Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein. Published in 1959. Very brief synopsis:- With this book you follow the life of one Juan (Johnny) Rico from his enlistment in the Federal Service, Mobile Infantry, up to his command of a platoon of these troops in an Interstellar war. Mankind is facing a Bug like alien species, something like a giant ant crossed with a spider. Johnny Rico comes from a background of wealth and privilege and through peer pressure ...
...who has completed a minimum two year service has the Right to vote. Not everybody wants to serve and thus vote. A good part of the book is taking up with his time at boot camp and the training he undergoes. Running in the background that we are not aware of is the situation that is getting steadily worse, going from normal peace time through a state of emergency to a full war. The reasons for this we are not told. This book is written in the third ...

Coloneljohn 18.04.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

I was disgusted! No one had ever heard of the book "Starship Troopers" until the movie came out. The book pre-dates the movie by about 40 years, and is certainly a better tale than can be told in a 90 minute movie (Unless you want allow for the mandatory romance and nudity which Hollywood so freely throws into the mix in place of good solid plot. :-) ) I own a 1987 printing of this book, but surprise, surprise, it was re-printed in 1998 shortly ...
...store near you... This book follows several years of John Rico's life with several of his friends, through school and his lectures in morality, on to joining the Mobile Infantry in order to "do his duty" and gain a vote, and beyond to where he "Goes Career" and signs up for the long haul. Heinlein seems to know the military - This tale has been accused of glorifying war, but puts itself in a sufficiently futuristic position, 5000 years hence, fighting ...

one47 04.08.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

Starship Troopers is one of the great foundation stones of modern science fiction. Written by one of the acknowledged masters of the genre, Robert A. Heinlein, it charts the progress of John Rico, a young man who desperately wants to earn the right to vote. This right can only be earned through serving a term in the services. The civilisation Rico is part of regards this “term of service” as a way of separating out the socially aware, ...
...book was written in 1959 (first published in the UK in 1961) there are certain comparisons that can be placed at the door of the National Service programme that was active at the time. Perhaps Heinlein was making a social comment at the time of writing. Having watched Rico become an enlisted man in the Mobile Infantry we see his experiences of training camp gradually open his eyes to the real world that exists outside his pampered homelife. During ...

Guzman 14.05.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein