Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book
Review: Bastardized by Hollywood, Starship Troopers is not about war and space travel but about the journey from youth to manhood of Juan Rico, a child of privledge and wealth. Joining the mobile Infantry on a lark, young Juan soon comes to realize that life is about responsibility and accountability, about the sacrifice made by the few for the good of the many. Even if you liked the movie please read the book and discover the real "story behind the story".
Rating:
Summary: CITIZENSHIP EARNED BY SACRIFICE
Review: This is one of the great books of all time. The key philosophy here is not about the military, the military is a tool to illustrate that concept, which is: The power of enfranchisement should be held by responsible people who have demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice their own welfare for the welfare of their society. Not a whole lot of people willing to do that today. I spent 10 years in the US Army, heavily due to this book. Airborne, Ranger, Special Forces. I feel I earned the right to say something about how my country is run, and I exercise that responsibility. How many of our "citizens" can say that? Also note that Heinlein did not require military service to earn a franchise, but "federal service", which had a great many more options than just the military.
Rating: 
Summary: Uncomfortably thought-provoking
Review: Heinlein certainly has strongly-held opinions, doesn't he? But don't judge them entirely by Starship Troopers. Read Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love and the short stories. I had read them before Starship Troopers, luckily, or I don't think I would have read any more Heinlein. Some of his ideas eg military service as a condition of citizenship sound good in theory but I don't have his faith in human nature. Heinlein believes given a good upbringing, the majority of people will turn out decent. But it just doesn't work that way, and the world of Starship Troopers might not be the Utopia Heinlein imagines. I can understand why some poeple are repelled, but I ask them to think! Even if you can't agree with it, it's not that bad. If I'm not making much sense, that's because I don't know that I believe any more.
Rating:
Summary: The best Sci-Fi I've ever Read, and so much more...
Review: This was one of the most amzing books I've ever read. RAH's writing style is extremely factual, yet never cold or sterile unless its to invoke emotion from the reader. What looks like it would be the title of a B-Movie, turns out to be, not only a great Sci-Fi read, but an insight to RAH's political worldview. And let me tell you, he has a great one. I haven't any qualms about recommending this book to anyone, no matter what THEIR political stand is. RAH seems to have taken his every beleif and found a way to interpret it in a way not only exiting, but just as convincing. If you've never read the book...READ IT NOW!!! Trust me, you will not be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book, joined the Airborne
Review: The one line summary says it all.
Rating:
Summary: READ THE BOOK AND SEE THE MOIVE
Review: I have seen so many review for this book, some very good, mostly saying don't see the movie. I would like to say the moive has it good points like how well the costumes were designed and how well the special effects were performed. So they killed the story well that's hollywood. Though I do wonder if Casper (the main actor in the moive) read the book or not. READ THE BOOK AND THEN SEE THE MOIVE.
Rating:
Summary: thought provoking exam of personal responsibility
Review: In Heinlein's utopia a fourteen year old mugger would get a public flogging. The great thing about a properly administered flogging is that it creates an aversive reaction: the offender's body will betray him and he will cringe when he decides to repeat the crime. Otherwise he has plenty of time to straighten out and become a contributor to society. In our society the same offender would get tried as an adult and sentenced to five years in jail, thus guaranteeing him a permanent position in the underclass. This is supposed to be superior? And Heinlein takes the time to examine the alternatives; to compare and contrast our utopia with his. This is a great book, but also a talky examination of philosophical issues in the manner of Dostoyevsky. This book is also a reaction to the warfare style of the communist regimes; the throwing soldiers at the enemy as if the soldiers' lives were irrelevant. He doesn't really explain why this was also the warfare style of the British in the first World War. It argues that anything given away for free is taken by the recipient as valueless, and that this includes the suffrage (obviously he is a white male). And it is in reaction against the perception that American and British politicians were too eager to get into little wars, because they were risking nothing of their own and did not understand the horror they were inflicting on others. Therefore in his utopia the right to vote is earned by the willingness to give up several years of one's life in the service of one's