In Robert A. Heinlein’s controversial Hugo Award-winning bestseller, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe—and into battle against mankind’s most alarming enemy…Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have … could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids.
Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job…
“A classic…If you want a great military adventure, this one is for you.”—All SciFi
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If you’ve only seen the terrible movie, read the book. Much better, much more realistic. Heinlein did have a military background and unlike the movie, this book makes military sense. The Mobile Infantry is really mobile and they use nukes like we use grenades.
If you think this book has much to do with the horrible movie of that name which pretends to be based on it, you should be celebrating that it is far better than the film. Heinlein’s views on civic responsibility are a major theme, as are military virtues. That it is set in a future where humans are at war with bug-like aliens simply provides the background, and the armored suits the soldiers wear just make it a bit more interesting. What a lot of people get carried away with is the social structure he describes, one in which the vote only goes to those who have completed some sort of public service. Written against the background of the Cold War, when the “greatest generation” was generally running the country and setting the standards, some have suggested that it should provide an example of how to run the country. What makes that amusing is that in the book where this made-up society exists the author justifies it on the basis that “it works”. Those trying to make a case for organizing society that way seem to forget that we do not live in a work of fiction, that for us it is not a proven idea that “works” but rather a hypothetical, one about which we have no hard data at all. I am sure Heinlein set this trap knowing many would fall into it despite what it clearly says in the book about what justifies it.
A masterpiece and cornerstone of science fiction. Starship Troopers remains the only book that I adore and disagree with in equally large amounts. It’s a challenging read, both morally and politically. But, you will emerge from it with a more thoughtful perspective than when you began.
I just reread Starship Troopers for the upteenth time. If you ask me why all I can says it still is as timely as when I first read it over fifty years ago.. it is the big granddaddy of Military SciFi.Back then it was labeled as something as counter what many thought back then as Politically Correct. Boy it was a foretaste of where we find ourselves today.
It starts with Juan Rico’ who with friends have graduated high school. What do you do with your lives, they ask themselves. Juan choosesService…and finds himself joining Moble Infantry…only to find out that bad guys just bombed a good chunk of earth. Today the question of why fight is an easy question to answer.Seems many people will not even defend themselves. Ignore the crappy movies that stole the Title. Ride with Rico and the Roughnecks on the Roger Young. Funny, that I married a girl who speaks Tagalog, Just like the Rico family. It is a very small world.
Robert Heinlein’s 1959 Hugo Award-winning novel Starship Troopers is the inspiration for a very loose movie adaptation which I’ll also discuss in this review.
Heinlein was a 1928 graduate of the Naval Academy and the author of over thirty science fiction novels. Some say that Starship Troopers founded the military science fiction subgenre; at the very least it spurred the growth.
Literature is a springboard for ideas, insights and intellectual growth, but science fiction rarely aspires or reaches such heights. When I first read the novel as a teenager it provided insights into how a society might be organized and in the years since it became one of the springboards for my own writing. I’m not saying the novel is great literature, but it is superior science fiction. It presents a plausible future society with an appropriate intellectual and philosophical framework. It is the philosophical aspect that is at the heart of the novel. This movie rips that heart out of the story.
Written during the height of the Cold War, the novel was the means by which Heinlein argued for a strong military. The story also serves as a vehicle to present his libertarian political ideas. While the story contains more introspection, exposition, and character discussion than is common in the genre it has also been criticized as exceedingly pro-military and lacking in character depth and development. The story is pro-military, but I don’t believe it lacks character development. However, one must remember that, unlike most science fiction, Heinlein was presenting ideas with the novel, not merely a story about killing alien bugs.
If the movie stood alone I might be able to recommend it based on some fine special effects, truly unworldly aliens and great action scenes, but since I’ve read and enjoyed the novel I could not enjoy the travesty of a movie that bears its name.
If you’re a science fiction fan I recommend you read the novel and skip the movie.
This is one of my all-time classic reads. In a relatively short book, Heinlein builds a believable dystopian future where it’s humanity against bug while also fighting its own bureaucracy. It flows quickly and reads well. All too believable characters, who don’t get bogged down in science fiction technology, It was about the people, their motivations, and how they fought for humanity. I saw this book was recently on sale. It’s one that you want to have in your library. Always.
