Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
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Book Reviews of Starship Troopers
Book Review: Excellent Military SciFi Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Starship troopers is the first person story of Rico, a Filipino Mobile Infantry (MI) soldier from a future earth. Beginning with a raid against an alien city, the novel moves back to cover why Rico decided to join the military and his experiences through a truely rough version of basic training. By rough I mean floggings, a wilderness survival course which sometimes kills those attempting it, and oh yes, combat training simulations in which a few of the rounds are real (and I do not mean crawling around while real bullets are deliberately shot high). Then comes the war with the arachnids, an alien bug species which may be less advanced in technology than their human foes but who make up for it in sheer numbers.
Overall, Heinlein's writing is quite good and the book has a good pace to it. It is also a rather "clean" science fiction read as I remember relatively little cursing. While some people have criticized the militarism of the book, I do not really consider the fictional society distopian. While only military or labor service veterans can vote, civilians seem to have a fairly high level of freedom. There seems to be a high level of religious and business freedoms and more freedom of speech than one might expect in this kind of society. Public floggings and hanging offenses exist, but Heinlein's characters make some decent arguements for their continuation in some cases. The crime rate is lower than our actual world. Wheteher such a governmental system would function as smoothly as in the story is another question; however, this is a work of fiction. I happen to disagree with the "mathematics of survival" morality model but I did not find the book offensive. After all, it is a work of fiction.
Back to the plot itself, the battlescenes are generally well done. The powered armored suits worn by the MI are quite interesting and are devastating in battle. Who knows, perhaps something like them will exist one day. I do wish Heinlein would have discussed more about the Arachnids. It briefly discusses some of their castes and the fact that they have a beam weapon and starships. That said, little is really said about their technology or why they take humans prisoner for that matter.
Overall a fine military sceince fiction novel.
Book Review: A Devastatingly Lucid Vision of the Future
Summary: 5 Stars
It has been said that Heinlein visualizes our future and then we live in it. Starship Troopers remains remarkably unscathed in that respect even four decades later.A previous reviewer said that he found this book extremely dull. He was looking for the type of action shown in the 1997 movie. Hey, the action is not bad, but that was not why I couldn't put this book down. Now I've read it twice. It is plain to me that this book is not about action. There is a little at the beginning and the end, but the sublime notions behind this mini-masterpiece lie in young Juanito's bewildering experiences in his History and Moral Philosophy classes. When it dawns on you that their class system forfeits the lives of some for the sake of the common good, that alone ought to be reason to read on. Because there are always more answers to the mystery on the tip of Juanito's tongue. His casual, articulate descriptions of history allude to something more.. the reader's appetite is always being whetted with the foreshadowing of more answers. How has this society created such a sociogovernmental monster? How does it work? Why corporal punishment? Why send men to die. Why really send men to die? But why really really? Does Johnny even know?
A large portion of the story deals with life as a cadet, under extremely harsh living conditions. The military atmosphere is highly realistic, especially when it comes to relating to sergeants. All of the military-related chatter sounds highly credible to me, a civilian -- partly because Heinlein drew on his experiences serving in the US Navy.
I can't say this book's philosophy formulates a logical whole, but it fills most of the gaps, leaving the reader to contemplate a very large social/political system. Hey, democracy doesn't make a logical whole either, so I'm not complaining.
This book might be more offensive to liberals, as it implies that corporal punishment is great for establishing and maintaining social order -- making use of the perfectly evolved survival tool, "pain". Furthermore it glorifies military life, discipline, and unity, and pays no great amount of attention to individualism. If you think this might bother you, read this book anyway. It's not long, it's not expensive, and you need a reality check anyway.
Book Review: The Action's NOT the point
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're looking for mindless slaughter, mayhem, and blood--I have a short review for you--look elsewhere it's not in this book. The point of ST is the social sermonizing that RH does--in short it examines why an individual and a government will choose to fight. Note that the individuals here are NOT compelled, it is a free choice. But in order to win the full rights of citizenship, you are required to demonstrate that you are responsible enough to make those decisions.
It also espouses for the first time that I can recall RH's idea of that things that have a value ALWAYS have a cost. In this case Freedom. This is the forerunner to TANSTAAFL that was the central theme of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (which is another excellent book itself).
But are these concepts really that novel? Everyone of us knows what happens when we cheapen out and buy inexpensive computer equipment or cars--we pay DEARLY later. So why should a value such as freedom be any different? This is indeed part of the problem today--that we've had everything handed to us without cost. Sooner or later--the bill will come due.
