Not About *Starship Troopers*

[ase]

Today - yesterday, technically - I finished reading Starship Troopers, and I feel the need to mention my ongoing wish for novels where more than half the cast is female, and it is no big deal. Our protagonist Juana does lots of plot-related stuff and interacts on a regular basis with her coworkers Danielle, Desiree and Beth, as well as Ryan and

Comments

[ase]

This is kind of mean, and you can call me on that, but did you read the subject line? I'm kind of cranky because I've been exposed to too much SF where women are absent, or are present solely as romantic interests. I'm ready for something else now, thanks, and I don't mean chick-lit or romances.

Back to Starship Troopers. (I keep trying to abbreviate that as ST, but thanks to too much Star Trek, I can't quite do it.) Heinlein mentions several female characters who are Navy, and ship pilots, and gives a one sentence "faster reactions, and can handle more gee" explanation. However, the navy is not all-female: at least one MI recruit washed out and became "third cook in a troop transport . . . he felt the he was a little bit better than the ordinary Navy man." (Mid chapter 4; p46 of 208 in the library's 1961 Signet pb) So there is a place for women in Heinlein's armed forces. However, I don't think starting a blow-by-blow worldbuilding critique in comments is worth it; I think other people have probably made the same points elsewhere. I'd rather take the concepts of civic virtue, citizenship, entry costs, war, responsibility and the value of government participation and do my own 21st century spin on the matter.

If I were going to do a worldbuilding breakdown, I'd probably end it with some paired reading suggestions. Starship Troopers and Ender's Game for considerations of duty and privilege; Starship Troopers and Alexi Panshin's Rite of Passage for considerations of maturity and getting the franchise.

[herewiss13]

I did not, in fact, read the subject line. Mea culpa.

*hangs head*