Rating: 
Summary: Not so hot, but started me off as a fan
Review: Starship Troopers was the first RAH book I read. In this case I'm sometimes ashamed to say that this is the only movie I've liked better than the book. In the book, the Bugs were much more advanced, carrying guns and flying spaceships. However I believe they were portrayed better in the film--they were truely a collective insect mind, no guns or spaceships, just mindless and ruthless killers. Throughout Heinlein's earlier work, there is the contrast between the individual and the collective, much a result of his views on the American way of life versus Communism. In the noevl the Arachnids are intelligent and beligerent. The film however raises the idea of the Bugs just being mindless soldiers of the higher brain, and fighting the humans only because it was them who were first aggressive. In a way, Hollywood has displayed the individual/collective struggle more aptly than Heinlein did. Plus the resounding sappiness of the book. Heinlein ment it to be another juvenile novel, something depicting a hero that adolecent boys could take a good example from. Toward the end, one of the silliest endings I've ever read, our hero's dad joins up and starts killing bugs at his ripe old age. ? This I found really unnecessary and quite undramatic. Yet I gave the book three stars. Heinlein's writing style I feel is consistantly one of the best. It flows, it's perfectly understandable all the time, and it uses all the right words. I don't think I could justly rate any Heinlein books below 3 stars, no matter how ridiculous the plot or stroy development. He creates good characters, describes clearly, and simply writes very well. Pick up Starship Troopers if you're a beginning Heinlein fan, but don't make the mistake I made and start out with it. It leads to a great many misgivings about Heinlein's outstanding body of work.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bug War
Review: The Book was very exciting and the ideas were well thought out.I thought it was interesting that you had to join the military for a certain amount of time in order to become a citizen.If you like Robert Heinlein then this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Read it! Read it! Read it! Shame I can't give it 6 stars
Review: This was the first Heinlein book I read, and it definetly won't be the last. I bought it after seeing the movie, and was suprised to see that the only similarity between them is the fact that there are bugs in both and that they have the same title. Just goes to show how badly the movie induetry can mulch something if they put their minds to it. Anyway, I love this book because of how deep it is, the way such wonderful discussuion is blended with the action. It's that kind of wholesome, chunky literature which makes it so good. It's the literary equivalent of a six course dinner at a great restaurant with Heinlein sitting at the head of the table.
Rating:
Summary: Heinlein's Most Entertaining Book
Review: I've owned this book for 20 years, I still read it 2-3 times a year. The story? Johnny Rico enlists for the wrong reasons and struggles to make it through boot camp and in doing so becomes a man instead of a boy. Sure,the book has the battles that the movie is based on; but those are incidental to his memories of making through boot. Powered armor, guts and glory, killing giant bugs before they kill you. If you pick it up, you wont be able to put it down. Two recommendations to everyone who enjoys this book: Armor, by John Steakley. Same storyline, Much better book,if you can believe it. The entire "Hope" series starting with "Midshipman's Hope", the author escapes me because I just read all of them and loaned them to my brother.
Rating:
Summary: A must read book dealing with timeless values in our society
Review: This book contains by far the most entertaining political science that I have ever read. The idea in the book of service in some form to one's country before being granted citizenship is a notion which needs to be adopted in this country. Certainly one can better appreciate the benefits if one has sacrificed for them.
Rating:
Summary: The best science ficsion book I have ever read
Review: I find this book fascinating not only for the story but also for the massages inside the book. I loved the description of the training that Johny Rico had, and the officer's course that also described very good. I'm saying this things as a soldier who had been in officer's course, and the subject of leadership as it's seen in the book realy talked to me. I didn't talk about the story it self, although, it was a good story, but there is a lot of books with good stories that I can't say they are the best. And, BEST is how I see this book! By the way, of course, the movie... had no chance to be good as the book.
Rating:
Summary: the real story
Review: starship troopers the movie should never have been named after such a good book. they are totally different exept in names of some caracters. the movie was a acction and special F/X fest with plot holes you could land a space station on.the book is not so much about war as it is about ones role in society and the troubles of growing up and facing reality. if you read this book PLEASE dont compare it to the movie. in fact if possible read the book first, if you dont like it because its not good thats fine. but if you dont like it because it wasnt as acction packed as the movie than you are missing out on alot.
Rating:
Summary: Often Misunderstood Novel
Review: The reviews of Starship Trooper usually miss the point. Starship Troopers asks questions most people miss; What is the proper balance of privilege and responsibility? What is the citizen's duty to society? Should citizenship be earned? In the novel, a taxpayer earned citizenship by serving a term of government service. This was usually *not* in the millitary. For the duration of the term, he went where was sent and did what he was told. *Anyone* could enlist, at any age after 18. Heinlein's great novels make poor movies because the action usually happen between the viewpoint character's (and the reader's) ears. This is difficult to capture on film.
Rating:
Summary: This book is not the movie !
Review: I first read this book as a young teen because the cover captured my attention. I have since read it at least ten more times. Starship Troopers is political. It is obvious that science fiction of the era was a convenient medium to express views on current topics without a lot of backlash. Heinlein correctly predicted the lack of involvement in our governance by the population. He also provided a plausible, albeit extreme, solution. The weapons, the battles, the future is nothing more than a sideline for his solution to an ambivalent population. The movie was entertaining but without any depth, let alone the depth of the book. You will notice that it wasn't until R.A.H. was dead that movies based on his work came out. I think a japanation movie would have better suited the weapons and battles than a real life movie ever could. I recommend this book to anyone. It is a very quick read with a lot of passages that lend themselves to being reread.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Heinlein
Review: Although Starship Troopers contains a good deal of exciting and thoughtful social commentary, at this stage in his career Heinlein is becoming less concerned with telling a good story than with showing the reader how much he knows about this or that. It gets to be tediously sophomoric at times and is a hint of the lets-eat-breakfast-naked-and- bore-ourselves-to-death scenes which infect all of his work subsequent Stranger in a Strange Land. Definitely a book to be read once. But for the ideas and not the story
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