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Which was more of an inspiration for this film? Starship Troopers or The Forever War?

Suden Käpälä Wow, what an interesting question. "Out-stand-ing!" I have so many things to say about this, that I won'be able to give you a usable answer (I'm sorry…moreWow, what an interesting question. "Out-stand-ing!" I have so many things to say about this, that I won'be able to give you a usable answer (I'm sorry). Or it would have to be via a different medium -- not limited text fields. I could chat about this for... not a full day. Half a day.
I'm sure that the actual historical background can be easily back-traced, e.g. via the wikipedia page of the film. These days, the artists' inspirations will have been discussed (and probably collected there) in myriad interviews & publications. I probably read about it often, but forgot.
Then again, if you pose this question from the vantage point of discussion and/or book choice (which I'll assume, for this "answer"; because I like that!), there's a lot more to discuss. Things such as taste, and the ideas that we take from a works and which we focus on to think about. (And I've found my thoughts wandering back to these works, over the years, a lot.)
A "short" pseudo-answer (which I've ended up attempting) would fully depends on why you ask. Feel free to contact me to rectify this; and I could perhaps provide answers from different angles.
(Of note: you specifically mention the novel SST, not the film. They are vastly different, but I won't go into that, although I feel tempted. I only reference the novel, here.)
To provide a frame of reference for my opinions:
(1) Aliens is one of my top-5 films ever. Period. (And to put that in reference: two of the others are Interstellar and The Abyss. I love Trek, Wars, Middle Earth and many other franchises, and re-watch them periodically; but they won't end up in a Top-10. While I'd not hazard a ranking below a Top-5 or -10, I have very strong ideas about the absolute best -- and these 3 are certainly among them.)
(2) I don't have any single top-20 books favourites listing (and will never make one -- it'd be a ratings vs. genres nightmare), not truly; but The Forever War (and its companion works!) would really rank pretty high in a number of various, separated top-10 lists. (Books above it will contain parts of ACC's Space Odyssey cycle; and a novel below it, very close-by, might perhaps be Dune.)
(3) I accept that StarShip Troopers is a seminal, highly influential and generally loved novel. But for me, it wasn't... fun. It lacked some elements that I like to see included, I guess. And perhaps I didn't grasp enough of the hidden layers (if any) of the work, to fully analyse & appreciate it.
But... They are such different works! They're rather similar in general, as belonging firmly on the military sci-fi shelf, all; I dare say that TFW and SST would certainly be the more philosophical and political-minded ones of the 3. Aliens doesn't have that -- it's just a simple, terribly tight rollercoaster with an extremely compact plot and well-defined (expanded) world-building... and the exactly correct (for me) mixture of personal drama, characterization, action, horror, military, sci-fi, scope, epic repercussions, hidden agendas, mystery, and alien life to make it an absolute masterpiece. (Seeing a documentary on how cheaply and hurriedly it was made, made me respect and appreciate it even more; if I wasn't already a devout believer, I'd have turned to the Vintagejamescameronism faith, on the spot.)
Having written all that, about the film -- the same goes, largely, for TFW. Haldeman might turn up and/or down some of those dials, but ends up in the same perfect range for me. It adds, however, the aforementioned qualities that make it more worthwhile to think about and discuss [with non-SF fans] aoutside of its genre; and of course, in itself, TFW is -- among other things -- a Vietnam parable, which makes it slightly interesting, too, from an historical POV.
Lastly, then, SST has all the same elements, with roughly the same knobs & levers as TFW... tuned to all the wrong levels -- for me personally. Too much dry exposition and world building, to little characterization that I could easily identify with, and perhaps too many & too deep delvings into military life and protocols. And... that was strange for me -- finding out that I felt that way about the book -- because I usually and very interested in such matters! (Band Of Brothers and The Pacific would rank very high in an all-time favourite TV series listing of mine.)
So, then... You love the film. If you're questioning whether to read either of the books -- certainly, objectively, read both! If you want to know in which order -- certainly, very subjectively, prioritize The Forever War, A Separate War, Forever Free, and (if you're also scientifically inclined) Forever Peace; and, only then, SST. (If you don't like science and philosophy all that much, leave out Forever Peace for the time being, and skip ahead to SST. I loved FP, though!)
Now, I will go and take a look at your book shelves. Maybe you've read the novels already, and I've made a fool of myself, har har har; but at least other people can have no-benefit-whatsoever from this essay.(less)

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Is this book age-appropriate for a tween? He's a strong reader and has become interested in this franchise recently because he got a board game based on the movies and now he wants to read the novelizations. Basically I want to know if there is sex or drug use.

Michael There's no sex or drug use in either the film or this novelization. There are scenes of violence and carnage, with a horror undertone, but Foster scru…moreThere's no sex or drug use in either the film or this novelization. There are scenes of violence and carnage, with a horror undertone, but Foster scrubbed the bulk of the profanity from the original script to make it PG-13 appropriate. One character drops the F-bomb once, and that's it.(less)

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