Best Science Fiction in a while. Nothing compares to Robert Heinlein as a science fiction writer. If they made the movie anything likes this book, it’d be much better.
Don’t miss ever reading this classic sci-fi book.
Heinlein at his best. Although it is couched in the science fiction terms it’s a great sociological And political conversation still relevant today. A must read.
The book is 1000 times better than the movie was. It is some of the original source work for the entire man in a robot fighting monsters genera of SF. Pacific Rim can be traced directly to Starship Troopers. It is hard SF, but it doesn’t get bogged down in the scientific details. Heinlein has a radical idea for who should vote and govern, and logic behind it. To vote in society you must earn it and anyone should be entitled to earn it. When this young man decides to become a full citizen, it is against the advice of his family, and some teachers in school. He is brought face to face with some of the casualties of war and he still decides to risk it. Then suddenly, just like the US after 9/11/2001 he is thrust headfirst into war. He didn’t ask for it, but he is sure going to do his best to survive it and to kill as many of the darn bugs a possible. The book was written in the 1950s, but it still holds valid today, and it grapples with many issues that modern society grapples with. it is also an excellent read, easy to do, and hard to put down. Johnny Rico is very likeable and the mobile infantry is well pictured. The troopers have one big advantage; its easy to hate a bug. Its a little harder to hate a fellow human being.
It is a shame about the movie, this is one of my favorite books of all time.
Starship Troopers is Robert Heinlein doing what he does best and nothing else. The pace is just fast enough to keep you excited without dragging you along like a broken rudder. The characters have enough depth to feel real without bogging the reader down with too much exposition and introspection. Technology is fascinating and well thought out.
The world and the galaxy are vivid, and the stakes of the overarching conflict are suitably apocalyptic. But at the end of the story the reader feels like they have just read about one young man’s journey and not so much the story of the war itself. The thin varnish of pulp sci-fi covers a surprisingly deep and emotional tale told with cold-war era sensibilities by a master of the craft.
It’s only about the fifth time I’ve read this book through the years, need I say more!?
I love Robert Heinlein books. He makes other worlds and galaxies incredibly believable. You can see this fantasy world clearly in your mind. The characters are complex and go through the same struggles, moral dilemmas and challenges everyone faces. You can relate to each character and recognize yourself or others in them. Heinlein’s heroes and heroines are worthy of emulation.
I loved this book when I read it in my early teens.
It’s easy to dis heinlein these days. And there is a lot to dis. This book is an interesting political thought experiment with good characters. It describes and unrepentant military life in service of what is (to the reader) a dubious war. The soldiers engage in terrorism, genocide and military coercion of allies in what they see as a war of extinction of one side by the other.
It’s hard to see how Ender’s Game came to be without Starship Troopers– I would go so far as to say that Ender’s Game is, in part, a protest novel against ST.
I’m not convinced that RAH ever actually believed the philosophy espoused in this book as much as he started with an idea and followed it to its natural conclusion.
I’ve LOVED this book for many years and am pleased to now have a digital copy that I can have anywhere that I go. When I was in the Army, it was required reading for the junior leaders under me. It’s a great story of how training should be done, how leadership should be done, written by a Naval Academy grad who knew what he was talking about. Many other professional soldiers in my circle of friends agree. Stay away from the screenplay version from that abortion of a movie that was made “based on” the book. The movie is a polar opposite of the “feel” of the original, and totally leaves out the best future technology – the “Battle Suits”!
Great Heinlein story. I enjoyed this book as a teen and I just enjoyed it at 71. Reading it this time made me wonder if this book was one of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps.
Read this first when I was still a teenager, so fifty years ago or more. Excellent writing. Dealt with interesting themes to do with citizenship and societal organization, as well as being a rollicking good action book. Far better than the movie of the same name, which was inspired by the book.
One of my favorite Heinlein books and has been since I read it in Jr. High. I have re-read it several times since. Don’t listen to the critics or watch the movie (or if you do, don’t expect it to be based in any way on the actual story told by RAH). Read the book for yourself and enjoy!
This is one of my favorite books, and I have read it many times. To me it demonstrates how the country should be run. The movie was very disappointing. But the book stands out as one of the greats in SiFi liturature.