"Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein; [H]; 7/10

This book, which is the last of the series I read while on a terrific run of print-reading at the beach in 2008, is a damned difficult book to review.

For starters, I liked it a lot, for some reason. I found the writing objectionable, the story stilted, and the thrust of the philosophies it advocated ridiculous.  And yet I still enjoyed it and found it thought provoking. I guess the worst thing I feel like a book can do is enrage me by being stupid, and the next worst is be boring. So to be fair, this book did not enrage me and was not boring.

This was my first reading of Robert Heinlein, who is probably the face of sci-fi writing if it has a single face.  The book follows Johnny Rico on an adventure across the galaxy to fight a war against an arachnidic alien race to save humanity, and along the way explores his reasons for joining up.

I was not particularly enamored of Heinlein's style, but I didn't hate it (yet!). The characters were interesting to me, though I suspect they won't be if I read it again.  Mainly this book was a vehicle for Heinlein's military concepts/doctrines, his militarism in general, and his... interesting philosophy.

The political philosophy the book espouses is sorta fascist, in the sense that it limits franchise to people who have performed national service.  That isn't just military service, he says, and then heaps scorn upon non-military service. Basically he has ideas that seem well thought-out in his head and which, in my opinion, would be horrible in real life.
 
From a Sci-Fi point of view, this book casts a very long shadow, not just because it was Heinlein's first really big hit and second Hugo win, but also because it created a new kind of space war that many, many later genre writers would borrow.  The book also pioneers the concept of the mechanized infantry suit, which is a basic military/scifi concept that you can see visualized in movies like "Aliens," "Avatar," and "District 9." Probably the military will actually develop them someday.

Speaking of military, because this book is so rah-rah and esprit-de-core-inducing, it has apparently been required reading at military academies for decades.  As a peacenik I'm kinda not into that, and also I am well aware of the fact that though Heinlein graduated from the Naval Academy and spent a long time in active duty, he never saw combat, which isn't to say he was deficient or that he shouldn't be commended for his sacrifice to the country; but it's something to keep in mind when I get around to reviewing "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman, who was wounded in action. It's a point of view thing.

I enjoyed this book nevertheless, as it was hard not to get swept up in the imagination, the enthusiasm, and the action of the book, but I doubt very much that I will like it when I eventually read it again.  For my reasoning there, see my next two reviews of Heinlein books. "Starship Troopers" is recommended reading, at the very least because it provokes thought and discussion and because it inspired an hilarious film and an excellent song (by Yes). Check it.