Starship Troopers

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Join the Army and See the Universe. That is the motto of The Third Space War, also known as The First Interstellar War, but most commonly as The Bug War. In one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial best sellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe - and into battle with the Terrain Mobile Infantry against mankind's most alarming enemy.

©1959 by Robert A. Heinlein (P)1998 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, 1960

Book is awesome. Narration was MIND-NUMBING

This story is Heinlein's finest. The story that is written, is unlike the horrible Hollywood production. The book is so good. The movie not so much.
I wanted to love listening to it, HOWEVER, the narrator was one of the worst I've heard one audible. He has no emotion whatsoever in his reading. He pauses where there shouldn't be a pause. When there are moments you know it would be intense, he still just dribbles on in his boring-nonemotional-monotone voice. I had to shut it off because its basically unlistenable. If I could get a refund for this audio book I would.
So with that said, buy the book and read it yourself, don't get this audio version.

Bad overdubs

Any additional comments?

Recording was mostly good, except for occasional sentences or paragraphs that were overdubbed and sounded awful - muffled, and possibly even a different narrator.

My favorite book ever

This is my favorite fiction book ever, and the only book that comes in a close second is Ender's Game. I loved "Starship Troopers" the first time that I read it at 13 years old, and I really loved listening to the audio recording 14 years later at 27. I drove around and wasted exhorbitant amounts of gas just so I could continue listening to it. It was nice. I reccommend this book to any person 13 years of age or above.

Freedom, Power=Responsibility

A well written space war story told with realistic characters and plot. This is a story of a young man who discovers himself and his place in a free society during an alien race war. Great action and character development with moral lessons that still hit home in the present. Questions like: Should everyone vote even if they don't care? What is the price of freedom? Is our way to handle youth violence based on any reasonable philosophy? Read this to enjoy a good tale or read it to think about human societies? It's good both ways.

Simply the Best

If you've seen the movie, you NEED to read/listen to the ORIGINAL Starship Troopers, which is only loosely based on this book. This book is so much better than the movie. Enter a world that could easily be ours.

Heinlein at his very best!

At first when I watched the movie of the same name I thought, "Wow, Hollywood just didn't get this book."

But now I'm convinced that Hollywood did understand what Heinlein was saying, but are so opposed to his ideas that they decided to create a spoof to discourage people from reading this book.

Don't be discouraged. Read this book.

Both the book and the movie have soldiers, bugs and guns. But that is where the similarities end.

This book is a soldier's tale. Johnny Rico is a reluctant soldier. As we follow him though his training and battles we learn about him and the society that has helped to produce him.

One has to keep reminding oneself that Heinlein wrote this novel in the 1950s because the way he describes the "chaos of the past" (which is our present and his future) is incredibly accurate. When he talks about how people were afraid to go into a public park at night for fear that they would be robbed, beaten or killed by gangs of juvenile criminals, it was only speculation from Heinlein's point of view. But few of us today would venture into a public park after dark for fear of exactly what Heinlein described.

The world of Johnny Rico is much different from ours today. Heinlein paints a world that has conquered most of the social problems that we experience by a simple premise: There are civilians and citizens. Civilians enjoy all the benefits of society except they may not hold elected office or vote. Only those that have proven themselves worthy though military service can become citizens, hold elected office or vote.

Why? Well you'll have to read the book to find out. But I will say this, when you understand why a "juvenile" can never be a "delinquent", you'll be well on your way to understanding what Heinlein was trying to convey.

Should be required reading in high school

I read this when I was in high school 16 years ago and loved it. Now older and having served in the Marine Corps, I adore and apreciate it the more. It is a wondrful commintary on civic duty.
Read it and then go thank a verteran for what he has done to make our society posssible.

Outstanding!!

I have read many books in my day and this one is my favorite. The 1997 movie and the book are completely different and unrelated. The movie is an embarrassment to this fantastic book. An interesting fact about the movie is that the director never even finished reading the book before he directed the movie.

Love the story, unimpressed with the narration

Where does Starship Troopers rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It rates last due to the narration.

What other book might you compare Starship Troopers to and why?

Hight school math book.

What didn’t you like about Lloyd James’s performance?

To flat and boring.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I could not listen to it in one sitting. Got irritated with the narration.

Any additional comments?

No.

Surprised

I have read Heinlein before and have been thinking about Starship Troopers for quite a while. I was hesitant because of the movie.. I am glad I gave it a try. It is a classic through and through. Perfect balance of action, technology and insight in the human nature. If you loved the movie - this book is NOT for you. You will be bored out of your wits. If you like Asimov - you will be just fine.