country. This idea is quite current in Israel and Switzerland, where it is law. Many readers argue that the status quo is obviously superior to this society where only those willing to suffer for their country have the right to run it; but any hypothetical reality which challenges the privilege of those bourgeois white reviewers enough to elicit such reaction is fine with me. As for common complaints in illiterate reviews: "The book discusses the necessity of warfare to moral development and the importance of beating children in order to make them into good citizens." Actually it discusses the necessity of understanding the consequences of your actions and the nature of your solutions; how many people of the heartland clamored for the war against Iraq? "You must understand war before you bestow it on others" is all Heinlein argues. Similarly, it is very important to RAH that children become good citizens; and he knows that you must not shy from beating the child when no other answer will do. And as Heinlein argues, and as we can see every day around us (RAH is particularly prophetic in this), a strategy of appeasement and negotiation only produces tyrants and delinquents. The society we live in produces teen-age thrill-killers; Heinlein argues that perhaps our parenting is at fault. "The Bugs on a distant galaxy, whose giant-insect society represents "total communism," nuke Buenos Aires. So the novel's narrator, Johnny Rico, joins the Mobile Infantry" Actually, of course, Rico signs up for national service to impress a girl, and dreams of exotic and romantic postings. And of course what he gets are the grunts. Buenos Aires bags it later in the novel--the reviewer quoted never read the book. This is pretty typical of those who flame this book which pushes so many socio-political buttons so well. The most essential aspect of a book or movie is its theme, the creator's underlying vision. In that sense the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the book.
Rating:
Summary: Buy the book, ignore the movie!
Review: If you liked the movie, you'll love the book. If you liked the book, stay the heck out of the theater, you'll only be disappointed. The movie stumbles where so many would-be based-on-book blockbusters does, and tries to substitute special effects for plot, and generic actors for true character development. The book is one of Heinlein's very best. With a refreshing look at the role of an individual in a society, corporal punishment, and a host of other issues near and dear to our PC-befuddled era, this book highlights the differences between our time and the time in which Heinlein wrote it. That said, RAH neatly avoids oversermonizing by making the book a chronicle of a young man's voyage of discovery into himself. The previous sentences may make the book seem boring, but the plot moves as fast as the movie ever did, with enough action to keep the most jaded reader interested. A true classic.
Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone, only those with brains.
Review: First things first, I saw and enjoyed the movie as it should have been seen and enjoyed, as an entertaining and nothing more, wide eyed action expose. The novel is completely different. Yes, one can read the book and enjoy it as a SF novel and then not think about it again, but it was my first Heinlein, and started a trend in me. The novel Starship Troopers displays a world, a government and a society that, by golly, doesn't act within the PC of modern day. And for that, it gets panned. SICK!!! The politically correct movement that has led to some dissappointing reviews of this book is disgusting. Just because a bunch of pansies have decided that never again should a growing child even be yelled at is no reason to say that a book is bad because it depicts a different society. KEYWORD: Different. In my mind, perhaps: better. I think people need to get real, positive reinforcement works, yeah, but in about 2% of situations. The motivating factor in human behavior is not so much reward, but avoiding unpleasant rewards! Never have I been more motivated to get a treat than to avoid a dissappointment, a yelling or something of that sort... Except maybe in recreation. Real life though? That is all about trial and ERROR!!! Crime and PUNISHMENT. Those are what makes us tick, and Heinlein shows a people who understand as much, and do something about it! A Fantastic Novel.
Rating:
Summary: Controversy is in the mind of the reader.
Review: Controversy over Starship Troopers is in the mind of the reader. Heinlein, as he did more forcefully and with greater subtlety in his later work, has injected something for everybody in this work. His feminism--on practical principles, of course--is both condescending and prescient. His militarism is very 1950s, and it is doubtful that he had Viet Nam in mind as he wrote the book, despite fanciful allusion in other reviews to "tunnel rats" and so forth. For a contrast, read "The Green Hills of Earth" -- perhaps the most revolutionary and anti-militaristic, anti-fascist of the early Heinlein collection. Always a good read.
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