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I‘ve noticed that references to this particular book has come up several times in the past months on more than one forum here. Therefore I decided that a review of the work in question for those not familiar with it was in probably in order. Ok let me rephrase that, what follows is my take on Robert Heinlein‘s classic novel. Just give me a chance to grab my helmet before you let fire with your comments.
Since it arrived on book shelves almost fifty odd years ago, Robert Heinlein’s tale of futuristic combat Starship Troopers has found itself on some varied and very interesting reading lists. While a classic work of science fiction, it has also found itself part of the curriculum at more than one institute of higher learning and not for its vivid descriptions of alien life forms.
On the one level Starship Troopers provides the reader with a straightforward entertaining tale. It’s basically a military story more so than a straightforward science fiction one. Heinlein has just chosen to set it in a futuristic sci fi style setting to better convey some of his underlying themes on society.
Overall though the tale is a standard almost classic war story plot. In the beginning, after a slight prelude action sequence to grab your attention, we are introduced to the narrator of the tale naive and somewhat idealistic recruit Juan Ricco. Ricco will have become by the end of the novel has become a war weary, wiser,and somewhat cynical veteran.
It‘s a standard almost classical plot used throughout literary history with little or no deviation. As such it is full of standard scenes and characters that serve to propel the story along. We have the tough but necessary training that will make a "man" out of him. This is followed by his first combat experience that is of course frightening. Following this are subsequent actions intermingled in with further training, promotions, and a little hard earned and hard-spent leave periods.
Along the way we‘ll meet the standard characters that habitually populate this type of tale. There is the hardened tough veteran NCO, and the wise senior officer who will both help shape the young protagonist and act as some sort of surrogate military parents. There are also various almost cliché characters, Ricco’s classmates in training, their instructors and leaders, and his fellow soldiers who serve specific purposes along the route, including dying in battle to further the tale along and his development as a soldier/character.
None of this is a condemnation of Heinlein. This is an oft-used tale for only one reason it works.
The science fiction aspect that Heinlein tacks onto it served the purpose of making the story more relevant to his initial audience. North America pop culture of the 1950‘s had developed a deep love affair with science fiction as is evidenced by the abundance of movies, novels, and magazines devoted to the genre at the time. This ensured that the author would have a ready audience for his work and any social theories he chose to present to them in the guise of light entertainment.
The science fiction elements of Starship Troopers hold up surprisingly well today for a novel written almost 50 years earlier. Heinlein managed to do this by deliberately being rather vague in his descriptions of the "futuristic" vehicles, weapons and other assorted toys and gadgets that one encounters here.
Other contemporary sci fi works viewed today are unintentionally hilarious because of the theories, science equipment and/or other ideas in them that have been rapidly proven incorrect or implausible. Television late shows are full of little green men in aerodynamically unsound vehicles and astronauts who can easily remove their fish bowl helmets and breathe the "air" of any planet while conversing with the aliens in perfect colloquial English.
Heinlein touches on the fact that many things will dominate the battlefield of the future he has created. Interstellar space travel, high speed computerized communications and devastating weapon systems including tactical nukes are just some of the tools introduced in the novel. None of this existed in the 1950’s and most of it was not even more than theoretically possible then.
Heinlein is however vague as to any specific details of these things which for the most part were in the infancy of their development when he wrote the book. To this end he escapes being painted into the literary corner that later befell some of his contemporaries whose works the reality of advancing technology has made irrelevant.
However the manner in which he has does this is equally important. His descriptions of such weaponry and other devices while actually vague do not appear to be so at the initial reading. In fact they appear to be quite detailed.
He spends a great deal of time describing the battle suits that the troopers wear. These suits and the extensive training that goes into how to use them give the average infanteer of the book the firepower of a 20th century infantry battalion or more.
Heinlein spends a lot of time describing them, but in fact on closer examination he tells us nothing about them. He deliberately keeps his descriptions vague enough that five decades after he wrote it the concepts and ideas he has presented, barely, still seem plausible.
