December 2018 Random Read Part II: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein *Spoilers*

[Danielle The Book Huntress , Literary Adrenaline Junkie]

Starship Troopers is our December read. Buckle up and join in on this classic military science fiction read!

[Alan]

I've read this 3-4 times over the years. I originally read it in grammar school, and I totally missed all of the political issues, Heinlein was raising in the book. A few years later I re-read it, and said oh crap I missed a lot. The last time I re-read it was when I recommended it to my now ex-wife. She saw it as a tale about earning citizenship meant you appreciated it more than just having it handed to you.

I understand in 2018, and even a few years ago, this is a very controversial story from a political view. However, personally I recommend both this book and Forever War as the military science fiction that everyone should read.

[Jim]

It's best read with a chaser of The Forever War since it shows how different the take on war was by the two authors. RAH was retired out of a peace time Navy with TB & always wanted to serve. He was politically active, too. Haldeman served in Vietnam & hated it. Their books reflect it.

[Alan]

Jim wrote: "It's best read with a chaser of The Forever War since it shows how different the take on war was by the two authors. RAH was retired out of a peace time Navy with TB & always wanted to..."
100% agreement.

[Jim]

I liked a lot of the questions & discussions in the History and Moral Philosophy course, especially as a kid when I first read this. I didn't always like the answers or lack thereof, but they made me think. I found the one about unreleased military prisoners particularly irksome since it was a such a mess at the time - the Vietnam War. Of course, RAH had been speaking of Korea & there it was happening again.

On the one hand, I liked RAH reasoning. On the other, it's pretty obvious that the whole idea of never leaving a man behind is a dream. RAH seemed to have a childlike faith in the armed services. I guess that's not terrible in a YA novel.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I really like this book. It is written at a level that can be read by younger readers (of course given the reading level of a large part of the population this may now be considered an advanced reading level). I read this the first time back when I was a younger teen.

Being even then of a more conservative turn of mind I liked it. I still find I can understand Heinlien's point of view.

If you've read many of his books you may have put together that Robert Heinlein was pretty much the epitome of a Libertarian. He believed that as long as your rights don't impinge on my rights everyone should pretty much be able to live as they wish.

By the way I hope you've read my review of the book (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). There is one very sour note out there and that is the..unfortunate movie supposedly based on this book. The only resemblance between the book and the movie is purely coincidental.

The movie is a hit piece. The movie maker Paul Verhoeven set out to make it a satire of the values in the book. I don't know how Heinlien's estate managed to turn this book over to someone who wanted to make a movie shafting the book...but they did. He intentionally turned Heinlien's Libertarian future into a satire Nazi like society.

I noted that if you notice a flaw in the movie's sound track...a sort of whirring sound...it's the sound of a long dead science fiction writer spinning in his grave at high speed.

READ the BOOK skip the atrociously bad movie.