Customer Reviews (1)

Better than expected
I have learned not to expect much when I buy online. The book arrived sooner than the website said it would and the quality was excellent! The text is almost in pristine shape so much so that my 13 year old daughter thought I have bought it new!! ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. In a futuristic military adventure, a recruit goes through the roughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry in what historians would come to call the First Interstellar War.Amazon.com Review
Juan Rico signed up with the Federal Service on a lark, butdespite the hardships and rigorous training, he finds himselfdetermined to make it as a cap trooper. In boot camp he will learn howto become a soldier, but when he graduates and war comes (as it alwaysdoes for soldiers), he will learn why he is a soldier. Manyconsider this Hugo Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work,and with good reason. Forget the battle scenes and high-tech weapons(though this novel has them)--this is Heinlein at the top of his gametalking people and politics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (737)

The Challenging and Benchmark Space Opera Novel
Like others have said, IGNORE the stupid, stupid movie. Starship troopers is a great novel that revolutionized an entire subgenre of science fiction.The action scenes are brief, but the situations and background are well-crafted and gripping.Yes, it's also loaded with political science, much of which feels dated now since it was written during the Cold War, but even these ideas are challenging and rich.I find this novel as absorbing today as ever.The lonely and brave feel of the human soldiers against the bug army is haunting.I'll read it again soon.

The movie was good, too
America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 1: Feeling Lucky

I liked "Starship Troopers" (The movie) better than the book, but the book was good, too.I read "Starship Troopers" quickly, even though is was long and dated.

Also, I take issue with critics who say "Starship Troopers" is a controversial book.Those liberal critics think anything patriotic is politically incorrect.

Don't Be Turned Off by the Campy Movie with the Same Name
Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" is an excellent science-fiction book about future infantry combat.I read this book when I was younger, but my memories of the book have been transformed by the horrible movie that is based on the book.However, the movie, while true to some basic parts of the story, illustrates a nearly-opposite view to Heinlein's original story.Re-reading the book was worthwhile because it brought back the genius in the story.

Heinlein wrote this book from the first-person perspective of Juan Rico. Set in the distant future, humans are locked in combat with an alien species of bugs.Earth (Terra) is more or less united, and the only path to citizenship (and its benefits, like voting) is by serving in Federal military service.Rico enlists and joins the Mobile Infantry - men who bounce around in giant powered suits with an array of weaponry, including small nuclear rockets.

Heinlein's future is interesting.Parts of it are a throwback to other eras (corporal punishment is used both in the civilian and military systems, and citizenship has to be earned), and the infantry combat is gritty and deadly.The dialogue certainly feels, at times, a product of the 1950s.However, the backdrop is an advanced society with advanced weaponry and the ability to travel through interstellar space.

But beyond all of that, Heinlein also wrote a compelling personal story.While not an original one, Heinlein tells the story of a middle class boy who enlists in the Mobile Infantry, survives the culture shock and acclimatization of boot camp, survives some tough combat against the bugs, and emerges a successful and skilled soldier and man.

Heinlein's really captured the feel By combining Rico's personal story, a realistic and gritty look at combat, and an intriguing future for mankind, Heinlein has written a great book for anyone interested in science fiction or military fiction.

Technofiction review of Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein was the first science fiction story I ever read, way back in 7th grade or so (1960). That book was the first inspiring book I read by myself, and started me on a years-long devotion to reading science fiction. It was really inspiring.

In 1990, I reread Starship Troopers, and as I read it, I was surprised: it didn't feel like I was reading the same story. My impression the second time was of a Sands of Iwo Jima in Space instead of something entirely new and different. (and I was kind of shocked at how much living thirty years had changed my perspective!)

Either way, the heart of the story was power armor, how to use it, and how its presence affected people's thinking. In this story Heinlein proposed that to become a citizen -- someone who voted on how to run the government -- a person needed to first demonstrate some responsibility to the community....Sounded good to me, but for taking that stance many critics labeled this book as supporting fascism.

In 1997 I saw the Starship Troopers movie, and saw that the director had missed the point of the story entirely by taking out the power armor. Without power armor, the soldiers were transformed into World War One "over the top" infantry who would be discouraged from asking "Why?" before they marched off into a do-or-die situation, and because of that, they lost any reason to be "responsible for the community" in the sense that Heinlein was emphasizing in his book version of the story. Unlike the book, the movie really was about a Fascist/Spartan "Come back with your shield or on it." mentality.

These changes in what I read, and misinterpretations in what I saw depicted in the movie, inspired me to write my own version of the power armor story, and you can find it in my short story "The Ticket Out" in "Tips for Tailoring Spacetime Fabric Vol. 1". Tips for Tailoring Spacetime Fabric : Vol. 1

So in the end, I still found the book inspiring, but the movie a whole lot less so. Yeah, this is one of those "read the book, you'll like it a lot better"-cases.

unexpected surprise
I had seen the ST movie previously, and had expected the book to be similar, but it is not (thankfully, as I thought the movie rather stupid).This is a serious military novel, with more emphasis upon the training and development of a soldier than upon battle scenes.It is well-written, not too long, and much better than the movie! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents the life of the Bolivian-born teacher who immigrated to the United States where he inspired and motivated his inner city students to excel in mathematics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A good portrayal of the man who taught Ganas
I had heard that Stand and Deliver was a good movie and so I borrowed it from my public library. I wanted to know the truth about Jaime Escalante, the truth behind the movie. I happened to see this book one day and just started reading it. It took me less than an hour to read, but the well-written book taught me much about Escalante, the sensational and resourceful teacher. This is not only the Stand and Deliver story-- the story about how he made 18 high school students pass the A.P. Calculus exam, but the things that led to it and the aftermath.

This book is a short read, but it is inspiring and especially good if you want to know the story behind Stand and Deliver, the movie about Jaime Escalante as a teacher.

Entertaining and Inspirational
This lively and engaging biography makes good use of quotations and information gained through personal interviews with Escalante.Reading this book makes me feel that I have spent time in Escalante's company.I would not want teachers to mimic his style, but I would like them all to share his determination to succeed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The other side of World War II and Japanese-American troops.
This is not an easy read.It's not a guns-and-glory war book.

Rather, it is a serious sociological study of morale in a company of Japanese-American draftees during WW2.

Many of these young men had already endured the abuses of being arrested and detained in camps for the crime of being of Japanese ancestry.

The US government, goaded on by nativist racists on the West Coast, illegally interned 100,000 US CITIZENS of Japanese ancestry for no good reason.The FBI had already determined they were not a risk.

There were more Japanese-Americans in Hawaii than on the West Coast, but none of them were interned.

The real reason for the internment was to STEAL BILLIONS from the Japanese-Americans on the West Coast.That part was a "success".

No wonder these draftees were sad sacks in the Army.They had already watched their families get the shaft from Uncle Sam. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses strategic battles in the Pacific during World War II, including Bataan and Corregidor, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. ... Read more