Starship Troopers, book
I finally read the book I'd heard and read so much about. Starship Troopers originally came out in 1959 and its rather recent movie pretty much only superficially resembles it. It has a main character called Johnnie (that is, Juan Rico), it takes place some hundreds of years in the future, there's a problem with Bug attacks, Johnnie enlists against his father's wishes, a lot of the character names are the same, etc.
The book starts out in basically the middle of the story: Johnnie has already been in the military for some time and is participating in an attack on "Skinnies," enemy aliens who are in league with the Bugs and who are similar to humans but far taller and thinner. A Dizzy Flores (a man) is mentioned in this chapter, and once again later in the book at a point where it refers to this Skinnies attack, and that's it for Flores. After Chapter 1, he goes back in time to when he first discusses with his father about joining the military, and the fact that once he's eighteen it's his choice. He decides not to join, but goes along with his friend Carl who is planning to enlist. When they get to the building they meet their friend Carmen(cita Ibanez) who is there to enlist as a starship pilot. She asks them if they're there for the same thing. Carl says "I am" and Johnnie says "I am too." Cute. But it's explained that Carmen isn't Johnnie's or anyone's girlfriend; she spent high school studying lots of math and also swimming a great deal.
Johnnie runs into Carmen again much later in the book, but not much comes out of that. After enlisting and thus being ignored by his father, Johnnie spends much of the first half of the book just being in boot camp, basic training. He also flashes back a good deal about his high school moral philosophy class with Mr. Dubois. "What's the difference between a citizen and a civilian?" is there, and lots of philosophizing about what makes a good citizen and government and military, etc. Johnnie learns to connect what he was taught in classes and what he is living now as a soldier. This sentence pretty much applies to the rest of the book. There is some action and some explanation of the suits they wear (they can stride and jump very, very far) and some of their weapons, but philosophy is the biggest chunk. Johnnie later decides to be a career officer and so has to take more classes, where there is more opinions about government and the military, etc.
In about 30 pages before the end of the book, the soldiers finally raid a planet where Bugs are hiding out. Instead of killing as many as possible, this time they plan to capture live Brain bugs and maybe queens if possible, in order to learn more about them. The information we get about Bugs after this raid is unsatisfying. I want to learn more about them. There is some possibly implied telepathy: the soldiers land on the surface but obviously don't know where exactly the Bugs are, underground. A guy called a "talent" shows up, tells the soldiers to stop moving around because it's distracting, then talks to another guy who then makes a sketch. The sketch turns out to be a map of the Bug's underground tunnels and where exactly they are located. Johnnie wonders how the talent did this, "uh, it seems like magic, sir," but it's not really explained. To my satisfaction. I guess if I want more telepathy then I can read Czerneda.
So what do I think of this book? Does it matter? It does to me; I wasted hours reading this weirdness. I thought the book was great. I think it is rightly thought of as required reading for serious science fiction fans. I can see how many later futuristic military science fiction stories are based on this book. Though, later stories seem to be so much more heavily action and technological awesomeness oriented than philosophy and (complex) morality oriented. The philosophy wasn't too bad. It was relatively easy to understand. I didn't agree with much of it, and agreed with some of it. I got the feeling that the author was simply using one philosophy teacher after another to spout off his viewpoints. But it wasn't as annoying as, say, Michael Crichton's use of Ian Malcolm. I was able to read Starship Troopers as simply another society with its own culture and laws. The author may think that this society was ideal, but I wasn't entirely convinced. I thought of it more as the author's brainstorm on how society can be improved.
There was good "character development" (such a common phrase I hear, and lack of it causes so much complaint) for Johnnie but not really much for other people. They either die or they have already become what they are for this book (except for Johnnie's father, though he doesn't appear very often). I'd probably have preferred to hear more about Carmen -- she was a good character, far better than in the movie even though she wasn't around much. I'd have liked to learn more about the Bugs. The question was brought up, why do they fight? Why are they fighting us? Not really answered. Some of their differences from humans are explained (Bugs are expendable and controlled by Brain Bugs, while humans are individuals who will give their lives to save other humans). I wanted more info, but obviously this wasn't really what the book was about. The book was about what it means to be a soldier and a human being, and in that case it satisfied.
