Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
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Book Reviews of Starship Troopers
Book Review: Great book for any sci-fi fan....
Summary: 5 Stars
To be blunt and honest, I had a terrible time comprehending this book. I found that I had to re-read paragraphs several times in order to vaguely understand its meaning. I suppose something about the vernacular of the author is throwing me off. It would be unfair of me, however, to rate this book solely on the basis that I had trouble reading it. I only begun to read novels for pleasure and I found that I have a liking toward sci-fi books. Starship Troopers seems to be highly respected by many sci-fi readers.
Starship Troopers is a simple story about a young man named Johnnie who decided to join the military after his high school graduation. The book follows Johnnie from basics to his time in OCS training. The book's setting is some time in the distance future, where America's democratic system failed (as well as every other form of government known to man), and a new system was set in place. The book seems to focus on why the system failed - everything from crime and punishment, juvenile delinquents, voting, citizenship, and military tactics are questioned in this book. I won't go into each of them in detail as I believe this isn't the correct place to discuss such things. But I will say that the book has a very interesting viewpoint and it only shows one side of the argument. There's always another side to an argument and throughout the book we see some failures in the so-called "perfect" government.
In all, I liked the book. I rate it a five because the book was completely different from what I expected it to be. I thought the book was going to be nothing but shooting and the likes. I found instead, that the book is thoughtful and interesting. I can see why this book would be rated high. After reading the book, I can see many similarities in modern day culture - such as the current Army's outlook on the individual soldier rather than the whole. The book has the army of the future fighting against a hive-natured alien known as "Bugs." The Bugs fight by number rather than rely on the individual, thus having the advantage of not caring about the individual but rather the whole (if a few of them have to die, then so be it, they can be replaced). But the army of the future, the M.I. (mobile infantry), cares about the individuals (human nature, so to speak) which has the disadvantages of potentially killing unneeded amount of people just to protect the individual. I can see that the modern warfare cares about the individuals - we no longer follow the old system of relying on numbers rather than the strength of one individual.
In conclusion, I feel anyone should read this. Especially one who likes sci-fi books and movies. You will see many similarities in current day culture that appears in this book. I think overall the book is thoughtful and interesting to read.
Book Review: Juan Rico thinks he joins the Federal Service for two years
Summary: 5 Stars
What's your fondest wish when you're eighteen? To graduate from high school, go to college, attend the service academies, or go right into the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, and come up through the ranks? Joining the Federal Service was furthest thing from Juan Rico's mind. He thinks he's joining the Federal Service for two years and then it's an easy ticket to citizenship. Right? WRONG! When we first meet him, he's in the drop room of the troop transport Rodger Young, with Sergeant Jelal, the acting commander of their platoon. Make that Career Ship's Sergeant Jelal. Rico's a member of "Rasczak's Roughnecks," he resents the Rodger Young's Captain calling "Jelly", which is Jelal's nickname off-duty, "Lieutenant," though he concedes that he'll get his promotion someday. They head down to an unidentified planet that the Bugs had gassed. Dizzy Flores, one of the drop troopers, goes temporarily missing and Rico goes after her against Je! lal's orders. They show up at the rendezvous point on time and on the bounce. They return to the Rodger Young. Rico only joined the Federal Service so he could see his girlfriend, Carmencita Ibanez. Rico's ship, the Rodger Young returns to base to pick up new personnel. Upon arriving, Rico goes to Jelal and tells him he wants to become an officer in the Mobile Infantry. Sergeant Jelal gives him a form for Officer's Candidate SChool. While he's waiting for the boat that will take him to another ship bound for Earth, and OCS, he meets his father. They have a brief reunion before he has to report to the Rodger Young. His father had joined up a year earlier. His aunt had sent him a letter telling him that his mother had died while visiting Buenos Aires. The boot camp scenes are realistic. At the end of their OCS training, they prepare to make their first tour of duty, or "pip tour." The commandant says that his teacher, Mr. Dubois, wanted him to wear his pips! but he says he can't do that because they were lost two ye! ars ago. He offers him his own. Rico's assigned to Captain Black, the commander of Blackie's Blackguards, as they drop on Kelenthdu, the Bugs' home planet. The Bugs ambush Rico's patrol, which acts like the Tunnel Rats of the Vietnam War, as they try to drive the Bugs out. We then see Rico and his father in the drop room of the Rodger Young. (His best friend, Carl Jenkins, had died when the Bugs attacked the Federation's research station on Pluto.) Rico addresses his men and his father says they should get buttoned up. He tells the Captain of the Rodger Young that Rico's Roughnecks is ready to drop. The Captain wishes them luck and says "This time we get them." She then plays "To the Everlasting Glory of the Infantry."Book Review: This book is like Space: Above and Beyond
Summary: 5 Stars
Juan Rico's nobody special. Just an ordinary kid who never really intended to follow through on his promise to join the Federal Service. As a World War II buff, I'm intrigued by the action. I guess all World War II veterans felt that way. Something made them join up. Whether it was patriotism or a judge saying, "Son, you have two choices, the Army or prison." It really doesn't matter. This reminds me of a mistakenly cancelled Fox series called Space: Above and Beyond. R. Lee Ermey's drill sergeant makes West, Hawkes, Vansen, Wang, and Damphousse, think of the concept of teamwork. Teamwork is essential in war. If you can't trust the people you fight with, you're dead. As the British said during World War II, of pilots who'd died in the Battle of Britain, "you'd buy the farm." During the Civil War, it was called "Seeing the Elephant." Whatever you call it, whatever euphemism you use, you're still just as DEAD. Disregard all other bad reviews of this book. I haven't seen the movie. Someone once told me: "You can't say you hate bananas if you haven't tried them." I'm saying that to people who are tempted to write a review of a book they haven't read. Both ST and S:AAB are about the same thing. Faceless