Rating: 
Summary: Philosophy? Hah, more like Power armour!
Review: I first read "Starship Troopers" as an impressionable 12 year old, and my thoughts were along the lines of 'cool - space marines with power armour'. Having read it again (now at the venerable age of 18), I still think 'cool - space marines with power armour'. Maybe I'm missing something fundamental about the book, or that's just the way I am. Having read through some of the other reviews of this book, I find my self thinking 'what are they talking about'? This book seems to me primarily to be about war, then space marines, then, finally about moral and political philosophy. It amazes me to think that this book was written before the Vietnam war, yet it sounds very similar to many of the accounts (both factual and fictional) of the war that I have read. Is this because Heinlein is a visonairy, or are the experiences of war universal? I think a little bit of both. This book is possibly one of the best I've read, not only because of Heinlein's style and narrative technique, but also because of the sometimes gritty, sometimes rose-tinted approach to war, but mainly because of the powered armour! My approach may be to cheapen the book, and to look at the surface meanings, and I will most probably be frowned upon by English Literature teachers across the world, and probably by philosophers as well. I think that dwelling solely on the morality and politics contained in this book is to ignore the rest of it, and it is this, the rest of it, that is the fun, exciting bit that makes this book (sorry to be cliched) unput-down-able. If you want philosophy, go read a Boethius' 'Consolation of Philiosophy', but if you want space marines running around with stupidly powerful armour and weapons, read this (again and again).
Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: i was one of the people who saw the movie at the theaters and read the book later. Now i thought the movie was okay the book was awesome. I think both complemented each other well. The book served to fill in many of the philosophical points and finer details that the movie left out or didn't quite make clear and the movie gave pictures and actual life to Hienlien's words. What the movie also did for the book was actually show what actually went on at the battles like Klendathu and planet P (though they may not be so accourate)
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking, to the point, a good read.
Review: Starship Troopers was a good read and the type of book that you find yourself staying awake at night anaylzing. Not because of Sci - Fi jump suits that provoke thoughts of Disney's Buzz Lightyear, but more for the societal and moral implications and commentary. It lays it on the line: in order to be a "citizen" you have to be proved worthy of the right to vote, that military training has to be hard and realistic, that above all no one should take life or personal freedom for granted. Most people will appreciate that he has transferred our social ills onto bugs rather than fellow humans as well. He does a good job of addressing some serious issues in his extremist fantasy world. It is a book that does what a good book should; make you stop and think.
Rating:
Summary: this is an awsome read
Review: Heinlein does it again, another awsome sci-fi book I love his work and this is one of my all time favorite's I have re-read it about twice a month. Its full of great action and technolgy.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book, but not one of his better ones!!
Review: I can't believe some of the comments people are making about this book. Lighten up folks!I read this book in the late 50's. It was written for kids at a time when Heinlein was putting out a lot of SF. Adults did not read SF! It was read mostly by High School kids who had the imagination to realize we were on the brink of a whole new technological future. At the time I read it no one tried to put any significance to the plot. It was just another good science fiction book at the time a lot of good stuff was being produced. Many years later I met Heinlein at a book signing and told him it was one of the first SF books I had read and kinda hooked me on his writing. At that time he indicated their was no significant effort to send a message to anyone, he just sat down and wrote it as a good yarn. I guess it took a poorly made movie to get people to revisit his book.
Rating:
Summary: Ask yourself, "What ISN'T true?"
Review: Those who criticize the politics in Starship Troopers obviously live in a utopian world that doesn't resemble the one in which I live. First of all, the book is NOT FACIST! The main theme of the book is that the persons most qualified to make critical decisions for a DEMOCRACY are those who have SACRIFICED FOR IT! Citizenship was reserved for any persons undertaking ANY LIFE-THREATENING TASK on behalf of the state, not just military duty. Please get it right. Anyone who disagrees with the politics in this book should ask themselves, "What part of the 'past' that Heinlein describes DOESN'T resemble the world in which we live?" The answer is "not much." The truth hurts. I'm sure Heinlein knew that when he wrote his book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best!!!!
Review: I have read this book three times. Still it is one of my all time favorites. Trust me, the book is much better than the movie.
Rating:
Summary: a great social commentary
Review: This book is a thought provooking glimpse into a a possible future. I can't help but like the world Heinlein has created. It is odd though how in most literature when the military rules there is more social unrest than in this book. I absolutely loved the history and moral philosophy retrospectives of America. The movie did this book no justice.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST EVER
Review: First, all the movie had was good special effects, a nice little shower scene, and a few lines from the book thrown in. The movie did this book no justice.(Don't get me wrong I liked the movie but it fell flat compared to the book.) What I found most intersting about the book was the philisophical, moral, and social ideas described in the book. The last time I felt so compelled to think about such issues was my in my sociology class.But anyway the detail it's written in is great, it has great action, and the storyline is good. Definitely one of the best.
Rating: 
Summary: DATED AND CHARACTERLESS
Review: The thing I've always loved about speculative fiction is its inate ability to touch on the human condition by placing people in extraneous positions that illustrate the relation we have we each other, with the world or in the best cases with reality itself. This book is populated with inhumanly perfect composite characters that are unrelatable (at least I hope so for your sake) that bounce around a comic-book world and face conflicts you couldn't care about. The post world war themes run rampant. Heinlein couldn't have believed in the workings of this neo-nazi facist planet that would illustrate a huge jump in human mental devolution or maybe he did. The problem is I couldn't care. Heilein covered character development with the advent of this society that would have read better as a thesis than a story. If you like militant hooplah or maybe believe that every human should put country before self then this book maybe right down your alley. If you would really like to read a story about a facist society read "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick (or anything by Philip K. Dick for that matter since even his worst evokes more thought and emotion than this story). Sure science fiction is supposed to evoke new concepts and explore possible futures or realities but only to the point of exploring our current existance. "Starship Troopers" is like reading over a set of blueprints rather than absorbing a piece of the author laid bare. I guess it's all what you want out of reading that makes the difference and for me this book was just boring. (I won't even get into the movie).
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