(Old Man’s) War (huh!), Good God, Y’all.
I may have found the answer to my question the other day about the first writer to come up with powered armour, Iron Man style: via Making Light, a Timeline of Science Fiction Inventions. And, to pretty much no-one’s surprise, it’s Heinlein in Starship Troopers.
You know, I’ve hardly read any of Heinlein’s stuff. I liked the film of Starship Troopers, but then I might’ve enjoyed I Am Legend if I hadn’t read the book. Although, maybe not. I’ve no idea what the Heinlein fans think of the movie, but I liked the explodey bits in a mindless action entertainment kind of way. And you can have a surprisingly long discussion about the politics, too. I mean, is it a fascist utopia in the same way that (controversy alert) Star Trek is a socialist utopia? Was Paul Verhoeven using American money to have a dig at American morality, much like he did ten years before with Robocop? Is he poking Heinlein himself (or Heinlein fans) with a pokey stick? Whatever the intention, I can state without a doubt that Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation is a fucking dire piece of crap made for exactly 1 pound and 34 pence (which is about 2.61 of your American Dollars on today’s exchange rate).
Anyway, the point is I’ve always meant to read the original, and the perfect opportunity is coming up. Over the past year or so, I’ve been pruning back on the amount of books stacking up in the house because the way I’m going sooner or later I’ll be found dead under a collapsed shelf, with only one hand visible, thumb extended in an emotional final homage to Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Under the Current Rules, I’m going back to read every single book I’ve either started and not finished or not started at all, and if by page 50 I’m not hooked then it’s going to the charity shop.
After a couple of books got the chop for violating Current Rules, I picked up The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, and lo, it was Good. And after finishing it, by way of comparison I bought Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (the very morning before I found out it’s being given away for free. Damn you Scalzi), and lo, it too was Good. So that’s what I’m going to be talking about over the next couple of days, and if I can score a copy of Troopers before the weekend I’ll probably complete the trifecta with that.
on February 13th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Lo. Agreed about The Forever War and Old Man’s War…but the opinion of Heinleinophiles to the contrary, the Starship Troopers movie is a lot better than the book.
on September 3rd, 2010 at 1:45 am
I am pleased someone chose to sooner or later shed light on this. I have puzzled over it numerous times before.