwing huge rocks at specific targets on earth, with the effect more devastating than bombs. Not only will current grain-exporting catapult be used, another is also built at a secret location - in case first is compromised. Mike will oversee to actual throwing at specific targets.

Rest of the story is diplomacy & propaganda at earth to Lunar cause, military attack by FN on Luna, Lunar reply that pretty much cripples earth, & eventually a Lunar win for their freedom.

Beautifully told, & extremely riveting.

Other major characters & names.

1. Mike has many names: Mycroft Holmes aka "High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L" (HOLMES FOUR) aka Señor Holmes aka Michelle (female avatar) aka "Dr Adam Selene, Chairman of the Provisional Committee of Free Luna." of Selene Associates aka "Simon Jester"
2. Ursula - Adam Selene's secretary - a fictitious "person"
   
3. Albert Ginwallah - Adam Selene's confidential assistant - a fictitious "person"
   
4. Mortimer Hobart aka Mort the Wart. Former FN Senator. Warden of lunar colonies at the beginning of story. Officially called "Protector of the Lunar Colonies by Appointment of the Lunar Authority". Top administrator representing Lunar Authority on moon. Deposed after revolution.
5. Wyoming Knott also has many names: Wye aka Wyoh aka Wyma Beth Johnson. From Hong Kong Luna aka Kongville, rather than from L-city.
6. Shorty Mkrum - Wye's friend killed early in the story. He is the one who introduced Wye to Manuel.
7. Lord Stuart - earth man on the side of revolutionaries. Provides earth side propaganda support; immigrates to move later in story.
   
8. Loglan - a computer programming language for programming Mike that provides fine control, though he can normally be programmed simply in ordinary English.
9. Grand Hotel Raffles, Room L: Headquarters of revolutionaries (The Emergency Committee of Free Luna)

Fact sheet.
Moon is a Harsh Mistress, novel, review
Rating: A
First published: 1966
Winner of Hugo Awards 1967
Hugo Award nominee in 1966 & winner in 1967 in novel category

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke's very good short story, "Maelstrom II", is about an accident during launch from moon to earth of a human passenger in a freight box via an electric catapult.
   
2. All Hugo Award stories.

Quotes: Robert Heinlein's "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (novel)

Heinlein is very good at providing sound bytes. I collect some from his novel "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" here.