What really set this book apart from any other simple 1950‘s era science fiction thrillers are the sub text, and the philosophy that Heinlein presents to us the reader. It is these ideas that has placed this book on recommended and required reading lists from such diverse institutes as more than one university philosophy departments to more than one Military organization.
As many others of his ilk have done, Heinlein has presented us with his version of the future. It doesn‘t appear to be overall a bad place; the attempts by another inter galactic species to exterminate us aside. Unlike others though, such as Roddenberry, Heinlein’s future Earth is no utopia.
One gets the feeling that while many social ills have been dealt with others still exists. We are advised that such crimes as theft, rape and murder still exist because we see characters punished for them. We can then therefore presume that the underlying social causes of such actions, inequality, poverty, ignorance, still exist in some form or another.
Heinlein though prefers not to dwell on this too much. Like the technology he has created, he gives us only the briefest glimpse of many aspects of the society he has created, with of course one exception, his concept of citizenship. It is this rather unique theory of his that has placed this book on so many of those diverse reading lists.
Heinlein presents us with a world where the ultimate right is that of the franchise; the ability to vote, and by inference to hold public office is restricted to one class of persons. Only “citizens” who are different from the rest of society through one aspect only hold this franchise. They have taken up arms in service of the state.
Any person who volunteers to serve in the military, and they are various options open as he notes, and thereafter completes an honourable term of service is awarded the title of citizen and the right to vote. With this right comes one presumes the theoretical ability to influence, albeit maybe only moderately, the destiny of said society.
It is realistically not a hard prerequisite to achieve. Anyone can volunteer for Federal Service, and one need not make a career of it. The earth is not continually in a state of war, or at least, outside the timelines of the novel itself. Therefore, war, certain assignments, and training casualties aside, it would be easy for almost everyone to attain this prerogative after only a minor period of sacrifice, discomfort, and minimial risk.
Most of humanity though in Heinlein’s world chooses not to avail themselves of this privilege. They seem content to go about their daily lives making money, raising families and what not. Content to leave the entire political process in the hands of an elite minority. Fortunately for humanity that elite appears to be a competent and benevolent one.
The reason that Heinlein suggests that the majority of humanity does not appear interested in this franchise, is also the reason that they are not suited for it. Heinlein suggests that only with prior military service, or equivalent, should both choose the government and be the government is a simple one. They are both capable and worthy of it.
Heinlein states that the present form of Government in his novel’s society came about after a great and devastating war. Like many of his contemporaries Heinlein used what appears to have been the then perceived escalation of the Cold War into a catastrophic conflict as a nuculear "Deux ex Machina" to set the stage for his post war society.
Returning veterans from all sides of this war discover that while they have been off “defending” their countries and all that they stand for, and in many cases paying the ultimate sacrifice, something wrong has happened in their absence. Corrupt greedy selfserving politician and other elements have taken over to the detriment of society as a whole.
The returning veterans use their hard won skills and sense of honour and duty to purge these elements from Government and a society and set themselves up to fill the vacuum. In short what we have is a military coup de tat on a global basis followed by a military dictatorship.
Such military ethos as honour, duty, comradeship and self sacrifice, coupled with the training and indoctrination that they receive makes them uniquely qualified to lead and therefore to rule, and choose said rulers wisely. This is Heinlein’s argument, presented in the guise of entertainment.
Good books make one think while one is reading them. Really good books make one think long after you‘ve finished the last page and put the volume down, as is the case here. Whether one agrees with the concepts that are promoted or not, some fifty years after he espoused his theories on politics, Heinlein’s ideas are still the subject of debate and in places outside where one would normally expect to find a mere science fiction novel.
As I finished writing this book review I took a break and caught the latest news reports regarding the pending election farce developing in California. One wonders what is sadder the 200 plus potential candidates or the reasons that an election is being called in the first place. I am also reminded of other equally farcical election campaigns and worse yet the victors of some of those and the disastrous policies that they have forced upon an unthinking and ill informed electorate. Perhaps Heinlein was on to something there afterall.
