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A review by marybells
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
4.0
Starship Troopers is pretty different from the movie. THANK GOD.
It is awesome.
Summary-
Set in the ‘not so distant’ future, the government of the world is run only by citizens/veterans of the armed forces. Because of this, if anyone ever wants the chance to vote or go into politics, that person must volunteer for a minimum of two years for the government where they can choose almost any branch of armed forces to join; that is if they have the right ‘stuff’ for that branch.
Johnny Rico, our narrator, volunteers on the spur of the moment with his best friend Carl after seeing that Carmen, his high school crush, volunteered for the Navy to be a pilot. With only average grades, he is denied his top 19 choices until he is accepted into the M.I. aka the army. At Camp Currie he undergoes what today would seem like unsurmountable obstacles just to pass boot camp. Eventually he does though and goes into battle against ‘The Skinnies’ while wearing a special suit that enables him to jump kilometers in the air and still carry a ton of ammo and artillery. A.K.A. he is a badass.
Afterwards during more training and then going on to fight the ‘Bugs’ he decides to go ‘career’ which means that the 2 year minimum is no longer valid; He is enlisted until he is able to retire due to loss of limbs. Fun! With his decision to go career, he is sent to command school for education on becoming an officer where he faces his biggest obstacle yet, the ability to lead men into and out of battle against the buggers.
So, I was at first a bit antsy about giving this story a try since the movie based on the book is…unique but I am a huge fan of the author and gave it a go thankfully. Overall it was just a really well written story! I really appreciated Robert Heinlein’s detail in describing the future societies and even the debates within the novel focusing on the justifications of war and the abilities of the government. It stretched my mind, and though some of his ideas are considered controversial, it was nice to hear another side to things.
Also I loved how human Johnnie was. The narrator is very open about his faults and even during his trial of leadership he has a bunch of ‘oh sh*t’ moments which is eerily accurate to how being a leader really is every day. Especially when he realizes that the buggers are coming in different locations and he loses some of his men randomly:
Don’t get me wrong, it was horrifying for him because he wanted so badly to succeed, but it was also slightly amusing to watch him run in circles literally when we, the reader, know that overhead command has everything under control even if he screws something up.
The only downside to the story is also the upside, the debates that I mentioned previously. When Rico goes to command school, it feels like page after page of just chatter where I got bored a few times… therefore I made the brave decision as an avid reader to do this…
I regret nothing.
Anyway I give Starship Troopers 4 stars for the originality of the story and it being just soo much better than the movie…and different too. Johnnie doesn’t get stuck in some stupid love triangle and it is more of a development of a boy to a man than a person’s retribution against other aliens.
It is awesome.
Summary-
Set in the ‘not so distant’ future, the government of the world is run only by citizens/veterans of the armed forces. Because of this, if anyone ever wants the chance to vote or go into politics, that person must volunteer for a minimum of two years for the government where they can choose almost any branch of armed forces to join; that is if they have the right ‘stuff’ for that branch.
Johnny Rico, our narrator, volunteers on the spur of the moment with his best friend Carl after seeing that Carmen, his high school crush, volunteered for the Navy to be a pilot. With only average grades, he is denied his top 19 choices until he is accepted into the M.I. aka the army. At Camp Currie he undergoes what today would seem like unsurmountable obstacles just to pass boot camp. Eventually he does though and goes into battle against ‘The Skinnies’ while wearing a special suit that enables him to jump kilometers in the air and still carry a ton of ammo and artillery. A.K.A. he is a badass.
Afterwards during more training and then going on to fight the ‘Bugs’ he decides to go ‘career’ which means that the 2 year minimum is no longer valid; He is enlisted until he is able to retire due to loss of limbs. Fun! With his decision to go career, he is sent to command school for education on becoming an officer where he faces his biggest obstacle yet, the ability to lead men into and out of battle against the buggers.
So, I was at first a bit antsy about giving this story a try since the movie based on the book is…unique but I am a huge fan of the author and gave it a go thankfully. Overall it was just a really well written story! I really appreciated Robert Heinlein’s detail in describing the future societies and even the debates within the novel focusing on the justifications of war and the abilities of the government. It stretched my mind, and though some of his ideas are considered controversial, it was nice to hear another side to things.
Also I loved how human Johnnie was. The narrator is very open about his faults and even during his trial of leadership he has a bunch of ‘oh sh*t’ moments which is eerily accurate to how being a leader really is every day. Especially when he realizes that the buggers are coming in different locations and he loses some of his men randomly:
Don’t get me wrong, it was horrifying for him because he wanted so badly to succeed, but it was also slightly amusing to watch him run in circles literally when we, the reader, know that overhead command has everything under control even if he screws something up.
The only downside to the story is also the upside, the debates that I mentioned previously. When Rico goes to command school, it feels like page after page of just chatter where I got bored a few times… therefore I made the brave decision as an avid reader to do this…
I regret nothing.
Anyway I give Starship Troopers 4 stars for the originality of the story and it being just soo much better than the movie…and different too. Johnnie doesn’t get stuck in some stupid love triangle and it is more of a development of a boy to a man than a person’s retribution against other aliens.