Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Starship Troopers
Book Review: A Staggering Impact
Summary: 5 Stars
This book made a staggering impact on me, and I believe it isdefinitely one of the best works of fiction I have ever read. RAH hasingeniously woven together a moral and philisophical tale with a superb adventure story, much in the vein of "Atlas Shrugged", another favorite. This work is an absolute must read in the genre or for anyone looking to understand how a master articulates his vision in the guise of a fictional work.Book Review: A Well-Written Treatise on Heinlein's Moral Philosophy
Summary: 4 Stars
My party line on this book is that it has the plot complexity of a porn novel. Rather than sex -- which is included in many of Heinlein's other works -- Starship Troopers is filled with philosophy. Lovers of the movie, beware: this is no simplistic sci-fi novel. Though it contains adventure, like many Heinlein novels Starship Troopers would be better suited to a course in philosophy than a course in 20th century science-fiction.Starship Troopers follows the career of Johnny Rico, a young volunteer with the space-age Mobile Infantry. Johnny moves from being unsure about his service commitment -- he signs up for two years to gain citizenship (the right to vote) -- to choosing soldiering as his career path. The transformation is explained thorugh many pages of easy-to-understand flashbacks to Johnny's high school days and his instructor in "moral philosophy." Heinlein's philosophy is also propagated through the use of Johnny's inner monolouge and conversations he has with characters throughout the book. The glimpses we are given of Johnny's world show us Heinlein's view of a perfectly organized and morally just society, a society where only military veterans have the right to vote. That society appears to be Heinlein's answer to the social and moral degredation he predicts in many of his other novels --- such as "I Will Fear No Evil." The plot serves as a device to guide the reader through that world.
The philosophy, however, is marvelously well presented. It is well woven into the fabric of a rather insignificant plot. Even if you don't agree with Heinlein -- and I doubt many will -- the questions he raises and suggestions he makes are ample food for thought. For all its philosophy, Heinlein is still a good writer. Starship Troopers is an easy and relatively enjoyable read, commendable primarily for its moral and ethical implications. This fits into the body of Heinlein's works where the plot most certainly comes second.
Book Review: A blueprint for responsibility
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read all of Heinlein's books and have read this one 25+ times. Some people have labeled it "fascist" but I think they are confusing militaristic with fascist.
For me, it works on many different levels. You can relax and treat it like a classic space-romp with aliens, spaceships and cool weapons. Or you can dive in deeper and read several discourses on responsibility and how personal responsibility (or the lack of it) affects all of society. To me, that's what makes this book shine.
You will also see a reflection of the times in which it was written. Most notably, the communistic Bugs which are the relentless and hated enemy.
This book has had a huge impact on me and I recommend it without reservation.
Book Review: A book on personal growth, not politics
Summary: 5 Stars
Despite what many have said about this book, Starship Troopers was not about politics. Heinlein did not condone the world he created; in fact, he rarely even explored it beyond its most obvious appearances. What he did tell us was that 1) only "veterans" (not necessarily combat soldiers: the MI was Juan Rico's last pick) could be citizens; 2) there was corporal punishment; 3) people were discouraged from joining the service. As far as I can tell, the only other discussion about the society was how it began. There was no discussion on the rights, or lack of rights, of the population. The only trials depicted in the book are military court martials, which have always followed their own procedures. What this book WAS about was personal growth and responsibility. Juan Rico signed up because his friends did, and although he did not expect much from himself, then he learns about what he could do. In the meantime, and with frequent flashbacks, Heinlein explored what the meaning of citizenship, and what responsibilities people have to their state. I do not believe that he beleived everything that he wrote in this book, because some of the stories he later wrote appeared to have views contradicting Starship Troopers. This book was not a political treatice of what should be done, but an exploration of what is means to be a responsible citizen.Book Review: A brilliant, ironic satire on militarism!
Summary: 5 Stars
Heinlein deftly sends up the entire Western military mindset with a series of classic stereotypes of their attitudes. The enemy who is entirely dehumanized (Heinlein makes them insects so we don't have to have any moral qualms about killing human beings). The honorable and competent officers. The tough-but-fair drill sergeant who makes the recruits' lives a misery until they learn to love him. The dim-witted, youthful protagonist who knows nothing of real life when he enlists, thereby guaranteeing that at the end of his hitch he is good for nothing else. His parents are killed, so the military must become father and mother to him. And above it all, the professional military man's contempt for civilians, which in this case goes to the extreme of denying them a role in their own government.
Starship Troopers is nothing less than a military equivalent of high school teacher Ron Jones' experiment in 1967, in which he turned ordinary students into Nazis in a single week, then sucker-punched them with their own stupidity at the end. Starship Troopers makes war sound like glorious fun, full of cool high-tech weapons and good comradeship (all a total lie, of course) while smoothly, inexorably turning its heroes into obedient, mindless servants of the state, have to give up their lives on orders from above.
More subtle than Slaughter-House Five, Catch-22, or All Quiet on the Western Front, Starship Troopers shows just how easy it is to trick the ignorant and the stupid into accepting war and military dictatorship as reasonable and necessary. Just read the other positive reviews here on Amazon to see what I mean.
What's that? Oh. You mean Heinlein actually BELIEVED all this crap? Really? Oh dear, oh dear. I thought better of him than that.