Starship Troopers

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Summary: Hispanic?!? Rico's Filipino
Review: Alright, first of all Heinlein writes his books to entertain people and to make people think as can he explains through Jubal Harshaw in "Stranger in a Strange Land". With this book, love it or hate it he accomplishes that purpose. Though eventually the plots seem to repeat themselves in his books its the ideas that keep you coming back. And finally to prove my title point on the very last page Juan Rico says something in TAGALOG the national language of the Phillipines (did I spell that right?) An archipelago Southeast of China. Don't believe me? look it up.

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Summary: Excellent book with a thought provoking view of the military
Review: True Heinlein fans are going to hate the movie. The book shows a society that has found an interesting method of weeding out the irresponsible from full citizenship. Only those who have served a term in government service have the right to vote or serve in public office. A lot of people assume this to be a facist society (The ridiculous movie helps this belief) But in fact the society Heinlein depicts has more personal freedom than our own. Government service is made as hard as possible so only the truly committed can get through a term. Rico the young hero enlists for obscure reasons even he does not understand and winds up in a war. Through his service he learns more about himself and responsibility than he ever thought possible. I really wish the people who made the movie would have read the book first. There was a lot of potential there. The movie resembles the book in name only.

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Summary: Hardly a Classic
Review: I must agree with a recent review - not at all what I thought it would be, especially after watching the trailers for the movie. And agree with another - it is like a lecture, as if Heinlein was afraid we wouldn't get it. He certainly was afraid we would get distracted if there were too much action or too much technobabble. Make me feel something, make me care, make me hate, but most important of all - make me figure it out on my own.

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Summary: Deep in places, but often shallow
Review: This book is an in-your-face exposition of a future in a fascist state-over-all society. I feel the book does not promote or romanticise such a society : it simply sets it out in detail and leaves the reader to judge. The greater part of the book builds up a feel for the society, waxing lyrical in places about the failure of twentieth century democracies. It is a highly political book and puts forward a valid possible future. Having done that, it pits these developed soldiers against bug like aliens which by comparison are so undeveloped that the effect is almost corny, like giant ants. These shoddy aliens demean the story and cheapen the true to life elements. Heinlen ought to have, if he wanted the story to be serious, either had people fighting each other (far more likely) or against aliens with more character and development of their own. But to create such a realistic society, then tag on this silly war with aliens little more convincing than the little green men from Mars which predates it is a shame.A wasted opportunity.

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Summary: A great novel of a war with science fiction characters
Review: A wonderful tale of war. Robert Heinleins best book ever.

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Summary: I can't stop reading this book!
Review: I bought this book when I was a teenager and have read it so many times I have lost count. But each time I read it, I come away with different ways of looking at how complacent we have become, in our lives. I recommend it to any science fiction reader. This book should be required reading for political science student.

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Summary: I liked the movie better
Review: First of all, I have to say I don't really like Heinlein's work in general: he sounds to me as a teacher, and when I read I like to think, to have fun, but not to have someone telling me how to live (see "Time enough for love", for instance). I totally agree with "kaseido"'s review. But most importantly I have to say I really appreciate this "customer comments" thing about Amazon.com: it gives you the opportunity of sharing thoughts with hundreds of people who read your same books, which is already pretty uncommon, but most of all you have the chance to know what people that maybe don't like to talk so much actually think about the books they've read.

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Summary: This book is an all-time classic, and it shows why!
Review: This book is great. When I bagan reading this book, I was reading primarily for the science fiction and action. I soon learned that that is not all this masterpiece encompasses. The way Heinlein depicts society at the time this book was written is magnificent. Although I am not greatly into politics, I could get into the philosophical meaning of the political environment of the time. In addition, the boot training depiction and battles are vivid and thorough. I recomend this book to anyone who is interested in 31st century combat (this means you, mechwarriors) and analytical thinking. Or for that matter, anyone who wants THE BEST!

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Summary: not what I thought it was going to be...
Review: I checked out these reviews before buying and reading Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers." I was looking forward to a good read. Boy was I in for a surprise!

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Summary: Best Sci-Fi book I ever read
Review: Jonnie Rico decides to join the Terran Federation. Although it wasn't his coice he was assigned to the Mobile infantry (that's all he was qualified for).He goes through the toughest training ever and barely makes it out alive.He is in the biggest and most dangerous war ever faced by Terra.will he make it out alive?Read the book to find out.