Some liberals no doubt consider this book fascist, ultra right wing, or talk of "beating children". In this book, it deals with choices--and the individual's responsibility for that choice. It's called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!!! YOU are responsible for your actions--and any consequences attached to them. Many of the ultra left disagree rather violently with this--that everyone should have everything at no cost and no obligation.
To sum it up, this book deals more with the sociological issues and governmental issues rather than space opera type action. It is short, concise, and well thought out. It is not an epic of character development--but developed enough that the reader can identify with Mr. Rico as he makes his way through boot camp. I have reread this book many times and consider it one of the best on such topics.
Finally, a note to the reviewer who served as a technical advisor to the movie--I hope you are correct here! I was very concerned when I saw it comming out in movie form that Hollywood would miss the entire point of the book and make it into a "kill da bugs" movie. Thank you.
Book Review: Even the breath of life is purchased ... only through gasping effort and pain
Summary: 5 Stars
True words from Starship Trooper lead Johnnie Rico's teacher.
The book is full of lessons like that, but the main theme is that everything has a price. Citizenship, breath, food or life, it doesn't matter: somebody paid for those resources and somebody always will.
I believe books like Starship Troopers and maybe David Gerrold's A Matter For Men should be required reading for high school juniors and seniors.
Not so much for what they say but how they say it. In addition, it gives young men and women a view into yesterday's world. I don't think there's much to be learned from cell phone text messages and video games. Perhaps, a yarn like Starship Troopers would help out the present youngsters adapt to a Terran world that might just be around the corner for us.
For the most part, Starship Troopers is "World War II" in space with a political science and military tactics lesson thrown in.
To me the best lessons in this book come when Rico is going through cap trooper training and Officer Candidate School. Anybody who has been "responsible" for other people -- be it men in combat or men and women in a business -- understands that the leader is responsible for everything done in that organization.
When Sgt. Zim and Capt. Frankel discuss the problem of trainee Hendrick, now that's leadership. I won't spoil it here, but in my copy of the book it's pp 58-69. Look it up and read it.
I'm sure people think these kinds of books are throwbacks -- one review points out its "misogyny, chauvinism and extreme jingoism"
Well let's look at that.
Misogyny: Women are better starship pilots than men. And Carmen asks Johnnie out on a date. Bold talk for 1959, bub.
Chauvinism: See above.
Extreme Jingoism: Johnnie Rico is of hispanic lineage from the Phillipines actually (it's in the book I won't spoil it for you). The whole world and its colonies have come together to fight "the bugs," which are of a caste society that can't be negotiated with.
The truth of the matter is that during war all sorts of names are hung on the enemy. Better to win, keep that freedom of speech thing in place, and then clean up any lingering racism years later.
Starship Troopers is a good text. Use it.
Book Review: Technofiction review of Starship Troopers
Summary: 5 Stars
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein was the first science fiction story I ever read, way back in 7th grade or so (1960). That book was the first inspiring book I read by myself, and started me on a years-long devotion to reading science fiction. It was really inspiring.
In 1990, I reread Starship Troopers, and as I read it, I was surprised: it didn't feel like I was reading the same story. My impression the second time was of a Sands of Iwo Jima in Space instead of something entirely new and different. (and I was kind of shocked at how much living thirty years had changed my perspective!)
Either way, the heart of the story was power armor, how to use it, and how its presence affected people's thinking. In this story Heinlein proposed that to become a citizen -- someone who voted on how to run the government -- a person needed to first demonstrate some responsibility to the community. ...Sounded good to me, but for taking that stance many critics labeled this book as supporting fascism.
In 1997 I saw the Starship Troopers movie, and saw that the director had missed the point of the story entirely by taking out the power armor. Without power armor, the soldiers were transformed into World War One "over the top" infantry who would be discouraged from asking "Why?" before they marched off into a do-or-die situation, and because of that, they lost any reason to be "responsible for the community" in the sense that Heinlein was emphasizing in his book version of the story. Unlike the book, the movie really was about a Fascist/Spartan "Come back with your shield or on it." mentality.
These changes in what I read, and misinterpretations in what I saw depicted in the movie, inspired me to write my own version of the power armor story, and you can find it in my short story "The Ticket Out" in "Tips for Tailoring Spacetime Fabric Vol. 1". Tips for Tailoring Spacetime Fabric : Vol. 1
So in the end, I still found the book inspiring, but the movie a whole lot less so. Yeah, this is one of those "read the book, you'll like it a lot better"-cases.