History Literature / TheMoonIsAHarshMistress

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: The PowerTrio is well aware that the Lunar Authority is not evil, but they do their damnedest to make sure the Loonies think it is, because the alternative to overthrowing it is starvation for everyone.

* FutureImperfect: If Mannie is any indication, Loonies have a rather shaky grasp of history. He thought UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson freed the slaves, and confused UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution with UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. (Actually, this is done to hammer in that the Loonies are not Americans. Most non-Americans on present-day Earth would easily get the civil war and the revolution mixed up, but have no clue who Jefferson was.)

* FrickinLaserBeams: Wildly realistic versions, mostly used to burn out sensors and fry electronics; explicitly stated to work as effective weapons only in a vacuum. The rebels develop a crude laser rifle, but its power is limited to a few shots, and you can't swap in a new power pack either. Meanwhile the FN troops have rifles that fire explosive shells.

* OverrideCommand: Vital government secret files are protected with passwords, and the computer is interdicted from revealing them without it. The lunar revolutionaries are able to read them because [[LoopholeAbuse no one interdicted the computer]] from revealing ''the passwords themselves''.

** Mannie and Wyoh's relationship is completely ambiguous from about halfway in. She's obviously romantically interested in Mannie's co-husband Greg, but she spends her first married night in Mannie's bed. Mannie has Mike turn off all monitoring, but it could just as easily be a purely platonic visit.
** We're never given any real information on how Mannie's "line marriage" treats sex. Given Heinlein's [[AuthorAppeal propensities]], it's very possible that [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex everybody has sex with everybody else]], but the narrative treats it almost exclusively as an emotional support system--an anxious Mannie spends the night with his "senior wife" but nothing sexual is ever implied to happen. On the other hand, younger "husbands" blush excitedly at the idea of Wyoh "opting in".

* BrickJoke:

* BadassGrandpa: Professor de la Paz, who was old when Mannie was still a boy, yet can still break a soldier's neck and survive brutal g-force.

* EveryManHasHisPrice: The Directorate of Chad is the first (and for a long time, only) nation to recognize Luna as a free state. This is due in no small part to a massive amount of money given to them by the Resistance (it's implied to be where the bulk of the Resistance's money went).

* NuclearOption: A plot point is that Earth could put down the Lunar rebellion with a single ship and six large nukes (said as much by Mannie)-but are actually ''very'' reluctant to do so unless they have other ways to do so, to the point their first attempt to forcefully suppress the rebellion is a dangerous armed invasion with no nuclear weaponry. To which the Loonies reply by hitting Earth with [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic payloads just as powerful as nukes]] because by now Earth has no other options and they need to break their will before they get a ship in range.

** As mentioned in other places, a group of earthworms decide to have a picnic at another ground zero. When people have the gall to blame the Loonies, Many asks if he was supposed to lead all the picnickers away by hand.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Loonies live way longer than Terrans because of the reduced strain on their bodies, and they age slower, too; Mannie, for example, points out to some Terrans that even though he looks twenty or thirty he's actually been ''married'' longer than that. At the time the story was written, [[ScienceMarchesOn this was one of the legitimate theories]] regarding the long-term effects of low gravity on biology. It wasn't firmly established that the opposite was the case (very low gravity is moderately bad for you and microgravity can outright kill you given long-term exposure) until several decades later.

* PhoneWord: The initial phone codes to contact Mycroft are actual words with nulls added to get them to the correct length. As the conspiracy grows they run out of memorable word codes and have to start using random codes.

** The conspirators decide to cut back on provoking the Authorities because everything isn't in place yet. Then the Dragoons murder two women and [[XanatosSpeedChess they have to start the revolution ahead of schedule]] because they know they've just got the catalyst that will spark an uprising.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Strange in that it is left almost completely unaddressed. When Mike starts out pulling hurtful pranks to be funny, Mannie sidesteps trying to teach Mike morality by instead teaching him that his pranks are "only funny once." Mike quickly grows in power and influence, takes the highest position in the rebellion, and even starts imitating Mannie and speaking for him without Mannie's knowledge or permission. None of this worries Mannie. When Mike bombs Earth, he says that it feels like an orgasm. Mannie cautions Mike against feeling that way, not because it's wrong to take pleasure in violence, but because Mike might not get to do it again. Ultimately it never even occurs to Mannie to be concerned with putting so much power in an AI's hands. Toward the end, Mannie suspects that Mike has grown a conscience.

