Description
Juan Rico signed up with the Federal Service on a lark, but despite the
hardships and rigorous training, he finds himself determined to make it
as a cap trooper. In boot camp he will learn how to become a soldier,
but when he graduates and war comes (as it always does for soldiers),
he will learn why he is a soldier. Many consider this Hugo
Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work, and with good reason.
Forget the battle scenes and high-tech weapons (though this novel has
them)--this is Heinlein at the top of his game talking people and
politics.
Starship Troopers is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published (in abridged form) as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November 1959, as "Starship Soldier") and published hardcover in 1959.
The first-person narrative is about a young soldier named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit equipped with powered armor. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs". Through Rico's eyes, Heinlein examines moral and philosophical aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, the necessities of war and capital punishment, and the nature of juvenile delinquency.
Starship Troopers won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960. The novel has attracted controversy and criticism for its social and political themes, which some critics claim promote militarism. Starship Troopers
has been adapted into several films and games, with the most widely
known — as well as the most controversial and criticized — being the 1997 film by Paul Verhoeven.
Heinlein's military background and political views
Like several other authors who have written in the military science fiction genre (such as David Drake), Robert A. Heinlein served in the United States military. Heinlein graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1929, and served in the United States Navy for five years. He served on the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) in 1931, and as a naval lieutenant aboard the destroyer USS Roper (DD-147) between 1933 and 1934, until he was forced to leave the Navy due to sickness: pulmonary tuberculosis. Heinlein never served in active combat while a Navy officer, and he was a civilian during WW II doing research and development at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Heinlein's non-combat Naval service would become a point of contention in later criticism of Starship Troopers.
According to Heinlein, his desire to write Starship Troopers was sparked by the publication of a newspaper advertisement placed by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy on April 5, 1958 calling for a unilateral suspension of nuclear weapon testing
by the United States. In response, Robert and Virginia Heinlein created
the small "Patrick Henry League" in an attempt to create support for
the U.S. nuclear testing program.
During the unsuccessful campaign, Heinlein found himself under attack
both from within and outside of the science fiction community for his
views. Starship Troopers may therefore be viewed as Heinlein both clarifying and defending his military and political views of the time.
Writing of the novel
Some time during 1958–1959, Heinlein ceased work on the novel that would become Stranger in a Strange Land and wrote Starship Troopers. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in October and November 1959 as a serial called Starship Soldier. Although originally written as a juvenile novel for Scribners, it was rejected. The novel was eventually published as teenage fiction by G. P. Putnam's Sons. With their rejection of his novel, Heinlein ceased writing juvenile
fiction for Scribners, ending his association with them completely, and
began writing books with more adult themes.
