It’s always fun to occasionally take a look back at some science fiction classic books. So, we’ll start our look back this week with Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. This book is one of the early examples of military science fiction and was surprisingly rejected by the original publisher. This rejection led Heinlein to stop writing the juveniles (kid friendly science fiction stories that Heinlein had been publishing for most of the 1950s). After it’s publication, it won the Hugo and attracted a lot of praise and controversy. So, what did the Heinlein do this time to cause controversy.

In a future society, only veterans are allowed to vote or hold office. In every other facet of life, there is no difference between a veteran and a non-veteran. John Rico is a middling high school student who tags along with his best buddy when his buddy volunteers to join the military. The recruiter does everything but push volunteers out of the office to dissuade them from joining. Rico persists (over the objections of his parents) and joins. He is tested, and showing no special aptitude for anything else, is assigned to the mobile infantry.

The first half of the book covers the rigors of the boot camp. They group Rico is assigned to has over 2000 people. By the end of boot camp, this has been winnowed down to a few hundred (either by people giving up, getting too injured or death). But the remaining soldiers are well trained and well indoctrinated into military service.

The second half of the book deals with the fights against the bugs. Ant-like creatures who inhabit similar type planets to people, so there is a lot of fighting for the planets and resources. Rico moves slowly up the chain of command by performing well and staying alive. The last part of the book deals with Rico moving into OCS (Officer Command School) and getting back into the war only on the officer side of things.

Heinlein took his military services (1929-1934) and translated some of it (Heinlein was never in combat) into this story. But he did more than that. His story has a lot more in common with today’s military than anyone he served in. Heinlein served during a time when the draft of still active and everyone (for the most part) served a two year term and is primarily trained as cannon fodder except for the rare specialist. The story details a military that is all volunteer and even the lowest private is a highly trained combat specialist that uses extra-powered tools to help keep them safe while delivering the most damage to the enemy. The US military started moving towards Heinlein’s vision when it stopped the draft in 1973. And as the US military evolves, it’s looking a lot more like Starship Troopers than anyone would have expected when the book was published in 1959.

A lot of the controversy over the book has to do with Heinlein’s politics as shown in the novel. I’m not going into a lot of details about it here (feel free to Google the millions, if not billions, of people praising or condemning his beliefs). So, be warned that the book has a strong militaristic and libertarian viewpoint.

Overall, the influence of this book is amazing. From the Bugs in Ender’s Game to the military life in The Forever War or Old Man’s War, the basic ideas shown in the book have found their way into many, many stories. And the book is one of the earlier examples of the military science fiction subgenre that has grown in the intervening years. It’s hard to watch a lot of military movies (from Heartbreak Ridge to Full Metal Jacket) without seeing echos of Heinlein as well. The basic military story of joining, boot camp and war is ingrained in the book and movie industry. Heinlein not only helped invent the genre, but he set the ground rules as well. Highly recommended.