Starship Troopers

Perhaps the most famous of the most famous pew-pew-em-ups, Heinlein wrote this novel as a response to criticism of his military activism. In the novel, Juan Rico enters the idyllic world of the mobile infantry for the Terran Federation, where law and justice is swift, clear, and precise, thanks to a law that permits only military vets to vote or hold office. (Because, you know, the military isn't at all associated with stifling red tape, inefficient bureaucracy, and unethical cronyism.) Juan gets a really neat armor suit, he shoots Bugs, and he has flashbacks to lectures by his militarist teacher of History and Moral Philosophy.

True to Heinlein form, Bob starts penising on page six ("Yes, yes, I know they make better pilots than men do..."), but unlike many of his later novels, he drops the "women are speshul snowflakes" preoccupation sooner than usual, in favor of lots of talk about Personal Responsibility and Bootstrap Pulling. His reluctance to address death ("bought it" being the preferred phrase), his inability to foster real interiority, and a general neglect of the lower classes typically recruited and abused by the service make this book similar in substance to earlier pulp heroics that employ similar devices like powered armor and militaristic societies (ahem, Lensman, ahem). And, yeah, the "bug" talk feels racist to me, but that's a symptom of militarism and military SF in general, which is reliant on dismissive slurs used to dehumanize the enemy-- highly realistic, but reminds me of every racist I've ever encountered.

My favorite gem: "Back to these young criminals-- They probably were not spanked as babies; they certainly were not flogged for their crimes." (121) Heinlein: always with his finger on the pulse of the lower classes. Because no one ever enters the penitentiary system with a history of abject childhood physical abuse. Never.

On the upside, it's definitely engaging, regardless of political persuasion. Plot is overrated anyway.