Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers (1959)
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Genre: Science Fiction (Storyteller)
Plot Summary:
This controversial young adult novel won the Hugo Award in 1960. It is a coming-of-age novel about a boy, named Juan (a.k.a. Johnnie), who joins the military because he did not want to follow his father’s footsteps and run the family business. He decides to join when his friend mentioned that he was signing up. He had planned to stay just for the short time necessary to gain voting rights. However, when a war broke out between humans and alien bugs, he is forced to stay longer. During this time he chooses to make military life his career and, in Officer Candidate School, discovers why he joined and remained. He successfully climbs the ladder to be a Cap Trooper officer. There are some bits of philosophy in this story. The story takes time to create a world where a democratic, yet, militaristic government is in place. Only those who have fought for their country can vote and gain citizenship. Issues and discussions on morality, ethics, duty, and responsibility are strewn throughout the book. Heinlein makes his thoughts and opinions known at the time of the Cold War and fear of Communism.
Geographical Setting: Terra (Earth) and Outer Space
Time Period: The Future…sometime after the 20th Century
Appeal Characteristics:
Johnny Rico is a good narrator, natural and occasionally humorous. He is easy to identify with and provides a compelling human element to a book that could have easily been a flat adventure story. While most characters in the book come and go rather quickly, there are a few of Johnny’s military leaders that provide fascinating commentary on the military and society. The pacing is generally deliberate, but picks up during battles and as the book nears its end. The story’s main focus is on Johnny and his development as a soldier, but there are a few thrilling action scenes as well. While there is not a strong focus on technology, Heinlein does include plenty of starships and futuristic weaponry, including the armored suits that turn ordinary men into super-powered soldiers. Heinlein has a philosophical tone as different characters discuss military life and civilization. As the narrator, Johnny is conversational and unpretentious, never sidestepping his flaws and embarrassments.
Read-alikes: Readers looking for more classic military science fiction could try The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. The Forever War follows a reluctant soldier into a long-running intergalactic war. The twist comes when he returns to Earth to find centuries have passed. Another Hugo Award winner, The Forever War shares the same military subject and human/alien conflict as Starship Troopers but also delves into the negative effects of war. The title character in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card thinks he’s involved with a computer war game, but is actually controlling Earth’s last fleet—and defense—against aliens bent on Earth’s destruction. Readers who enjoy the military strategy and human/alien conflict in Starship Troopers will be interested in this Hugo winner. Firestorm is the twelfth book in the StarFist series by David Sherman and Dan Cragg, a former Marine and Army sergeant, respectively. This book—which can be read on its own—follows a platoon of Marines as they deal with a hateful general, menacing aliens and an intergalactic Civil War. Readers that appreciated Heinlein’s firsthand knowledge of the army will enjoy Firestorm’s insight to military culture in a futuristic setting. Fans of Heinlein’s armored suits and insect-like enemies will want to investigate John Steakley’s best-selling Armor. This book features a soldier in battle against vicious human-sized Ants and a space pirate after a ship and an armored suit. Readers looking for a mix of futuristic battles and philosophy should check out Old Man’s War, the first in a recent series by John Scalzi. In this Hugo nominee, a man joins the army at 75, and is given a new, younger body before jumping into an interstellar war between humans and aliens. Another coming-of-age story is Alexei Panshin’s Nebula award-winning Rite of Passage about a girl who must survive for a month in the wilds of a colony planet. For those who enjoyed following a character with a military career in future Outer Space, try Dan Abnett’s First and Only. Another military space adventure is Alien Dreams by Larry Segriff.
Red Flags: military violence
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Author: Robert Heinlein
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot Summary:
Through a series of events in which his parents and all other crew members are killed during the first manned exploration of Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is raised nearly from birth by the indiginous inhabitants of Mars, learning there ways, customs, and practices. Because his mindset is Martian, he is able to do things beyond what humans on Earth can, while ordinary Earth customs and practices confuse him. When he is discovered as a young man by the second expedition to Mars, Smith comes to Earth for the first time and becomes a celebrity. SPOILER: After exploring the ways of the world, Smith founds his own religion and is eventually killed by an angry mob, after which he ascends to a heaven containing other prophets such as the founder of the Fosterite religion, who had been
extremely popular, but dismissed by many as a charlatan, just like what had happened to Smith.
Geographical Setting: Earth, Mars, Heaven
Time Period: The Future, apparently mid-twenty-first century
Appeal Characteristics:
Mildly philosophical; not overly technical; use of absurdity to critique society
Read-alikes: Try Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, which shares a similar absurd tone and outsider perspective. Anthem by Ayn Rand is another good readalike. while Rand's The Fountainhead has more of the feel of Stranger in a Strange Land, Anthem is more overtly sci-fi, and is far shorter than any of Rand's other books. However, Rand is never (intentionally) absurd. Readers might also try Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, which shares the absurd tone and similar plot elements regarding religion and society, although it's not sci-fi (at least not per se). Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke is another possibility. If nothing else, it is another book by a classic science fiction author. Also, it deals with human possibilities ("evolving") and challenges perceptions. Frank Herbert's Dune is another big, fat novel by a heavy hitter in sci-fi, Herbert can be as windy as Heinlein,
but in a different way. This novel will be especially interesting to those who find how Heinlein postulated how a culture with little water would value water.
Red Flags: dated, and therefore may be difficult to take for many readers of current sci-fi; not tech-heavy; uneven pacing, bogged down in places by long passages of exposition (i.e., overlong); sometimes skeptical of religion, society, government
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