Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
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Book Reviews of Starship Troopers
Book Review: FOR THE LOVE OF SPEACHES AND TRAINING
Summary: 2 Stars
OUCH! I'm still kicking myself for reading this book! The movie is on my short list of All-Time Favorites. This novel is NOT!!
I remembered liking "Stranger in a Strange Land" (another Heinlein book) as a kid. I don't like Starship Troopers tonight!
The speach by Rico's HS teacher (about how to raise a proper teenager), with the anology of training a puppy, was really GREAT!
But hundred more pages of speaches and training details took away the faint glow.
The amazing battles of the film version were very exciting.
This book was not exciting. There are only a few pages of action.
Deaths of characters are frequently mentioned "after the fact" and "after the battle". I can't believe how much was ADDED to make the film so good!
The alien "Bugs" are rarely seen. I started to skim pages...not caring.
If political debating is your sort of thing, then go for it.
Otherwise, find another way to spend your precious hours!
Book Review: Starship Troopers as Utopia
Summary: 5 Stars
In the annals of military science fiction, one book has always stood apart in my mind as the epitome of excellence. That book is Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. A controversial book to say the least, its also one of the best coming-of-age novels that SF has to offer. It may also be one of the most storied novels in the history of our genre as well; the controversy surrounding its submission by Heinlein to Scribner's is legendary. So legendary in fact that it would be a horrible waste of time for me to go over it yet again here. But the debate over the purpose of this book has raged quietly since it was first published in 1959. Most readers take this book as an exercise in jingoistic excellence, as full of the polemic of military virtue as a book of three hundred odd pages can possibly be. One thing though that it is actually surprisingly light on, at least by today's standards, is blood and gore, which is odd for a military-themed work. The reality of war is presented well: Dead civilians, crippled infrastructure, nuclear blast craters and dead comrades are sprinkled liberally throughout the book, and topics such as terrorism and the targeting of noncombatants are presented without the amorality being questioned at all. But by far the bulk of the text is dedicated to deep discussions of what it means to be an adult, and the ways that real men and women care for society, and make decisions about the use of force as an instrument of foreign policy. Without ever sounding preachy or descending to pandering or nagging, Heinlein did an excellent job of describing exactly what that meant within the framework of a military dominated government. If you ask me this book is clearly focused on the military and sociological themes, but what the book becomes is nothing short of a utopia tale. It is definitely another one of those ambiguous utopias, but Heinlein presented a society here that chose to focus on a military way of life to avoid certain problems that crop up in a society like our own where freedom is a birthright and rights are granted before people have a chance to consider the burdens of citizenship. As it happened, after that particular course was chosen for the ship of state an interstellar war broke out, so throughout the story the military government was just doing what it was designed originally to do; make war on an enemy...[...]Book Review: Don't hurt me. :-p
Summary: 3 Stars
I am going to say it, at the risk of being told that I don't know what I am talking about, or that I have no class and would rather be entertained than educated. I don't know, someone will say I am dumb. I liked the MOVIES, more than I liked this book.
I thought this book was boring!!!! I cannot stress how boring this book was. It was full of nothing, but long boring rants about Rico Math homework. He never got out of basic training, I lost count on how many chapters dealt with his military training, and it was always the same stuff over and over again. He always wanted to quit, and then the book would go to him thinking about his History teacher's words of wisdom, which kept him going.
When there were battles, they lasted for 5 pages at the most. Then back to the Roger Young for 4 whole chapters about how his friends bought the farm, and how his unit was going to change and refit to fight again, which comes after 8 chapters about him complaining about how he wants to see girls, and other stupid things.
Then he goes to officer school, wow more BASIC training, he never gets out of training. At least this was about 3 chapters and not 8 chapters. The first chapter was his civilian life (I don't count the Prolog). 11 chapters out of 14 were all him in some sort of training. The battles were not even that impressive, when they went into battle. I couldn't wait to see if Rico would finish his Math homework, which he never does. So no real closer on that issue, lol. I can't stress the fact that if the director of the Movie were to make the movie to the book, it would have been long and boring. I enjoyed the first movie immensely, not the 2nd movie, at least the 3rd picked it back up. This book is BORING, but not horrible. It can be entertaining for a while, but once you finished you will be glad to move on to another book.
The idea of people having to serve to gain their citizenship is not too bad of an Idea. I agree that a lot of people don't know what true freedom is in America, they take for granted a lot of the freedoms we have, because they have never earned it. Being in the Military (Army) myself, and having been deployed twice, I can honestly say I will never take my freedom for granted again. I seen the world, and how different it is compared to the lives we have. However, that's the point of our great country. People have the choice to not join the military, and that's great.
Overall this book gains three stars. It's not bad, but not great. This book is written in a journal type of way, with Rico being the journalist. The book is not very entertaining, but rather dry. It has a lot of philosophy questions it asks, that Rico tries to find the answers for, but never really does. It never goes into battle, but ask why we are fighting. I guess it's only considered a classic because of the questions it raises about society and the way of gaining citizenship (in the book) was contraversal at the time of 1959.
Book Review: A timeless and thought-provoking sci-fi classic.
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Heinlein has undoubtedly earned his place on the short list of truly masterful authors in the science fiction genre. "Starship Troopers", now in print for 50 years, is still selling vigorously, and for good reason. Heinlein not only crafts an imaginitive and plausible futuristic view of human society and its place in the cosmos, but injects plenty of provocative commentary and ideas about the nature of war, the state, and citizenship.
Anyone with a military background, particularly in the Army or Marines, will be drawn into the author's descriptions of the seemingly changeless realities of military life. The first-person narrator and main character, Juan Rico, is not your typical cardboard cutout sci-fi personality. He is complex, flawed, introspective and genuinely believable. This story is less about painting vivid scenes of interstellar combat (although this is certainly well done), and more about a young soldier's coming of age and grappling with some of life's difficult questions along the way. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Greatest Sci-fi book of all time! If you haven't read this book, stop what you are doing and read it now. When you are done, grab a highlighter and re-read it again. It's a fun read the first time, but the second time you will get so much more from it. By the time you are done reading it the second time, you will forget that it is a Sci-fi book.