"Starship Troopers: The Annual Read" Topic

"I always get the shakes before a jump . . ." thus starts one of the greatest military science fiction novels of all time, Starship Troopers , by Robert Heinlein. Even today, the book has stood the test of time, and was a big influence on my decision to be an Infantry officer.

When I attended the Command and General Staff College, I was pleasantly surprised to see the novel on the required reading list. Today, the novel is still on the reading list for the US Army, Navy and United States Marine Corps.

The overall theme of the book is that social responsibility requires individual ownership. Social responsibility is an act of self acceptance of that responsibility along with the concomitant commitment to the debts that are incurred.

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T. PLEASE, IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

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Great book. I'm due for a reread.

The overall theme of the book is that social responsibility requires individual ownership.

That doesn't sound very "woke". Is this book banned at universities yet, comrade? :-)

p.s. His novel "Friday" is a good read.

The movie isn't Starship Troopers. But it is fun and entertaining with cool battle scenes.

I enjoyed the book and the movie. They're just different things. The movie is a satire of the books ideas but still has great special effects – shame about the "tactics".

However, I still think that the Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a better SF novel.

Actually, I always thought that the movie was a precise interpretation of the message in the book. Or, more an interpretation of why the book was banned in the first place.

Not the "mixed" showers stuff that was given as the official reason, but the real reason. The parody of the USA and its attitude towards the Soviet Union. The "humans" as the USA and the "bugs" as the Soviet Union align with that parody very well.

Having said that, it took me three reads to see it, and it is a very, very good book. The message that "Dining Room Battles" mentions, is quite clear in the book as well. And I think that is why it is so good.

A very good book, and a very good interpretation in the movie.

Stranger in a strange land is another of his well respected books.

My favorite cover

Avalon Hill published a Starship Troopers war game, and I remember an article combining ST with a brand new microgame called Ogre.

I agree with the above, the movie (film for us Brits) and book are different beasts, and enjoyable for different reasons.
I agree too with Chimpy, The Forever war beats ST hands down!

I remember The Forever War. "Tiresome" doesn't begin to cut it--but it does get a few points for the "elephant gun" sequence. As for Stranger, it is well respected, but not by me. Now that I think of it, for similar reasons to the Haldeman book--not enough plot to support the lecture, though at least Stranger had a few characters.

If you must have anti-military satire, try Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero. And if you want more Heinlein, try his "Future History" sequence. "The Past through Tomorrow" covers most of it.

I have read SST a few times and thought it ok but dated. World War II in space. But then I read John Steakley's Armor and thought it a superior novel with more dynamic battle scenes and more compelling characters.

As to the movie, I think it's great. The animated films are good too.

ST was the very first 'grown up' book I bought, back in '78 or '79. Ordered it myself and everything. Not one of the editions shown here, and one page is missing about a third of the printing. A great read as a 14 year old sci fi nut but I probably missed a lot of the nuance at the time. Still have it today, and I'm inspired to put it into the reading queue. It also inspired me to pester my parents for the Avalon Hill boardgame for christmas that year. Still have that too.

I find Heinlein's later works too "chatty". It's like listening to an seemingly endless boring conversation with no action happening.

I like Bill the Galactic hero but it does labour the point at times.

I actually like military science fiction – I'm reading a lot of Ian Douglas at the moment.

I find Heinlein's later works too "chatty". It's like listening to an seemingly endless boring conversation with no action happening.

I like Bill the Galactic hero but it does labour the point at times.

I actually like military science fiction – I'm reading a lot of Ian Douglas at the moment.

I found Heinlein's latter books chatty also. Bill the Galactic Hero was likable but it does belabour the point. Ian Douglas aka William H. Keith he, and his brother, did much of the early Traveller fiction and artwork.

"I have read SST a few times and thought it ok but dated. World War II in space."

Heinlein actually was inspired by the Korean War.

Wasn't Korea fought with almost the same weapons as WW2 except for jets and helicopters?

Watch the movie. It IS good fun.

Just don't expect it to be like the novel.

I read the book as a teen in early 60's. and I loved it. Still do. I wanted to like the movie, but while it's good special effects-wise, it is the worst book adaption ever made. Completely missed every point the book was making. YMMV.

dragon6 I was reading one of his books last night and they were using sandcasters. A defense system straight out of High Guard.

Ah nostalgia – we had some great games of Traveller. Shame that my collection got damp and grew mould so I had to chuck them.

I've never read it. Need to rectify that soon.

I never read a Heinlein book that I didn't like.

We created the wargame for Starship Trooper based solely on the book back in the 80's, using 15mm figures and 100ct plastic bugs that you could buy in the toy departments, and created warrior bugs from them. We also had skinny's created from converting figures. The hardest part for us was finally figuring out the TO&E from the book. We scratch built dropships, had neodogs and special talents, also. Thanks to my Father-in-laws record collection we had the Roger Young song that we copied on to a tape recorder to play over and over again. We also built special terrain, looking almost like a cratered Mars that covered a 12ft by 6ft table, and one of the guys did a bug tunnel system underneath the table that was 3 layers deep. Played it quite a few times with different scenarios based on the book, and invented some of our own. I still have the dropships, the star ship troopers, and the bugs, but our group broke up years ago as some of the guys retired and moved to warmer climates.

A fantastic read, that I read as a boy and still think is good. When I met Haldeman at a world science fiction convention, we had a few beers and talked about his influences. He spoke about two things that influenced him, SST and his time as a US Army combat engineer.