The name of this book was familiar to me even before I came upon a copy from my grandfather. No doubt most people will remember Starship Troopers as a B-action movie that never really reached the mainstream. While this book is the source material for that movie, the actual product is quite different.

            Starship Troopers follows the character Jonnie Rico who volunteers to join the army with his friends without really thinking what the consequences will be. He is soon recruited and finds himself doing ‘drops’ which is basically a method of shooting special soldiers out of a ship in orbit to the ground. The story itself follows Rico’s journey from civilian to trainee, and later to higher commanding ranks. This all occurs during the war with the bugs who don’t uphold the same value of life as the humans.

            There are quite a few similarities between the movie and the book. Obviously it’s a futuristic war against a race of bugs, and the goal of finding the ‘brain bug’ is the same. However the book takes a much more droll approach to the concept. We spend more time listening to Rico drone on about how military ranks work than we do seeing any action. Since I saw the movie first, I expected the bugs to be a critical part of the story, yet they take a backseat to Rico’s military ramblings throughout the book. Often times when Rico encounters a new character, or an old character gets promoted, he has to go into great detail about how the ranking system works and how, in some cases, it doesn’t make any sense (to Rico). Not only is this confusing to someone who doesn’t know anything about the military, it’s pretty boring as well.

            The entire book isn’t like this, and when the author decides to tell a story, it can be very engaging, but there is little motivation to continue reading. I myself only finished this book after long breaks and slow reading. There doesn’t really seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, nothing that the character is working for. We see hints of a romance, but it’s never explored, and considering the rather unemotional description of the war, we never really get the feeling he would be happy back home either. It’s hard to figure out why he’s fighting, and he ends off reading like a robot.

            I’ve heard several people recommend this book, though I’m not really sure why. I’ve certainly read worse books, but a book that focuses on long rants that distract from the story, isn’t something I usually recommend. If you’re up to the challenge, then have at it, it isn’t a very long book, but if you’re looking for a light read, you probably won’t find it here.