Starship Troopers

Firstly, I should disabuse you of the notion that this book suffered an ill-concieved film adaptation by the same name, written by Edward Neumeier, and directed by Paul Verhoeven -- both of RoboCop fame. That movie would more aptly be called "Bugs in Space" -- or as this site puts it at one point, "Paul Verhoeven, Jon Davison, and Ed Neumeier's Twisted Parody of a Book They Claim They Liked But Have Done Everything to Befoul," and had it been, it would have been a decent movie -- sort of; it wasn't -- on either count.

Now, on to the book itself. Starship Troopers is a book that has changed the course of many lives; it is both a compelling story and potent propaganda. However, one must remember that propaganda is not all bad. It was written in a time when patriotism was failing in this country due to seemingly endless political blundering and constant involvement in pointless wars. In as much as Heinlein wrote to convince young men that duty and honor compelled them to render service to the nation that had served them, he also wrote a cutting critique of heavy-handed violence that was all too common in the world he knew. I have put off finishing and posting this review because I was unsure of how I felt about this book, but now I know it is trully for the best. I also feel strongly about placing it on par with such classics as 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and The Giver, that caution us against what could be. However, Heinlein was different in that his account of our future past shows humanity triumphing by way of a renewed sense of duty and dignity.