Since it arrived on book shelves almost fifty odd years ago, Robert Heinlein’s tale of futuristic combat Starship Troopers has found itself on some varied and very interesting reading lists. While a classic work of science fiction, it has also found itself part of the curriculum at more than one institute of higher learning and not for its vivid descriptions of alien life forms.
On the one level Starship Troopers provides the reader with a straightforward entertaining tale. It’s basically a military story more so than a straightforward science fiction one. Heinlein has just chosen to set it in a futuristic sci fi style setting to better convey some of his underlying themes on society.
Overall though the tale is a standard almost classic war story plot. In the beginning, after a slight prelude action sequence to grab your attention, we are introduced to the narrator of the tale naive and somewhat idealistic recruit Juan Ricco. Ricco will have become by the end of the novel has become a war weary, wiser,and somewhat cynical veteran.
It‘s a standard almost classical plot used throughout literary history with little or no deviation. As such it is full of standard scenes and characters that serve to propel the story along. We have the tough but necessary training that will make a "man" out of him. This is followed by his first combat experience that is of course frightening. Following this are subsequent actions intermingled in with further training, promotions, and a little hard earned and hard-spent leave periods.
Along the way we‘ll meet the standard characters that habitually populate this type of tale. There is the hardened tough veteran NCO, and the wise senior officer who will both help shape the young protagonist and act as some sort of surrogate military parents. There are also various almost cliché characters, Ricco’s classmates in training, their instructors and leaders, and his fellow soldiers who serve specific purposes along the route, including dying in battle to further the tale along and his development as a soldier/character.
None of this is a condemnation of Heinlein. This is an oft-used tale for only one reason it works.
The science fiction aspect that Heinlein tacks onto it served the purpose of making the story more relevant to his initial audience. North America pop culture of the 1950‘s had developed a deep love affair with science fiction as is evidenced by the abundance of movies, novels, and magazines devoted to the genre at the time. This ensured that the author would have a ready audience for his work and any social theories he chose to present to them in the guise of light entertainment.
The science fiction elements of Starship Troopers hold up surprisingly well today for a novel written almost 50 years earlier. Heinlein managed to do this by deliberately being rather vague in his descriptions of the "futuristic" vehicles, weapons and other assorted toys and gadgets that one encounters here.
Other contemporary sci fi works viewed today are unintentionally hilarious because of the theories, science equipment and/or other ideas in them that have been rapidly proven incorrect or implausible. Television late shows are full of little green men in aerodynamically unsound vehicles and astronauts who can easily remove their fish bowl helmets and breathe the "air" of any planet while conversing with the aliens in perfect colloquial English.
Heinlein touches on the fact that many things will dominate the battlefield of the future he has created. Interstellar space travel, high speed computerized communications and devastating weapon systems including tactical nukes are just some of the tools introduced in the novel. None of this existed in the 1950’s and most of it was not even more than theoretically possible then.
Heinlein is however vague as to any specific details of these things which for the most part were in the infancy of their development when he wrote the book. To this end he escapes being painted into the literary corner that later befell some of his contemporaries whose works the reality of advancing technology has made irrelevant.
However the manner in which he has does this is equally important. His descriptions of such weaponry and other devices while actually vague do not appear to be so at the initial reading. In fact they appear to be quite detailed.
He spends a great deal of time describing the battle suits that the troopers wear. These suits and the extensive training that goes into how to use them give the average infanteer of the book the firepower of a 20th century infantry battalion or more.
Heinlein spends a lot of time describing them, but in fact on closer examination he tells us nothing about them. He deliberately keeps his descriptions vague enough that five decades after he wrote it the concepts and ideas he has presented, barely, still seem plausible.
