<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Starship Troopers was originally intended to be part of Robert Heinlein's string of young adult novels, but it was turned down by the publisher, reportedly because of the violent content. Heinlein then sold it to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and it was released as a novel for adult readers in 1959. The main plot is a coming of age story in which a young citizen of Earth enlists in the military in order to help in the fight against a race of intelligent insects that have attacked human assets among the stars. Earth itself is a quasi-military state because military service is a prerequisite to being able to vote. The protagonist undergoes training and is tested in combat, in which he is aided by an environmental suit that makes him virtually a self-contained armored vehicle.

The surface story is exciting and well constructed, but it is merely the facade for what is essentially a Utopian novel. Most early Utopian fiction consists primarily of grand tours of a society constructed along the lines the author believes are more sensible and rational than the one in which we live. These stories have two essential literary flaws. First, they tend to be boring, more lecture and description than narrative. Second, they make little attempt to explain the transition from our society to their benevolent new system, and they assume against all experience that people will universally make a rational choice if it is presented to them.

Heinlein addressed the first problem skillfully by providing the military adventure to hold the reader's interest, but falls prey to the latter fault. He informs the reader that his society has been mathematically proven to be optimal, but ignores the questions of dissidents, religious traditions, and other factors almost entirely. There are elements in his future world that many readers find repugnant – public floggings and the execution of the criminally insane among them – and internal problems that he never addresses. Officers cannot be promoted until they have served in combat, for example, which means that there is a vested interest in ensuring that there is always a war going on.

Despite its flaws, Starship Troopers is an exciting and rewarding adventure story; it won a Hugo and has remained popular ever since its publication. The film version emphasizes the novel's virtues and ignores most of its excesses. The sequel to the motion picture has no relationship to the novel whatsoever.