Starship Troopers (original 1959; edition 2006)

It's better than the movie that was made from it and so long as we aren't stuck in History and Moral Philosophy class, it's pretty engaging. Having characters argue about issues in a classroom setting is definitely an easy way to provide some exposition and explore the philosophy behind this militaristic utopia, but it seems to invite too much length. Every time the book hits a lecture the pace just gets killed, sometimes for chapters at a time. This has always been one of Heinlein's weaknesses IMO, but this is the worst in this regard of his books I've read. Nevertheless the action scenes are well done and the action in boot camp and on ship does a good job of portraying military life. It's just a shame he couldn't have incorporated his didactic moments better than this.

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I forgot one of my complaints initially. It wasn't just the HMP classes that went on too long and killed the pace. There's also that chapter on where Rico just talks about the suit to the reader for several pages. Like with the philosophy stuff, I wouldn't have minded if he had just tried to integrate it with the action some. RAH does well enough in the first chapter describing weapons this way. Why couldn't he have just shown what the suit does by explaining a bit as the suit gets used? I like technical detail in my SF, but not lectures on it. ( )

The plot of Starship Troopers is pretty short and sweet, following the military career of a young man some time in the distant future. In this futuristic society, only those who join the military are allowed to vote. This decision is justified by the belief that those people willing to sacrifice them selves for the good of society are those who deserve to have the vote. However, our protagonist mostly joins up because all his friends are doing it and a big part of the book is how is abilities and interest in the military evolve.

As you might guess from the author’s premise that only those who join the military deserve the vote, Heinlein is very pro-military. Sadly this means much of the book is devoted to expounding on this philosophy. Although I found these parts made for an interesting thought experiment and didn’t mind reading them, some moralizing and a tiny bit of action does not a story make. Which is to say, that I didn’t mind these parts but they didn’t add much to the story. Since these parts plus the protagonist’s experiences in boot camp and a few fights are all there is to the book, I didn’t find it very entertaining.

There are very few characters we learn anything about and nearly all we learn about them relates to their attitudes towards the military. The future world this book is set in sounds potentially very interesting, but there are no descriptions except those that have to do with weapons and war. The tone is dry and military, which lends itself well to enjoyably dry humor but the funny bits are a very small part of the book. Overall, I was disappointed that the plot and the world building weren’t more fleshed out. To be fair, I think Heinlein achieved what he was trying to do and I know a lot of other people who were able to enjoy the book for what it was. It just wasn’t for me.

This review first published on Doing Dewey. ( )

It's been several years since the first time I read this, but I was inspired to read some more military-oriented fiction after Mockingjay (esp with regards to propaganda). [September 2011] I always have issues with classic science fiction—it's hard to get over how appalling it is that it was easier to imagine aliens and interstellar war than treating women as equals—but it's still an interesting book. I'd forgotten just how different it is from the movie (which succeeds where it fails and fails where it succeeds, though more of the latter than the former).

The attention to detail in training a soldier was great.

Way better than the movie.
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The attention to detail in training a soldier was great.

Way better than the movie.
( )