Sgt Grit Marine Forums

Yes - then so be it, and you will hear that phrase all over the Corps. 

The Book is still on the Commandant's list. 

My Kid read it in Science Fiction class in High School and said that the movie was different.  That movie came out a long time ago, when my kid was in High School in the early 90's or so.

I also read it in High School too in a Science Fiction Literature class in the early 70's.

Yup it's on the List and the book is a heck of a lot better than the movie.

If you like the genre, try Ender's Game.  It's on the list as well.

Yeti

Well here's a Marine who never read it mainly because I have never cared much for science fiction,but it sounds like this book is one I need to check out.

  Semper Fidelis,
     Chris

Well Chris, Heinlein, CS Lewis, Issac Asinoff, and other Sci Fi writers have alot of undertones in their writings of a political and religious nature.  Most of them study Theology.  SciFi allows them to express many things with out looking wierd, odd-ball, or a zealot.

Heinlein was a USNA (1929) Graduate and Naval Officer - devoted socialist liberal converted then to become an advocate of Nuclear Power & Goldwater supporter - recruited Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp to work as Aero Engineers at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.

Isaac Asimov was a devout Athiest, raised by very religious Jewish parents and he's a self-proclaimed Feminist and supporter of Homosexual rights.  Afraid of flying but loves to travel by ship, highest military rank US Army Corporal.

Aruthur C. Clarke was RAF Flt Lieutenant during WWII, in charge of Radar Pickets for Battle of Britain, writes with a style of religious and technological clashing and harmonizing along with the paranormal.

C.S. Lewis was wounded in WWI while serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army,  raised a Christian, became an Athiest, then became a Christian again, besides being a SciFi writer is also a leading Christian Apologist.  Al writings deal with Christian themes or sin, the fal, and the redemption.  as a very close friend of JRR TOLKIEN.

Thanks Gunny. I've read some CS Lewis but I read it only a few years ago. I guess as a child my intelligence wasn't developed enough to pick up the subliminal messages in his writings but as an adult and hopefully a little more intelligent, I could see them.

One writer that has really suprised me in the last 10 years with his books starting to have religious undertones is Stephen King. Seems I started noticing that after he was almost killed when hit by a van as he walked along a road in Maine.

  Semper Fidelis,
    Chris

Other sci fi/fantasy authors of note I'd recommend:
Harry Harrison (The Stainless Steel Rat series, The Hammer and the Cross, Bill the Galactic Hero)
David Drake (The General series)
SM Stirling (The Belisarius series)
David Weber (The Honor Harrington series)
Keith Laumer (The Bolo Universe)
George RR Martin (A Song of Fire and Ice)
Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)

 

The book is awesome and a must read. The movie was crap. The best adaptation on screen though was a Japanese anime back in 1988

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(OVA)

I own and have read all Heinlein has published.

I understood from his essays in  Expanded Universe, The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, that he

was a Patriot.

Been a while since I read it but Who Are the Heirs of Patrick Henry? best as I can remember

reminds people of the cost of freedom and asks what has become of real Americans. 

From a Obit:

To the end Heinlein retained the libertarian notions on which he had
been brought up, and believed that governments had no business to be
meddling in the lives of individuals. Paradoxically, perhaps, he held the
discipline of military life in some awe, and in his fiction, at least,
had little time for incompetence or self pity.

 another obit

Robert Anson Heinlein (Hine-Line) was born on Oct. 21, 1907, in Butler, Mo.,
and grew up a fan of such classic science fiction authors as H. G. Wells
and Jules Verne.  He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1929
and remained in the service until 1934.  He later did graduate work in
physics and mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles.

He turned to writing full time in 1939, beginning with stories for the pulp
magazines.  "They didn't want it good," he said in a 1980 interview with The
New York Times. "They wanted it Wednesday."

He interrupted his writing during World War II, which he spent as an
aviation engineer with the Navy.  After the war, he wrote for major
magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, and then took up writing
science-fiction novels, initially for young people and then, beginning in
the 1950's, for adults.

And to show his brass pair:

  As late as the '80s, at a symposium on President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, when Arthur C. Clarke cast doubt on the feasibility (not to mention the wisdom) of attempting to put an umbrella of safety against missile attack over the United States, Heinlein would become furious and inform Clarke that since he wasn't a U.S. citizen, he had no business butting into American affairs.  That would be the last occasion these one-time friends saw each other.

Add to this list Elizabeth Moon (Harris Sarano Series).  

Ps.  She Served as a Lt of Marines before taking up a career as a writer.

Semper Fi

R. Deiters

MSgt USMC(Ret).

BamaMarine7276:

Thanks Gunny. I've read some CS Lewis but I read it only a few years ago. I guess as a child my intelligence wasn't developed enough to pick up the subliminal messages in his writings but as an adult and hopefully a little more intelligent, I could see them.

One writer that has really suprised me in the last 10 years with his books starting to have religious undertones is Stephen King. Seems I started noticing that after he was almost killed when hit by a van as he walked along a road in Maine.

  Semper Fidelis,
    Chris

This is one of my favorite books too, have any of you read Battlefield Earth. The book was excellent, though the movie shared names only with it. 

Starship troopers is one of the best books written to capture the emotional feel of being a grunt.  The writer nailed it.  I read it in high school, and wasn't much impressed, but when it hit the Commandant's reading list I re-read it...in one sitting.  I was engrossed.  I highly recomend this book to anyone that has ever been in a ground unit.  It has the feel and gritiness of the line animals.  Excellent read.

 Gy K