Starship Troopers

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Summary: Starship Troopers
Review: Starship Troopers is about Johnie Rico and his life in a future federation. He joins the Mobile Infantry and is constantly wrestling with the question of why he fights and what he is doing with his life. While he is in the Mobile Infantry, the federation goes to war with a species of arachnid like aliens from another planet. Robert A. Heinlein kept many parts of the book very exciting and interesting. Unfortunately, he also made many parts of the book very dull and boring. This was especially true with the conversations with some of Johnie's teachers. On the other hand, these scenes are very important because they help the reader to understand the setting. Johnie is constantly finding new strengths within himself. Although the book is set in the future, after the United States' government has collapsed, Johnie's strong character, courage, and determination remind me of a hero that you would see in a movie about World War II. Overall, I really did like the book. The boring parts all came together and were worth some of the boredom once I had read the exciting and suspenseful conclusion to the novel. I still think that the novel could have been improved a great deal if the author had just spent the first chapter laying out the setting. Instead Robert A. Heinlein spent pages upon pages writing out very boring discussions between Johnie and his History and Moral Philosophy teachers that feed the reader the setting slowly and bit by bit. Overall, the book was pretty good. If you can get through the dull stuff, the ending will be worth it.

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Summary: Star Ship Troopers...not what you expected
Review: The book Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein was an overall ok book. It was definitely not what I expected when I saw the action packed movie. It had some tidbits of action but those were overpassed by the tremendous amount of conversations. The novel has little developed plot pionts and is mostly the main character's life, with all its ups and downs. I didn't prefer the novel and if someone asked my opinion whether or not they should read the novel, I would tell them not to because it just seems to take too long to read. I felt I would never finish the book because the pace was simply too slow. I believe that it makes a much better movie where there is action and suspense.

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Summary: Read the book it is not like the movie
Review: The book and the movie of Starship Troopers share very little, save the name, in common.

The movie offers very, very, very little of the rich detail and thought behind this book. The only real "action" is in the very first part of this rather short book. Although it may not be "Atlas Shrugged" or "Aria Kalsan" it has a lot to offer. The rest of the book is a discourse on the nature of citizenship, among other virtues.

If you are expecting a bug hunt, look elsewhere. But if you enjoy thinking about and reading different viewpoints then this is the book for you.

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Summary: Prescient Novel
Review: The first chapter of this book blew me away: a vivid matter of fact account of a future battle- in all its glory and horror. (This chapter alone showed me how great the movie could have been.) Although the vivid details of soldiers and their battles in modern warfare are incredible, I think the highlight of this book are the History and Moral Philosphy lectures. While I dont agree with everyhing in them, it's amazing how using history and logic, Heinlein could not only describe our modern day societal problems, but also point to potential solutions with such directness. His characters laugh at our problems wondering why we're so dumb not to fix them, and sometimes the reader must wonder the same thing.

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Summary: Cheerfully Pro-Totalitarian
Review: "...a girl blurted out 'but why? Why didn't they spank little kids when they needed it and use a good dose of strap on the older ones who deserved it...Why not?'
'I dont know' [the school teacher' answered grimly"

This quote goes on, the distraught girl almost begging the teacher to explain why children weren't beaten in the 20th Century, while the teacher explains how it wasn't thought to be the right way to raise a child, and then goes on to explain how this philosophy led to the raising of young punks who terrorized the cities and essentially led to the destruction of democratic society, and led to this glorious future-state where upright young men serve in the mobile infantry in order to gain citizenship, *the* most important thing anyone can possess.

But behind this pro-military state facade, there's actually a pretty interesting story about the rise of a a candidate through the military in the future, when mankind is sparring with arachnids over the galaxy. Try not to associate the book with the movie, as they are very dissimilar. The movie tends towards action, whereas the two action sequences in the book bookend the story of Johnny Rico's rise through the military (and ironically, the action sequences are probably the more boring and poorer written parts of the story.)

The war is not explained in too great detail, but at least Heinlein has a reason for it: the story is told from the point of veiw of a grunt, and he is told as little as possible in the event of capture. The story of Rico's rise, from boot camp to Officer's candidate school, from his tough-as-nails drill sargeant to his overbearing captain, is very interesting and worth the price of the novel, as long as you can stomach the propaganda and deal with one gut-wrenchingly melodramatic moment in the middle of the novel.

A decent read, and certainly never boring. 7/10