* ArtisticLicenseStatistics: Heinlein ups the drama by having Mike the supercomputer constantly decreasing the plan's odds of success overall after each objective is successfully completed, stating that there are "more opportunities for failure" in the next objective, but this isn't the way overall probability is calculated; the only way odds can get worse is if something goes wrong, or new problems crop up. If Mike knew about the low odds of the later steps from the beginning, he should have factored them into the probability he gave at the beginning.[[note]]To put it in simple terms, the chance you'll flip a coin and have it come up heads is 0.50; the chance of getting heads twice in a row is 0.50 x 0.50 = 0.25. But once you flip that coin and get heads the first time, your chance is now 0.50, because that first successful flip is no longer 0.50 -- it's happened, so it now has a probability of 1.[[/note]]

* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Mannie laments that Luna is ruled by one instead of an actual BadBoss; both because he feels guilty in making the man suffer and because it's difficult to inspire outrage against someone so ''dull''. The unfortunate Mort 'The Wart' Hobart is the Warden, and he's receiving the Earth government's ever-increasing demands on one hand, trying to cope with ever-increasing hostility from the Loonies, struggling to prevent his CowboyCop chief of security from triggering riots, ''and'' keeps suffering from mysterious mechanical breakdowns. And ''then'' the Revolution begins. His eventual fate is fittingly undramatic - he's [[spoiler: asphyxiated by accident during the revolution]].

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Apparently believed of Cyborgs, as even Mannie refers to them as "ex-humans." It's never explained fully, but it's implied that cyborgs pretty much give up right-brain functioning in exchange for massive enhancement of raw computational ability.

* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Extended marriage as a common part of life on the moon, in large part because of a shortage of women. A marriage with one wife and two husbands is common. However, there are also "line marriages," involving multiple husbands and wives. The protagonist, Mannie, is part of a line marriage, and he's constantly singing its praises.

* FreudianTrio: Mannie is the Ego, the Prof is the Superego and Wyoh is the Id.

* ILikeThoseOdds: Mannie's reaction when Mike tells him the revolution has only a one in 7 chance of success. This is apparently a generic trait of Loonies -- anything better than 1 in 10 sounds like a worthwhile risk to them.

* ItsTheOnlyWay: Man and Prof being fired to Earth inside an improvised spaceship made from a wheat carrier. [[spoiler:After Man gets there, he discovers that they could have arranged a spaceship, but this way they get some free dramatic publicity for their cause.]]

* AllUpToYou: Mannie finds himself manning the second secret catapult when contact has been cut off with the Prof and Mike, the main catapult and most of the radars have been knocked out, there's two Earth warships prowling above and the FN is announcing victory. There's a hint that China may be willing to negotiate, or maybe they're just holding out for better terms from the Loonies. Mannie is asked if they should go ahead with the strike on China or hold off? [[spoiler:Mannie decides to continue the attack as planned. It turns out to be the right decision as China decides to recognise the independence of Luna while the rocks are on their way; after that, all the other intended targets quickly do likewise.]]

* ArtisticLicenseStatistics: Heinlein ups the drama by having Mike the supercomputer constantly decreasing the plan's odds of success overall after each objective is successfully completed, stating that there are "more opportunities for failure" in the next objective, but this isn't the way overall probability is calculated; the only way odds can get worse is if something goes wrong, or new problems crop up. If Mike knew about the low odds of the later steps from the beginning, he should have factored them into the probability he gave at the beginning.

