Wednesday, October 15, 2014

finished a book!

Not my book though.

I just finished reading Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

Disclaimer* I love science-fiction and especially have a great deal of respect for the Big 3 of SF: Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein.

Anyway, I loved the movie as a kid and never really figured to read any of the real creator's work. Now that I have, I am a little upset at the movie. It doesn't come near the depth of the book.

The book has themes, y'know those important elements of a book that give it meaning, something that you can chew on once you're done.

The book hits on lots of things: the meaning of citizenship, civic duty, morals, cultural identity, the value of human life. It goes through a lot of steps, and I think it hits on many of them.

That alone makes it worth the read.

Yes, it's about war. Yes, it's about military.

It's gotten a lot of flak for glorifying war, but I think that's too broad. Read it, think about it, then come back and we can talk about it. I don't want to spoil it.

So I won't go further into it because I'd love to do some more of my own writing tonight, but seriously, if you've got some downtime, check it out. It's a quick read at about 250 short pages.

-----jy

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