Starship Troopers

Heinlein, Robert A. Starship Troopers. New York: Putnam's, 1959. Rpt. New York: Berkley, 1968, 1975. New York: Ace, 1986.

Note fighting suits and the inadvertent dystopia of a future Terran federation ruled by service veterans and defended by a rigidly hierarchical, elite military establishment. The war against the "Bugs" in this novel is an allegory of the resistance of free men against "hive-communism." Cf. and contrast Joe Haldeman, Forever War (cited this Category). Discussed by H. B. Franklin, Robert A. Heinlein, 110-24, and by L. Heldreth, "In Search of the Ultimate Weapon" (q.v. under Literary Criticism). See cover of the 1968 Berkley edn. for the insectoid spaceships pictured—they do not appear in the novel; the cover of the 1986 Ace edn. has a postmodern, postRambo Trooper and fighting suit. Cf. and contrast (in terms of the politics) the Paul Verhoeven film STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997), q.v.