Starship Troopers is as Fun to Read as it is to Watch

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 6 stars

This book is pretty freakin awesome. That has to be said. Maybe it's because currently raping my own eyes with the cosmic wonderturd that is Old Man's War by John Scalzi, but I really look back with teary-eyed nostalgia on the late nights I spent curled around my Nook with this book.

Let's be clear: I loved the movie.
Let's be even clearer: Apart from names of people and locations, this book resembles the movie based upon it only in the most tangential way. That's not a judgement, it's just a fact.
And, to be even clearerer: I love the book and the movie, on their own terms. They're like Fight Club in that way (and pretty much only in that way).

You've got troopers. You've got government, and you've got bugs. I couldn't wait to see what's next. What came next was a simple sci-fi story about a kid growing to adulthood in the hyper-violent Mobile Infantry. There are mech-ish suits, explosions, death on all sides. I kept reading, long after I should have gone to bed ("Should we go to the gym in the morning?" "Nah."), as it kept pulling me along.

I seem to remember the plot dragging a bit, like Heinlein was in love with his idea about how the world was formed and just could not keep from prattling on about it, but it was interesting enough to not hate. It also gave me clear times to put the fucking book down. I still enjoyed it when I picked it up the next night, though. And, maybe because I'm feeling both a little disenfranchised and heavily disappointed in the abject laziness and complacency of the American voting public, but I really enjoyed the type of government that this future human civilization had, and how it came to be.

Simply put, this book is a must-read. I don't know how often I'll reread it, but it was definitely worth my time.

I recommend this book for people who enjoy well-written novels about violent stuff.

4 out of 6

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