Recensione (ENG): Starship Troopers

“Starship Troopers”; di Robert A.Heinlein, kindle edition

The protagonist of this well-known SF’s novel is Juan Rico who lives in a near future (compared to the sixties of the twentieth century!) in a unified and pacified world but threatened by an alien bugs-like race.

Peace and order have been obtained (and restored) after a devasting world war thanks to the initiative of some veterans who enforced a new order based on an elitist form of democracy that bestows only to "citizens” a certain set of “rights” (for example the active and passive right of voting). A “citizen” is one who has carried on the military service.

Son of a rich family, the young Rico, contrary to the opinion of his parents, chooses to enlist as a volunteer in MI (mobile infantry).

Basically, the novel tells the transformation of a frivolous eighteen young man in a real one, first through a very hard and selective military training, then as a result of the war events in which it will be involved.

From my point of view, it is very difficult to judge this novel.

One of the things that left me puzzled is that the author has spent more time explaining his political vision and the difficult path that leads the protagonist to understand it, compared to what he has told of the story itself and, of the war events.

Basically, even if utopias or dystopias are a common currency in SF, they normally form the background and not the main topic of the story. Here, on the contrary, the impression is that the personal story of the protagonist and the Bugs war are just an excuse to describe a political and philosophical alternative.

So, at the end I can say:

1) Interesting as a political and philosophical point of view (even if I am not sure I would agree!).

2) Not very engaging as a SF story.