Robert Heinlein: Starship Troopers

[bobbo19]

watched the film last night until 2 AM, and thought it was pretty crap, but satrical at the same time which saved some face. Is the book any better?

 

[Connavar]

Its a crappy movie that has not much in story,tone in common with the book. The book is controversiel,talked about,thoughtprovoking even after 50 years. Does that sound like the movie you saw? The book is much better. You can enjoy it as serious sf story and good military sf .

Have you read Robert Heinlein do you know who he is and his place in SF history ?

 

[AE35Unit]

Yea the film is typical american gung ho disengage the brain type movie but thats ok,I still found it enjoyable. People should stop comparing Hollywood to books,they tend to be two different animals. I'm sure the book is completely different but its possible to like both.

 

[Ursa major]

I've never read the book - although I will one day.

As for the film, it's a romp (crossed with a black comedy) and can be enjoyed as such (i.e. parts of brain responsible for criticism switched off, disbelief set to maximum).

 

[Connavar]

Please lets not talk about that movie again. Im sick of hearing about it. Its the biggest romp,black comedy,satrical yeah yeah.

Nothing personally against what you are saying Ursa but why must we mention movies versions all the time and specially one like this. We are book readers.

 

[Ursa major]

Only because it was on a national TV channel here in the UK last night and bobbo happened to mention it.

(More people will have seen the film than read the book and so it's a public service to mention that the two are unlikely to resemble each other.)

 

[Connavar]

Only because it was on a national TV channel here in the UK last night and bobbo happened to mention it.

(More people will have seen the film than read the book and so it's a public service to mention that the two are unlikely to resemble each other.)

No i didnt mean Bobbo, i meant we rather not go into another talk about movie vs book about this work.

I did help out bobbo by saying they were totally different beasts.

 

[ghost8772]

In other words, yay, saw the movie, now go hunt down the book and enjoy it for its controversies, its thought provocation about WHAT kind of government? and oh yeah, I'm a thirty second bomb, I'm a thirty second bomb, twenty-nine.... twenty-eight...

The book was a quick read, it did read similar to his have spacesuit will travel that I've read. mainly geared towards the mindset of superficial, not really deep thought kids, who barely note surface impressions of what's going on around them. as an adult we see more of the possibilities of his life than he does.

read the book, then note that yes, the book appealed to one audience, the movie another. both got what they really liked in their media... though sex, guns, and curtains of blood fifteen feet high aren't really my preference in a movie.

 

[j d worthington]

The book was a quick read[....]

Eh? I'd call it anything but that; or, rather, if you treat it as a "quick read", you're missing the heart of the thing entirely. Something like looking at The Red Badge of Courage as a quick read. It is one of those books meant to cause one to pause and consider; to debate and deconstruct its ideas (and it is about a great deal more than simply a particular type of government). It's a book that has a lot more to it than that, as evinced by the fact it still causes controversy and serious, thoughtful debate some half-century after it was first published... not something you tend to get with a genuine "quick read"....

 

[ghost8772]

Actually I called it a quick read, because its reading level was not professorial level. the thoughts, and pondering of the story I did once I read the story. the story itself I found interesting in the technology used, and having been in the military, I thought the world he devised built around military service was unique. The concepts in the story were easy to understand, and didn't require additional education to piece together context. that his world was rather revolutionary is a given, considering most of his works deal with a government that was not in actual existence at the time, and his views are seldom if ever conservative.

 

[steve12553]

I started reading Heinlein books in the 60s and have reread many of them in the 80s and 90s and I found that as an older person I discovered a completely different take on the stories. They appeared to be a quick read when I first read them but the subtleties come out when I read them again. Starship Troopers was anything but simple the second time around. The book, like many of his others, requires a bit of thought to understand what he's saying. And maybe that's exactly what he waas after.

 

[Urlik]

I think that like many of the great SF writers, RAH wanted to make his readers question every aspect of the world they live in, politics, religion, war, love and relationships.
RAH does a fantastic job of this and manages to raise so many topics in one book that it is no wonder that so many are controversial and critics still can't agree on which side of the fence he is sitting (although they do agree that he doesn't sit on the fence)

 

[AE35Unit]

I enjoyed the movie apart from the info dump sections,like a recruiting tape thing,didn't get that. But the scene where they fight the aliens was superbly nasty,and thats where film as a media has its strength. Am looking forward to reading the book tho and forgetting the film is related to it.

 

[ghost8772]

I enjoyed the movie apart from the info dump sections,like a recruiting tape thing,didn't get that. But the scene where they fight the aliens was superbly nasty,and thats where film as a media has its strength. Am looking forward to reading the book tho and forgetting the film is related to it.

would work hard to forget the movie related to the book before you even pick the book up. watch it about fifty times but put a card in front of the screen wit ha completely different name..... uhhhh...... Jester's team or something. train your mind to think of the movie by that name. maybe you won't feel so insulted when you see Heinlein's world and Mobile infantry.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I'm about half-way through Starship Troopers and am starting to lose some interest. The first half of the novel has shaped up to be an army/marine recruitment book with some very conservative/libertarian philosophy thrown in didactically...some I can agree with, some I cannot. The whole concept of the powered armor is cool and reminds me of the first-person-shooter game "Tribes" that I played years ago. Where are the arachnids? There hasn't been much combat, per say, in the book yet.

 

[Connavar]

Starship Troopers is classic sf for the ideas the book is about if you agree with or not. The way of life,training of the soldier in that future is important too. There is little military action but the little there is very very good.

Dont let movie expectation fool you, let the author decide what the story is about.

 

[ValerieJLong]

The fights will come in time.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Finished. Not a bad book. The 2nd half was more exciting. The first half was more about Heinlein preaching his philosophy about morality, corporal punishment, violence, and the rights of citizenship. You spend time ruminating what he says and depending on who you are, you either agree with him on an issue or you see flaws in his thinking.

 

[ghost8772]

You spend time ruminating what he says and depending on who you are, you either agree with him on an issue or you see flaws in his thinking.

Heinlein has flaws in his thinking?

this is news?

I haven't run across a single book that wasn't riddled with plot holes, flaws in technology, or how a society would work. but he is still one of the better builder or worlds with people on it, and people being people, that I've read.

wow the author is a person too.... weird.

 

[Exnuke]

I think that most of the people posting on this thread are missing one of the basic points about Starship Troopers. While it was written as a military novella, the franchise was NOT restricted to military veterans. Rather it was restricted to veterans of Federal Service. And the military was only a small part of that service! In this vision, Robert H. put forth the idea that only those who put their society before their own welfare should have the responsibility of determining how that society should be run. Unfortunately, history shows that even this criteria won't stop the political class from corruption and incompentcy.