Just finished reading Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein.  It’s told in the first person from Juan (Johnnie) Rico’s perspective.  The opening scenes depicting a battle that he took part in are really well done.

From there Johnnie describes entering boot camp and his reasons for it.  In this depiction of a future Earth, well after a war between Russia, Britain and the U.S. against the Chinese Hegemony, the only people allowed to vote are those that have served the military in some capacity.

Everyone can sign up and is accepted, but there’s is every effort to get people to quit because there are far more applicants than jobs.

Johnnie submits his list of jobs and the very last one is the M.I. mobile infantry, which is the only thing that the military thinks he’s good for.

Throughout his training he recalls back to his high school days in high school and this is how Heinlein brings the reader up to speed with why the world works the way it does.  It doesn’t get old and really draws you into Rico’s world.  You understand why they fight the aliens, why the government acts the way it does, and why the military acts the way it does.

I enjoyed this work far more than The Forever War because there were no issues that I felt didn’t make sense  (FYI, I enjoyed forever war as well).  
I highly recommend this read.

The Good: Well written.  The first line really gets you into the story “I always get the shakes before a drop.”   Believable story and plot.  No getting bogged down in techno-babble... Heinlein explains how people use technology, not necessarily how the technology works.  Ie he doesn’t really explain Cherenkov Drives (the engines used in starships) and I just assumed they provided a type of warp so time dilation as a result of faster than light speed isn’t an issue.

The Bad: this as far as I know is only a one off book.  Which is too bad I would have loved to read further in this univers.

The Ugly: nothing to do with the book, but the movie, while a nice romp, doesn’t do the book justice at all.  The lame Do you want to know more? Crap is non-existent in the book!