When I was a child one of my favorite science fiction novels was Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. I loved the novel back then because it presented an exciting future with spaceships and battles and a philosophy which sounded reasonable to my young mind. I probably read the novel a half-dozen times before moving on to other SF stories and authors.
In the years since I've reread the novel every decade or so. Doing so brings back pleasant memories of the first time I read it. But these rereadings also open the novel to understandings and insights I didn't have when I was a child. I still believe that the novel is one of Heinlein's best, and a critical inspiration for much of today's science fiction. Without this novel today's SF literature, movies and video games would likely be unrecognizable.
But that's doesn't mean there's not plenty to critique in the book.
This morning I reread Starship Troopers again and tweeted my reactions. Here are selected comments from me and others.
And make sure you don't miss Anne Leonard's hilarious feminist satire of Starship Troopers, which was inspired by my tweet-critique.