Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers  is a military science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein.  The first-person narrative follows Juan “Johnny” Rico who progresses from recruit to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between humans and an alien species known as “Arachnids” or “Bugs”.  Interspersed with the primary plot are classroom scenes in which Rico and others discuss philosophical and moral issues, including aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, juvenile delinquency, and war; these discussions have been described as expounding Heinlein’s own political views.  A coming-of-age novel, Starship Troopers also critiques U.S. society of the 1950s, argues that a lack of discipline had led to a moral decline, and advocates corporal and capital punishment.  It became one of his best-selling books, and is considered his most widely known work.  Reviewers were strongly critical of the book’s intentional glorification of the military and the fact that only military veterans had the right to vote in the novel’s fictional society.  

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