What really set this book apart from any other simple 1950‘s era science fiction thrillers are the sub text, and the philosophy that Heinlein presents to us the reader. It is these ideas that has placed this book on recommended and required reading lists from such diverse institutes as more than one university philosophy departments to more than one Military organization.
As many others of his ilk have done, Heinlein has presented us with his version of the future. It doesn‘t appear to be overall a bad place; the attempts by another inter galactic species to exterminate us aside. Unlike others though, such as Roddenberry, Heinlein’s future Earth is no utopia.
One gets the feeling that while many social ills have been dealt with others still exists. We are advised that such crimes as theft, rape and murder still exist because we see characters punished for them. We can then therefore presume that the underlying social causes of such actions, inequality, poverty, ignorance, still exist in some form or another.
Heinlein though prefers not to dwell on this too much. Like the technology he has created, he gives us only the briefest glimpse of many aspects of the society he has created, with of course one exception, his concept of citizenship. It is this rather unique theory of his that has placed this book on so many of those diverse reading lists.
Heinlein presents us with a world where the ultimate right is that of the franchise; the ability to vote, and by inference to hold public office is restricted to one class of persons. Only “citizens” who are different from the rest of society through one aspect only hold this franchise. They have taken up arms in service of the state.
Any person who volunteers to serve in the military, and they are various options open as he notes, and thereafter completes an honourable term of service is awarded the title of citizen and the right to vote. With this right comes one presumes the theoretical ability to influence, albeit maybe only moderately, the destiny of said society.
It is realistically not a hard prerequisite to achieve. Anyone can volunteer for Federal Service, and one need not make a career of it. The earth is not continually in a state of war, or at least, outside the timelines of the novel itself. Therefore, war, certain assignments, and training casualties aside, it would be easy for almost everyone to attain this prerogative after only a minor period of sacrifice, discomfort, and minimial risk.
Most of humanity though in Heinlein’s world chooses not to avail themselves of this privilege. They seem content to go about their daily lives making money, raising families and what not. Content to leave the entire political process in the hands of an elite minority. Fortunately for humanity that elite appears to be a competent and benevolent one.
The reason that Heinlein suggests that the majority of humanity does not appear interested in this franchise, is also the reason that they are not suited for it. Heinlein suggests that only with prior military service, or equivalent, should both choose the government and be the government is a simple one. They are both capable and worthy of it.
Heinlein states that the present form of Government in his novel’s society came about after a great and devastating war. Like many of his contemporaries Heinlein used what appears to have been the then perceived escalation of the Cold War into a catastrophic conflict as a nuculear "Deux ex Machina" to set the stage for his post war society.
Returning veterans from all sides of this war discover that while they have been off “defending” their countries and all that they stand for, and in many cases paying the ultimate sacrifice, something wrong has happened in their absence. Corrupt greedy selfserving politician and other elements have taken over to the detriment of society as a whole.
The returning veterans use their hard won skills and sense of honour and duty to purge these elements from Government and a society and set themselves up to fill the vacuum. In short what we have is a military coup de tat on a global basis followed by a military dictatorship.
Such military ethos as honour, duty, comradeship and self sacrifice, coupled with the training and indoctrination that they receive makes them uniquely qualified to lead and therefore to rule, and choose said rulers wisely. This is Heinlein’s argument, presented in the guise of entertainment.
Good books make one think while one is reading them. Really good books make one think long after you‘ve finished the last page and put the volume down, as is the case here. Whether one agrees with the concepts that are promoted or not, some fifty years after he espoused his theories on politics, Heinlein’s ideas are still the subject of debate and in places outside where one would normally expect to find a mere science fiction novel.
As I finished writing this book review I took a break and caught the latest news reports regarding the pending election farce developing in California. One wonders what is sadder the 200 plus potential candidates or the reasons that an election is being called in the first place. I am also reminded of other equally farcical election campaigns and worse yet the victors of some of those and the disastrous policies that they have forced upon an unthinking and ill informed electorate. Perhaps Heinlein was on to something there afterall.
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