** The FN soldiers sent to put down the rebellion have been told that their only way of getting back to Earth is to retake the colonies, as their troopships don't have enough fuel to return. The soldiers are then wired up on drugs so they know no fear. Were it not for the equally-suicidal resistance by every available Loonie, Mike taking control of the defence without waiting for orders, and the soldiers unfamiliarity with manouvering in a low-gravity environment, they might have won--instead they're slaughtered to the last man.

** People get married and sexually active much earlier. When Mannie points out a 12-year-old girl, one of his wives mistakes it for sexual interest. She has no objections other than that the girl still has a boyish figure (though she may be teasing him at the time, so it's hard to tell how seriously to take her words). In another instance, Mannie calls a 14-year-old girl "curvy" and states that there's little chance that she's still a virgin. As he tells Stuart, "Once a girl's nubile, she's her own boss."

* FrickinLaserBeams: Wildly realistic versions, mostly used to burn out sensors and fry electronics; explicitly stated to work as effective weapons only in a vacuum. The rebels develop a crude laser rifle, but its power is limited to a few shots and you can't swap in a new power pack either. Meanwhile the FN troops have rifles that fire explosive shells.

* GrammarNazi: One member of the Lunar congress wants to revise the Lunar Declaration of Independence (literally just the American Revolution version with the SerialNumbersFiledOff) due to a few grammar errors (including the famous "unalienable" vs "inalienable" issue). In a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], he drops his argument quickly once Adam Selene entreats that it's more important to just get the damn thing ratified, and Mannie notes that he's actually good guy apart from his "fetish".

* KansasCityShuffle: The conspirators use a front company to build a second catapult under their control. As they can't hide the existence of this, they make it an entirely legitimate business venture, but bury the entire thing underground except for the entrance, then mislead everyone as to its true location, as all the workers and [=VIPs=] get there via underground tube or enclosed vehicle. The one person who smuggled in a locator had an 'accident'.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Happens to people who [[YouKnowTooMuch stumble on the wrong thing]]. Given that Authority doesn't care what the Lunatics do to each other, they have a lot of practise at arranging these.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Very hard sci-fi, even for Heinlein. The only "lies" are prevalent nuclear power, an electromagnetic catapult, and a sentient computer - all of which are extrapolated directly from real technology. ScienceMarchesOn, so several aspects of Loonie life turned out not to reflect reality (their long life and the inability to return to Earth after only a few months in Luna), but generally it's very grounded.

* ItsAllUpToYou: Mannie finds himself manning the second secret catapult when contact has been cut off with the Prof and Mike, the main catapult and most of the radars have been knocked out, there's two Earth warships prowling above and the FN is announcing victory. There's a hint that China may be willing to negotiate, or maybe they're just holding out for better terms from the Loonies. Mannie is asked if they should go ahead with the strike on China or hold off? [[spoiler:Mannie decides to continue the attack as planned. It turns out to be the right decision as China decides to recognise the independence of Luna while the rocks are on their way; after that, all the other intended targets quickly do likewise.]]

* LibertariansInSpace: Mannie has to explain to some journalists that they've really no need for the Big Government that is seen as compulsory on Earth, as the Loonies have all the social needs already. Later he's offered a carrot-and-stick deal with the carrot being a whole bunch of 'free' services that the Loonies have anyway, at the cost of increased government intrusion and oppression. TINSTAAFL, as they say. The Prof isn't happy when the first thing the new Luna Congress does is start making laws and raising taxes.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Wildly realistic versions, mostly used to burn out sensors and fry electronics; explicitly stated to work as effective weapons only in a vacuum.

* PretextForWar: The conspirators decide to cut back on provoking the Authorities because everything isn't in place yet. Then the Dragoons murder two women and [[XanatosSpeedChess they have to start the revolution ahead of schedule]] because they know they've just got the catalyst that will spark an uprising.

* IgnoredExpert: Alvarez, the chief of the Lunar Authority police, is a villainous example: he knows ''exactly'' how to keep the Loonies from rebelling and what he needs to do it, but his superiors on Earth won't give him the resources he needs because it would be too expensive. As a result, the rebellion is successful. Alvarez dies shortly after his IWarnedYou to the officer in charge.