Starship Troopers

Description

'The historians can't seem to settle whether to call this one 'The Third Space War' (or the fourth), or whether 'The First Interstellar War' fits it better. We just call it 'The Bug War'. Everything up to then and still later were 'incidents', 'patrols' or 'police actions'. However, you are just as dead if you buy the farm in an 'incident' as you are if you buy it in a declared war.' 5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down a terrifying enemy: an insect life-form known only as 'Bugs.' This is the story of trooper Johnny Rico, from his idealistic enlistment in the infantry of the future through his rigorous training to the command of his own platoon. And his destiny is a war that will span the galaxy.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was educated at the University of Missouri and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He served as a naval officer for five years but retired in 1934 due to ill health. He then studied physics at UCLA before beginning to publish sf with 'Lifeline' for Astounding Science Fiction in 1939. Among his many novels are Stranger in a Strange Land, The Door into Summer, Double Star, Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Heinlein's genius is at its height in this timeless classic that is as meaningful today as when it was written . . . a definite must-have, must-read book - SF Site Nothing has come along that can match it - Science Fiction Weekly Heinlein was absolutely at his peak when he wrote this in 1959 . . . this is military SF done extremely well