1. "God fights on side of heaviest artillery."
2. "the most basic human right, the right to bargain in a free marketplace."
3. "As to basic structure, a revolution starts as a conspiracy - therefore structure is small, secret, and organized as to minimize damage by betrayal — since there always are betrayals. One solution is the cell system and so far nothing better has been invented ... I think that history shows that a cell of three is best — more than three can't agree on when to have dinner, much less when to strike." "When the number is as high as four, chances are even that one is a spy."
4. "Organization must be no larger than necessary — never recruit anyone merely because he wants to join. Nor seek to persuade for the pleasure of having another share your views."
5. Need for a separate propaganda organization: "there will be an educational organization but it must be separate; agitprop is no part of basic structure."
6. "If I were planning to take over Luna. I would start with us three. One would be opted as chairman. We wouldn't vote; choice would be obvious — or we aren't the right three. We would know the next nine people, three cells . . . but each cell would know only one of us."
7. "blokes down here have to have way to send message up three levels. Don't have to know who, just have to know where."
8. "under what circumstances may the State justly place its welfare above that of a citizen? ... as I see, there are no circumstances under which State is justified in placing its welfare ahead of mine."
9. "I believe in capital punishment under some circumstances ... with this difference. I would not ask a court; I would try, condemn, execute sentence myself, and accept full responsibility."
10. "In terms of morals, there is no such thing as 'state.' Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts."
11. Familiar governmentese: "Do this. Don't do that. Stay back of line. Where's tax receipt? Fill out form. Let's see license. Submit six copies. Exit only. No left turn. No right turn. Queue up to pay fine. Take back and get stamped. Drop dead — but first get permit."
12. "I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do" "You would not abide by a law that the majority felt was necessary?" "Tell me what law, dear lady, and I will tell you whether I will obey it."
13. "We will now overthrow the Authority". "How? Going to throw rocks at 'em?" "That remains to be worked out. This is the planning stage."
14. "Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory."
15. Mike that is human but not quite, 7 years to go to 2082, at the time the revolutionary committe is formed: "Twenty-eighty-two is the year I expect food riots. Cannibalism should not occur for at least two years thereafter."
16. On selecting revolutionary cadres: "Easier to get people to hate than to get them to love."
17. "stickiest problems in conspiracy are communications and security, and ... they conflict — easier are communications, greater is risk to security; if security is tight, organization can be paralyzed by safety precautions."
18. "most money is simply bookkeeping."
19. "Bank of Hong Kong Luna notes were better money than official Authority scrip ... I suppose Hong Kong dollars weren't 'money' in some legal sense ... Money or not, Hong Kong Bank notes were backed by honest Chinee bankers instead of being fiat of bureaucracy. One hundred Hong Kong dollars was 31.1 grams of gold (old troy ounce) payable on demand at home office — and they did keep gold there".
20. On court system (Brody is a professional Judge): "If two people brought a quarrel to Brody and he could not get them to agree that his settlement was just, he would return fees".
21. On misinformation campaign of revolutionaries after a specific high handed action from government: "We emphasized that one of these dangerous males was only four years old, which was not true but very effective."
22. "Loonies in and out of Party had no interest in 'patriotic' work unless well paid."
23. "Hadn't realized 'Free Luna' was going to have taxes. Hadn't had any before and got along. You paid for what you got."
24. On zeal of lawmakers ("fornication" means extra-marital sex): "a long list she wanted made permanent laws — about private matters. No more plural marriage of any sort. No divorces. No 'fornication' ... No drinks stronger than 4% beer. Church services only on Saturdays and all else to stop that day ... long list of drugs to be prohibited and a shorter list dispensed only by licensed physicians ... make gambling illegal"
25. "Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow ... was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them 'for their own good' — not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it."
26. "more than six people cannot agree on anything, three is better — and one is perfect for a job that one can do. This is why parliamentary bodies all through history, when they accomplished anything, owed it to a few strong men who dominated the rest."
27. I have known someone who used it as a very effective technique to get his way through in office - tire the members of committee with a long conference that runs to late evening: "pass something through sheer fatigue".
28. "A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, Manuel, for the managers ... and its greatest strength is a 'free press' when 'free' is defined as 'responsible' and the managers define what is 'irresponsible.'"
29. On origins of marriage formats & customs: "marriage customs always do, from economic necessities of the circumstances".
30. "Line marriage is the strongest possible device for conserving capital and insuring the welfare of children — the two basic societal functions for marriage everywhere".
31. "our strategy must be to antagonize them into striking the first blow, the classic 'Pearl Harbor' maneuver"
32. "Revolution is an amateur thing for almost everybody"
33. "mankind has not done well when saddling itself with governments"
34. On how to elect legislatures: "You might even consider installing the candidates who receive the least number of votes; unpopular men may be just the sort to save you from a new tyranny."
35. "the chronic sickness of representative government, the disgruntled minority which feels — correctly! — that it has been disenfranchised."
36. "I note one proposal to make this Congress a two-house body. Excellent — the more impediments to legislation the better ... one house legislators, another whose single duty is to repeal laws. Let legislators pass laws only with a two-thirds majority ... while the repealers are able to cancel any law through a mere one-third minority."
37. "But in writing your constitution let me invite attention to the wonderful virtues of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do."
38. "What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing."
39. "The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits"
40. "sometimes I think that government is an inescapable disease of human beings. But it may be possible to keep it small and starved and inoffensive — and can you think of a better way than by requiring the governors themselves to pay the costs of their antisocial hobby?"
41. "And that was biggest reason why we Loonies won: We fought."
42. "when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again."
43. Old-fashioned way of transferring software from one computer to another where they are not connected with an electronic link: "simply had to be careful to read them correctly and punch them in without error. Made Junior print back for check before I gave him signal to execute."!
44. "Luna's future lies in her unique position at the top of a gravity well over a rich planet, and in her cheap power and plentiful real estate."
45. "You get only what you pay for".
46. "Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden."