Rating: 
Summary: Decide for yourself!
Review: "Cartoonish". "Glorifies Violence". "The Worst Form of Jingoism". "Nothing Here I Haven't Seen Done Better 100 Times Before".
Folks, that's the MOVIE - the book is far more complex and thoughtful. Why does "Troopers" continue to excite such heated controversy more than 30 years after first publication? Because it addresses issues as controversial now as then!
This was written for the young-adult market, so it's no "Red/Green/Blue Mars", but it is well worth a read!
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Rating: 
Summary: Pure mush from Heinlein.
Review: I wish Amazon.com allowed you to rate a book 0, because that's what I'd like to give Heinlein's Starship Troopers, probably the worst book from this tedious authour. Although I've only read a relativley small number of his books (Friday, Stranger in a Strange Land, Farnham's Freehold - a search here at Amazon reveals 96 other titles from this hack), I've not enjoyed a single one. They've all been juvenille in every respect - plot, characterization and action. He succumbs to every foible of the hard SF authour. There is no irony, no subtle breath of life in any of the characters. Heinlein's books just plod along like a Frankensteinian horror - no feeling, no signs of life, no anything. And Starship Troopers is the very worst of the lot. Some claim this to be a book geared towards youth, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a difference between this simplistic mush and any other of Heinlein's work.
So stay away from this one. And from Heinlein in general. There are many, much better authors of SF available.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought provoking book
Review: When I first read Starship Troopers it made me think about what was important in life. Although I find Juan Rico impossibly virtuous (no drinking,swearing etc) the book forces you to think about society and the way things are.
The book is one of my favourites and I have re-read it many times. You do not have to agree with all the opinions put forward to enjoy the book. The book provokes thought and that is a good thing.
Just as an aside it was one of the books I took with me on rookies (Australian term for boot camp). In a strange way it helped me through the "hump".
Rating:
Summary: If you thought the boot camp in GI Jane was tough, try this!
Review: Although it only takes a couple hours at most to read, Starship troopers takes a reader from the innocent youth to hardened soldier in glorious detail. While the political and philosophical discussions within the book are very interesting and thought-provoking, what makes this book a must-read is the chapters describing the Mobile Infantry boot camp and Officer Candidate school. These are some of the best boot camp scenes I have ever read, with visual images that put An Officer and a Gentleman, Full Metal Jacket, and GI Jane to shame. Check it out!
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of Depth Sinks Story
Review: Reading through the other posted reviews of Starship Troopers, I am surprised by the high marks given, yet at the same time I'm not. Starship Troopers is a very "thin" book; much is hinted at, implied, suggested, but never fully realized. I think that this ultimaly works in the books favour as it aparently allows the reader to fill the gaps with whatever they want (hence the high ratings). As written, however, the book is hardly substantial.(BR) The background is sketchy, we never get a really good sence of how society evolved from our present system to the qusi-military state RH presents.(BR) Characterization is next to non-existent, we don't even know the narraters name until several chapters into the book and he never develops as a real person. This makes Rico very difficult to care about or take any real interst in.(BR) He serves, essentially, as a mouth-piece for the author, allowing RH to step full stage and expound his own social-political dogma (and dogma is the only word that can apply, as RH is soheavy handed in his pontifiction. This overall lack of depth and detail tends to invalidate this work as a "novel" - the plot serves as a minor device to frame RH's philisophical arguments and that's a shame; there are some really great ideas here, concepts far ahead of thier time and I'm sure astonishing to thier 1959 audience. The boot-camp sequence, perhaps the strongest in the book, rings true, bringing back to memmory my own 8 weeks of Navy boot so many years past. If RH had just reversed his approach, used the political retoric as a backdrop for the plot, Starship Troopers could indeed have become a true classic. To thoe interestd in a more intergrated military SF novel, I recomend "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman.
Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable novel about values
Review: I recently reread Starship Troopers in light of several other reviews, and the promised film version. I can't agree with reviews that call it one of the finest novels ever written, but it is surely one of the finest SF novels (ranking with Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as Heinlein's best). Starship Troopers bears rereading because its core questions about duty and citizenship and personal responsibility are more important than just combat SF... but it isn't bad combat SF. One review suggested, and I agree, that ST should be read with Haldeman's Forever War, somewhat similar in theme with a different perspective. I will watch the movie, even though it seems to be brainless special effects bug-bashing
Rating:
Summary: Prophetic picture of a multi-ethnic mono-cultural army
Review: One thing I'd like to add is that Starship Troopers offered a brilliant preview of what our Army has become in the last 15 years: a successful multiethnic institution. The soldiers in the book come from practically every society on earth. The narrator, for example, is a Tagalog-speaking Filipino named Juan Rico. As military sociologist Charles Moskos has pointed out, the reason the U.S. Army succeeds in getting people from a diverse variety of ethnic groups to work together is because it is NOT multicultural: it's monocultural. It imposes a very distinct militaristic culture upon its recruits. And it offers a unifying goal: victory. (Sports teams are similar.) This offers lessons for the rest of our society, especially our elite universities, which are having so much more trouble dealing with ethnic diversity than the military or college athletic squads.
Steve Saile
Rating:
Summary: One Great Book!
Review: Like many I read this book as a pre-teen. It fascinated me then, and after a recent reading in my thirties, it fascinated me again. The book requires little in commentary, being quite simply, enjoyable
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the plot?
Review: I kept waiting for the plot to start! Heinlein's ideas about citizenship are intriguing, but clumsily presented. There are pages and pages of exposition of these ideas by teacher characters in the book. This type of presentation is way too didactic; it bludgeons the reader over the head. I hope the movie is better
Rating:
Summary: The #1 best
Review: Ok- I read this book in the eighth grade as well (see below)and I firmly believe it to be the best book I have read to date, with"The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" coming a very close second. Regardless of the lukewarm review Amazon gave it, this book probably has more "10" reviews than any other book. It would take you hours to read all these. Amazon, get someone who doesn't just skim surface content to write your reviews- this book is deeper than the Marinas Trench. This book is about a non-white boy growing up in a society where voting rights are given only to those who serve the state for a term of duty. The jobs include- soldier, space Navy, equipment testers, caterpillar-hair counters, guinea pigs, etc. The basic premise behind this is that only those who have served the country should be allowed to determine its course. The boy, whose name is Juan, joins up with the Terran Mobile Infantry at 18. These are the guys that land on planets and do the actual fighting. The 1 1/2 year boot camp training program hardens him and gets him ready to fight. There is a lot of philosophical discussion, which as far as I am concerned, is one of the best parts. I hope they keep that part in the movie. This one is definitely worth reading
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