enemies attacking Earth. Whether it's the Chigs of Space: Above and Beyond,or the Bugs of Starship Troopers, its moral is the same. Don't get caught with your pants down. Nobody should listen to people like Patrick Buchanan or the militia movement. Patrick Buchanan is an isolationist with a Father Coughlin complex. He thinks that if we withdraw from world affairs, everything will be all right. In the 1920s, it was called "a return to normalcy," a euphemism for isolationism. If the Cold War has taught us anything it's that the United States can't abdicate its responsibility as a world leader. A responsibility we reluctantly inherited because Britain, France, and the other countries of Europe were unable to lead. Since we were virtually unscathed by the war, we were the logical choice by default. Major Reid's History and Moral Philosophy class at the M.I.'s OCS, is interesting. He discusses the reasons why the Federation came about. He mentions a war that never happened in 1987. He also mentions the Korean War which had ended six years before. The fact is that Robert A. Heinlein got some things right and some things wrong. Starship Troopers is a good book. As for the movie, I'll reserve my judgment of it until I see it. For those who are tempted to compare it to the book. Wait until you see it for yourselves. A good book is always better than a movie based on it but sometimes movies that get bad reviews are the best and those that get good reviews are the worst. You'll never know.Book Review: an easy-to-swallow read with a meaty, slow digestion
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is not the movie. Only some elements of the book made it into film, and they were grossly overshadowed by the weight of the director's distaste for his own perceptions. The book is not the Amazon.com review. The reviewer's words connotate apology for having to write something positive; his/her statements about the necessity of military service to earn voting rights (it was Federal Service, only some of which was military) and the stressing of "beating children in order to make them into good citizens" (Heinlen discusses the uses of unfortuneately required corporal punishment) are a view of the book through aged and broken glass.
The book is part rollicking-good military action, part esthetics, part political philosophy. It reads well (as it should for its intended younger audience) and revisits well (as it should for the political philosophy and esthetics).
I'm an individualist, and found the conformity of the characterization difficult. One has to look for signs that non-conformity is tolerated.
I'm also a realist, and believe that a balance of authority and responsibility is essential to maintain a society that remains stable and rich enought to permit individualism (which requires a non-tribal level of economic and social development). The book brings these issues to the fore.
I took a point off, for a rating of 9, because Heinlein got caught up in 'mathematically provable' social assertions, leading to a greater degree of certainty in his social engineering than would actually work. In doing this, he was reflecting a recent (when the book was written) burst of optimism about formal logic. People thought that, with appropriate premises, formal logic would allow all sorts of problems to be definitively solved. They forgot, or did not know, that the social 'sciences' work with confidence intervals that would make a physicist burn his/her results. They also did not appreciate the difficulties of formal logic. One significant problem with formal logic is the creativity required to find solutions (something seen in all higher math) that makes it intolerant of automated (computer-based) resolution. Another (and to date, the major road-block)is the non-linear increase in solution difficulty when moving from simple propositions to complex ones. Proving a few assertions might take several pages of logic. Proving many assertions balloons out from there; speaking generally, it's easy to create groups of assertions that are non-computable.
Read the book! Think about the 'universal' franchise and the problems it causes. Think about the competing alternatives to universal democracy, and how Starship Troopers stacks up.
And enjoy a good read.
Book Review: Political ramblings with a point
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I begin my tirade I'd like to say that I love this novel. I'll admit that I'm not a sci-fi fan and never really have been which doesn't really make me a good judge in ranking it under the said genre. The book is purely a political and philosophical discourse simply placed in a fictional setting. The story, while entertaining is not the point. This book would be better placed wherever its compatriots like the Candide of that immoral and illogical "philosophe" Voltaire lie on the shelf.
That said I'd like to remind the reader, as another reviewer rightly said, THIS IS NOT A MANIFESTO! It's not a utopia nor is it the wellspring of human progress. The society scantily described is a wholly practicle one. It's not filled with notions of human "rights" but rather of privledges and duties. This future world is not perfect as many assailents have pointed out. In the book one of the teachers points out that protests against the government's chosen form "is loud and unceasing." Hardly a facist society if the people are allowed to freely express their opinions in public. They are, as most people who dislike this book, "parlor pinks."
The most controversial section is probably the first philisophical discourse in which the old supposition that "violence doesn't solve anything" is easily tossed aside as a pathetic and wholly ignorant view from a historical standpoint. One of my favorite lines is Mr. Dubois' retort: I'd advise them to conjur up the ghosts of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. Hitler can referee. And the judges may well be the Dodo, the great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon."
Truly this book simply lays out questions and gives answers open to thick and deep-rooted discussion. If anything it really just presents truths people don't like hearing since they find it wholly quaint or barbaric. The discussion on natural right would also be of interest. The only inalienable right that was not disproved was that of the pursuit of happiness since that is wholly a mental happening which in Heinlein's day they didn't yet fathom ways of manipulating or creating.
An excellent work of political philosophy and very thought-provoking which was the intent of the book on its young audience. On a final note about its anti-communist bent supposedly sprung from the era, Heinlein actually commented on its efficiency as regarded the Arachnids. He said it GENETICALLY SUITED THEM. Humans are by nature individualistic to a degree. That is why it doesn't suit us. Heinlein's world was not utopian by any standards but that was adressed as well. It was as good as life could get based on our limitations and beautifully portrayed at that. GREAT READ!!!