I'm going to go see if that book on science fiction film criticism is available in my library yet. It had a good chapter on Starship Troopers (the film and the book).
The book starts out in basically the middle of the story: Johnnie has already been in the military for some time and is participating in an attack on "Skinnies," enemy aliens who are in league with the Bugs and who are similar to humans but far taller and thinner. A Dizzy Flores (a man) is mentioned in this chapter, and once again later in the book at a point where it refers to this Skinnies attack, and that's it for Flores. After Chapter 1, he goes back in time to when he first discusses with his father about joining the military, and the fact that once he's eighteen it's his choice. He decides not to join, but goes along with his friend Carl who is planning to enlist. When they get to the building they meet their friend Carmen(cita Ibanez) who is there to enlist as a starship pilot. She asks them if they're there for the same thing. Carl says "I am" and Johnnie says "I am too." Cute. But it's explained that Carmen isn't Johnnie's or anyone's girlfriend; she spent high school studying lots of math and also swimming a great deal.
Johnnie runs into Carmen again much later in the book, but not much comes out of that. After enlisting and thus being ignored by his father, Johnnie spends much of the first half of the book just being in boot camp, basic training. He also flashes back a good deal about his high school moral philosophy class with Mr. Dubois. "What's the difference between a citizen and a civilian?" is there, and lots of philosophizing about what makes a good citizen and government and military, etc. Johnnie learns to connect what he was taught in classes and what he is living now as a soldier. This sentence pretty much applies to the rest of the book. There is some action and some explanation of the suits they wear (they can stride and jump very, very far) and some of their weapons, but philosophy is the biggest chunk. Johnnie later decides to be a career officer and so has to take more classes, where there is more opinions about government and the military, etc.
In about 30 pages before the end of the book, the soldiers finally raid a planet where Bugs are hiding out. Instead of killing as many as possible, this time they plan to capture live Brain bugs and maybe queens if possible, in order to learn more about them. The information we get about Bugs after this raid is unsatisfying. I want to learn more about them. There is some possibly implied telepathy: the soldiers land on the surface but obviously don't know where exactly the Bugs are, underground. A guy called a "talent" shows up, tells the soldiers to stop moving around because it's distracting, then talks to another guy who then makes a sketch. The sketch turns out to be a map of the Bug's underground tunnels and where exactly they are located. Johnnie wonders how the talent did this, "uh, it seems like magic, sir," but it's not really explained. To my satisfaction. I guess if I want more telepathy then I can read Czerneda.
So what do I think of this book? Does it matter? It does to me; I wasted hours reading this weirdness. I thought the book was great. I think it is rightly thought of as required reading for serious science fiction fans. I can see how many later futuristic military science fiction stories are based on this book. Though, later stories seem to be so much more heavily action and technological awesomeness oriented than philosophy and (complex) morality oriented. The philosophy wasn't too bad. It was relatively easy to understand. I didn't agree with much of it, and agreed with some of it. I got the feeling that the author was simply using one philosophy teacher after another to spout off his viewpoints. But it wasn't as annoying as, say, Michael Crichton's use of Ian Malcolm. I was able to read Starship Troopers as simply another society with its own culture and laws. The author may think that this society was ideal, but I wasn't entirely convinced. I thought of it more as the author's brainstorm on how society can be improved.
There was good "character development" (such a common phrase I hear, and lack of it causes so much complaint) for Johnnie but not really much for other people. They either die or they have already become what they are for this book (except for Johnnie's father, though he doesn't appear very often). I'd probably have preferred to hear more about Carmen -- she was a good character, far better than in the movie even though she wasn't around much. I'd have liked to learn more about the Bugs. The question was brought up, why do they fight? Why are they fighting us? Not really answered. Some of their differences from humans are explained (Bugs are expendable and controlled by Brain Bugs, while humans are individuals who will give their lives to save other humans). I wanted more info, but obviously this wasn't really what the book was about. The book was about what it means to be a soldier and a human being, and in that case it satisfied.
I'm going to go see if that book on science fiction film criticism is available in my library yet. It had a good chapter on Starship Troopers (the film and the book).