Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

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Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

The Short of It

Plot: Welcome to the Mobile Infantry, the military of the future!
Page Count: 263
Award: 1960 Hugo
Worth a read: Yes
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: Minimal
Review: Status as classic well earned. A fun space romp even if it heavily glorifies the military. No worrisome grey morality. Compelling protagonist and excellent details keep book moving at remarkable speed. 

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The Medium of It
Spoiler Free!

This is a popcorn book; the action is plentiful and well written, pacing is good, and the military technology is all cool as heck. It's enjoyable to read, and Rico is written as a decent protagonist; we want him to win. Rooting for him is the consistent thread here, as we frequently jump from one location for a battle or training and move on without attachment to people or place.

Characters are on the whole quite flat. But if you're here to read a book about space bugs getting exploded in the face, how much depth can you reasonably expect from characters?

There are broader questions of societal organization and some problematic themes, but you're an educated reader, Stranger, and you'll have interesting discussions about them.

This book is worth reading. It's broader themes are thought provoking, even if you completely disagree with them. Or you can opt to ignore the broader themes, and just go for a fun sci-fi military adventure.

In short, power armor go pow pow pow. Is this what you're looking for?

If you do decide to read it, it would be excellent if you could use the link below. A few cents will go my way, at no cost to you, and I'll be able to afford books and not get whipped for stealing them.

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead!

My initial read of this book was that it was critical of the military, as I was viewing through lenses tinted by the movie adaptation. The movie has little to do with the book; I thought the pseudo-fascist hyper-military society was intended as a mockery of the extreme. Apparently it is just what it is.
To elaborate: in the society Heinlein depicts, only those who have served in the military can vote. This is explicitly spelling out in the book as being a measure to make sure that only those who put others ahead of themselves have a voice in democracy.  It's pretty extreme.

There are a lot of pretty problematic notions tucked in here. That violence and war are inevitable; that they are integral to coming of age, to manliness. That hierarchy is to be followed, that the chain of command is to be obeyed, without question.

But gosh darn it, Rico is cool. And so are suits of power armor. Pow pow!

This is where Starship Troopers shines. You root for Rico to make it through boot camp, to climb the ranks. You go down with him into battle, where he casually leaps buildings and smashes aliens with a mechanized exoskeleton. The battles are adrenaline in book form.

Of course, a natural consequence of this is that the emotional beats don't have much of an impact. Dead mom? That's rough, buddy. Now go kill some aliens! Friend died in battle? Power armor mega-jump time!

Also, women in this book exist purely as trophies, which is, ya know, problematic. Rico has a female friend who enlists as well, and I was briefly hopeful that we would have an actual female character. But no, when they meet again later, she's hot, and the fact that he knows her gets him mad bro points with the rest of the soldiers. Ah well.

Heinlein also goes on at length about the collapse of society because people were insufficiently punished. In the world of the book, we've fixed this by bringing back flogging as a form of punishment for most things. It's a very "spare the rod, spoil the child" world that he depicts.

On the whole I enjoyed reading this. I was able to put my brain in sleep mode and just enjoy space military carnage, power it back up to ponder his military utopia, then shut it down for some more explosions.  It's worth a read.

The movie is also worth a watch - it's pretty good at making it clear that the military utopia is a dystopia. Also clarifies that space bugs are highly allergic to hot lead. It's fun! 

If you feel like watching the movie, click on this link! 

Remember! Fascism is not cool, Stranger.
And don't forget to read a book!

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 16, 2022 at 7:28 AM

    Pew Pew Pew, Philosophical rant, Power armour!!!, beat your kids, shoot bugs, only women can drive, oooh 25 hours in one day.

    I hated this book. Heinlein being very pro-military made me feel like this was not a dystopia, but was honestly his idea of heaven. However, I have been thinking about the book regularly since reading it a few months ago, so I guess that probably does make it a GOOD book!

    ReplyDelete

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