I’m introducing a new book review series to the blog post – kicking it off with Everything I Hated About Starship Troopers. You’ll get an in-depth look for what I enjoy (or not) about a famous science fiction story. Even the best stories have something to hate about them, just as the worst stories have something to love (Looking at you, Krull). The previous series (‘Great moments in bad storytelling’) left me a little cold, so this seems to be a more friendly way to review different scifi stories. Make sense? Cool, let’s do this.
Main thing to remember when talking about ‘everything I hated’ is – I don’t hate Starship Troopers. Wouldn’t necessarily call it a favorite, but I did enjoy the Big Ideas and cool tech that Heinlien introduced us to back in 1959. Starship Troopers won the 1960 Hugo, and deserves careful consideration by any professional author.
What’s It About?
To kick us off, here’s a brief Starship Troopers (ST) synopsis – Rico joins a military unit called “Rasczak’s Roughnecks” to fight against Skinnies on a distant planet. Flashing back, we see Rico’s decision to join the military despite his parents’ disapproval. He undergoes intense training and faces challenges, including the death of his mother in an alien attack. Rico fights in the disastrous Battle of Klendathu and later joins Officer Candidate School. Along the way, he reconciles with his father and meets up with his friend Carmen. Eventually, Rico becomes a second lieutenant and leads his own platoon, “Rico’s Roughnecks,” into battle.
So that’s what ST is about. I LOVE ST for it’s depictions of mecha fighting suits (Long before anyone knew what a mecha was). I also love it for its science-appropriate discussion about LEO mechanics. Nobody’s trying to drop a Star Destroyer or the Enterprise into atmosphere … that’d be stupid, right? Anyway …
It’s important to NOT judge the book by modern standards of writing and style. That said, ST had some missed opportunities in terms of ‘show don’t tell,’ pathos, and character development. In fact, as a writer, Heinlein’s style is a masterclass in ‘what not to do’ that we can all learn from.
What Did I Hate?
Heinlein’s toxic masculinity – I get it, ST is a product of its times. Yet, you’ll note Heinlein’s remarkable disinterest in treating his characters like people. They’re McGuffins, moving the plot forward, and that’s about it. He spends an entire chapter talking about the feelings you get after a deserting soldier kills a young child. But how did Rico feel about seeing his friends die in combat? We never know. He doesn’t seem to know or care what a soldier might feel after their first taste of violent death or loss, Rico seems completely ambivalent to seeing close friends die in awful ways. If Hemingway could write about the pointlessness of war in 1929 (Farewell to Arms) – couldn’t Heinlein have demonstrated *a little* understanding of the human response to death and destruction? That’s thing one …
Uneven Pacing – ST spends nearly half the book in Boot Camp, discussing the minutiae of basic training in the future (Hint: It looks a lot like basic training in the present). Then he gallops through the second half of the book, discussing Rico’s combat diary, promotion to officer (and more dreary minutiae there), and finally one last big battle where Rico gets injured and as a result, he can only tell us what he knows from a hospital bed. My editor notes would be simple: GET TO THE POINT. Worldbuilding – however engaging – has to take a backseat to WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD YOU’VE BUILT. Skip to the good part – let’s see the fireworks show – don’t kill me with details about the history of pyrotechnics.
Wooden Characters – If you described Rico the protagonist, you could only say four things about him. He’s male, he’s South American, he’s an adult, and he likes girls. That’s it. Tall, short, skinny, fat, bullied in school, likes music? Nobody knows! He’s a McGuffin, there to tell you about the ST world and to remind you how to feel about things like children but not about parents (Literally, a single chapter about how bad they felt when an anonymous child is killed but TWO SENTENCES about losing his mom. Like, yeah.). No curiosity about the alien races they’re killing, except to refer to them as ‘bugs’ or ‘skinnies.’ Again, fifties, I get it – but no curiosity? No efforts to feel some kind of empathy? Okay … maybe it’s just me.
ST doesn’t feel like a story – it feels like a lecture. One of those ‘sit down, son – lemme tell you how a carburetor works’ chats that make your brain leak out your ears. Again, it’s Heinlein, so cool. But if I had to tell a story about haptic systems and future warfare? I’d spend more time on how they work, how they feel, what it’s like.
But that’s just me.
Anyway – wrapping up. I know Starship Troopers is a classic, but this is my moment to talk about everything I hated about the book. Now I feel better. I hope you do, too.
