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Starship Troopers  By  cover art

Starship Troopers

By: Robert A. Heinlein
Narrated by: Lloyd James
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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

Featured Article: The Best Sci-Fi Book-to-Film/TV Adaptations


Beyond raising fascinating possibilities, the best works of science fiction ask big questions: What does it mean to be human? What will the future look like? What mysteries does the universe hold, and what do they mean for life on Earth? Whether you choose to escape via audiobook, movie, or television, these science fiction stories are truly out of this world—in all their incarnations.

What listeners say about Starship Troopers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10,551
  • 4 Stars
    4,105
  • 3 Stars
    1,500
  • 2 Stars
    327
  • 1 Stars
    165
Performance
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  • 5 Stars
    6,698
  • 4 Stars
    3,877
  • 3 Stars
    2,357
  • 2 Stars
    798
  • 1 Stars
    352
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9,968
  • 4 Stars
    2,687
  • 3 Stars
    1,064
  • 2 Stars
    254
  • 1 Stars
    135

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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91 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

DON'T see the movie, listen to this instead!

One of the crimes of this past century is the movie that was based on this classic novel. Someone ought to go to jail over that.

But this Blackstone audio production does real justice to this interesting novel. Don't get too caught up in the military aspect of it's plot. It's really a coming-of-age story. It's also a remarkably adult story. And of course, Heinlein gets on his soap box and finds space to put forward his rather unique conservative political positions. Agree with him or not, at least he will get you thinking.

If you are looking to share an audio book with a teenage son, this might be a good one. My 15 year old loved it, and it made for some interesting conversations.

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74 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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71 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

5 Star Story 1 Star Interpretation. 3 Overall

I love the story. It's well worth reading the actual book. But I cannot recommend the narrator for this one. And I was especially disappointed because the same narrator did such a GREAT job reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. But for this book he had a very flat, unemotional voice. And he kept hesitating and pausing in the middle of reading when it was obviously uncalled for. It was almost like he was unsure of himself and kept pausing to figure out how to read the next part. It was very annoying. Read the book - it's full of great ideas. But don't listen to this one.

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71 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Well Aged Heinlein

I had not read Starship Troopers in many years. Many of Heinlein's books have not aged very well, but this has aged quite well. This book has quite a lot of moral philosophy and social commentary, and a bit of humor, science fiction and action adventure. The main character is well developed, and the events interesting and fun. I enjoyed this listen quite a bit. This has little in common with the very bad movie.

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65 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Science Fiction Classic

As other people have pointed out, the movie "based on" this book really wasn't. A few of the concepts made it into the movie, but only in passing. The real problem is that if you see the movie, you're expecting a sci-fi action movie of bugs and guns, and that's not what this book is.

This is a Heinlein novel, and he's doing here what he does best: take a concept, and explore it through fiction. Many people have assumed that Heinlein is a fascist because of the world he created here, but I don't think they got the point. Unlike many Heinlein novels, this is a book for adults, and it requires thinking about what's being said.

This only gets four stars because of the reading. I think Lloyd James does a pretty good job here, but the long pauses get annoying. I kept thinking I'd bumped my iPod. Still, I recommend it.

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64 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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61 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful, but hold your fire on the narrator

I heartily agree with most of the comments above, but I'd disagree with the negative comments about the narrator. I've heard him read several things and he adapts himself - he's no raw youngster like Johnny Rico the supposed narrator, though he sounds exactly like one on this recording. So good was his reading of the book in this character that I really thought he was around 22. It was only when I heard him read other works that I realised how carefully he'd played the part, and that he is actually considerably older.

As for the book itself: wonderful. And the other comments are, IMHO, absolutely right - ie it knocks the film into a cocked hat. A very shallow cocked hat.

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50 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Incredible book! Incredibl(y bad) narrator!

What can I say? Not only did they take one of the great sci-fi pieces of all time, they got BEN STEIN to read it! Sure, the site claims it was this "Lloyd James" fellow, but I'd know that dead flat, utterly emotionless drawl anywhere! I assume it's a pseudonym.

The book is a pinnacle piece of Military Science Fiction, and should be enjoyed by anyone even vaguely interested in the genre. It literally defines much of what we think of the genre (and has absolutely nothing to do with the utter tripe they released as a movie). This is on the must-read list of anyone who claims to be a SF-aficionado.

But the reader... dear God.

Why they couldn't get L. J. Ganser, Marc Vietor, Stefan Rudnicki, or even Mark Boyett (all readers who not only do Sci-Fi well, but have a particular talent in military pieces) to do the reading escapes me. What do we, Heinlein's adoring public, have to do to get a decent multi-media treatment of this book!? The movie was garbage, the audio's miserable... please won't SOMEBODY do this right? Honestly, Heinlein himself would have been a better choice for reader, and he DIED TEN YEARS BEFORE THE RECORDING!

5 stars for the book. 1 star for the narrator. 3 average. Sorry Mr. H. It's not your fault.

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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28 people found this helpful