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
No comments:
Post a Comment