Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers is an American military science fiction novel writen by Robert A. Heinlein that was first published in 1959. It is a story about a young man who joins the military of a united Earth government, which is at war with a eusocial insectoid race referred to as the Arachnids or just the Bugs. The novel has some socio-political elements which are controversial, such as advocating corporal punishment and a positively portraying a society in which political franchise is limited to those who perform at least one term of hazardous government service (such as military).

A live-action movie with the same title and few other similarities was released in 1997; it has two dreadful direct-to-DVD sequels.

Influence

Despite its more controversial elements, Starship Troopers is an influential work of military science fiction. It was one of the first science fiction novels to involve power armor, as well as creating the cliche of rigorously trained, heavily armored infantry fighting against hordes of hostile aliens. Successors to this theme include the following:

• The Space Marines from Warhammer 40,000 and to a lesser Degree, Elite Battlesuited Tau Firewarriors
• The Spartans from Halo
• Terran Marines from Starcraft