He has a crush on his friend Carmen, who also joins the military on the same day. In the beginning, Rico is a whimsical guy. This puts Rico in a situation carry on without his best friend, or follow his path and sign up for the Terran Federation? He chooses the latter. Rico, along with his buddy Carl, trundle through High School thinking life’ll be swell until Carl decides he’s going to fight. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor. He lost his hand during the war, and now he’s teaching at Rico’s school, encouraging others to join up as he did.ĭubois’ character looks to be a stand-in for Heinlein, as his thoughts and philosophies are like that of the author.

Dubois, whom he later finds out was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Terran Federation. Take his History and Moral Philosophy teacher, Jean V. Written through Rico’s eyes these second characters still take up large portions of the book.

Written as a memoir from Juan ‘Johnnie’ Rico’s perspective, there are a lot of information dumps from various characters.

This has led some to praise the books reflective views while others have criticised its heavy use of military propaganda. Starship Troopers is not only one of the most controversial works of Sci-Fi but also one of the most talked about.įirst released in 1959, it’s thought that Heinlein wrote the book as a direct response to the nuclear testing moratorium taking place at the time.

Starship troopers novel