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

One of Heilen's best

If you could sum up Starship Troopers in three words, what would they be?

Books always better than movies

How could the performance have been better?

This was the first audio book by Lloyd James I listened to. There were a great many annoying over dubs that distracted from the reading. Have since listened to another of his readings, "Time Enough For Love", he is an excellent reader, don't let this one keep you from listening to others that he has done.

First or early narration - not well done

What did you like best about Starship Troopers? What did you like least?
The story mixed action with philosophy well. It's one my favorite Heinlein books. I wish Lloyd James would re-record it with the skills he has now. It's the reason I joined the Army instead of another branch - and I stayed for 3 years active and 18 years in the reserves. I guess you could say that this book was an important influence in my life.

BUT, this was one of Lloyd James' first audio books (I think and hope). He LATER became a very good reader. With this book he was stilted and artificial. Later, when he read "The Curse of Chalion" (a VERY good book, by the way) he read so well that I looked a couple of times to assure myself it was the same reader.

What did you like best about this story?
The realistic action (which hasn't deteriorated at all over 50 years) and the philosophy, mixed in, that I wish we could adopt now.

Would you be willing to try another one of Lloyd James’s performances?
YES, BUT, look carefully at the performance reviews of Lloys James. He started off poor but became very good.

Was Starship Troopers worth the listening time?
YES! But don't let Lloyd James reading put you off Heinlein. He was the king of SF from 70+ to 40 years ago. His books have aged remarkably well.

Great book. Audio doesn't do it justice.

The reader sounds lackadaisical at times - appropriate for the beginning but not for the rest. Troopers don't sound lackadaisical.
Odd lines of dialogue are replaced by another reader. Bizarre.

Get it anyway.

The book is amazing, the reading is good enough tho

Don’t get me wrong, the book is awesome and being able to listen to it is a gift. However, when compared to the quality of some other titles, the narration of this book deserved more love putted into it. The problem is that sometimes the narrator changes along with the audio quality. It must have been because of problems during the recording, so they had to graft some older person narrating (lesser audio quality, mono sound I think).

David's review

The federation is the libertarian Utopia. Also it has no prisons. Instead for every non executionable crime you receive a whooping.

Classic Military SF

Don't go in thinking that you are going to see the movie. It is very different. Most of the book is naval gazing and the only real action is at the beginning and the end. It is a fascinating look at the 1950's era view of the future of the military. The author expresses lots of opinions in the book. My only complaint about that was too many "straw men" used to reinforce points of view through the novel. Definitely, a must read for any fan of military sci-fi.
The performance was good, but the recording itself was a little rough.

Recording was Strange

Such a good book, saw alot of reviews roasting the narrator but its not really him. It felt like there were edits off a different mic that were just stuck in places. get off your audio high horse and listen to this one. So good

This is not the movie!

Do not judge this book by the movie. The story is fantastic! The performance of the narrator also is fantastic. Remember this was written during different times, so keep that in mind. Overall just good story.

great listen, great story!

loved it. I have plenty of time for audio books and I was put onto this book by fans of the movie. this was a good move and I don't regret it. excellent work on both the narrator and the author.

Timeless...

...but ocasionally there were small, but noticeable variations in the volume, tone, and timbre of the narration as they seemed to splice in different takes.