Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. First published as a two-part serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as Starship Soldier, the novel was published as a book by G. P. Putnam's Sons in December 1959. Set in a future society ruled by a human interstellar government dominated by a military elite, referred to as the Terran Federation, the first-person narrative follows Juan "Johnny" Rico through his military service in the Mobile Infantry, in effect the "space marines." Rico progresses from recruit to officer against the backdrop of an existential struggle between species, a, interstellar war between humans and an alien species known as "Arachnids" or "Bugs", who swerve as a metaphor for the Yellow Peril that motivated Heinlein to write the novel.
Interspersed with the primary plot are classroom scenes in which Rico and others discuss political philosophy - issues including suffrage, civic virtue, juvenile delinquency, and war - discussions allowing the author to preach his combination of militarist and libertarian politics to his largely juvenile male audience.
External[]
- Yellow Perils of Robert Heinlein John Hickman European Journal of European Studies (Spring 2021)
- 'Starship Troopers' is Off the Marine Commandant's Reading List James Clark 21 Oct. 2020.
- the 1997 Paul Verhoeven film is generally considered to be the biggest middle finger the novel will ever receive, and that is no accident