Read History

2026 | Score: 5.5

This is a hard one for me to give a score to. The book has strong militaristic and political themes throughout, and the story itself doesn’t have a ton of content outside of Heinlein expressing those themes. Johnny is one of the most bland narrators ever, which I assume is intentional. The book explicitly calls out many practices of 20th century democracy and military and Heinlein seems to be very critical of them. In this world, only those who serve are citizens with the right to vote. Overall, a short, interesting read, without a ton of “book content” to enjoy.

Format: Audible

Days: 6

Date: 3/26/2026 -> 4/1/2026

Summary

Starship Troopers
Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers Summary

Johnny Rico is a member of the Mobile Infantry in a futuristic military. He and his squad, Ratjack’s Roughnecks, are aboard the boat (space ship) the Roger Young. They get dropped in capsules onto the planet below, inhabited by “Skinnies”, an alien race. Every member of the team is in powered armor suits, capable of unleashing devastating weaponry (multiple atomic bombs, etc.), and covering vast distances rapidly. He has recently been promoted to a command position. Their lieutenant, Ratjack, died (“bought it”) on their last mission and the sergeant Jelly is taking over. Johnny helps another squad leader, Ace, carry a wounded man, Dizzy< to the ship for pickup, despite Ace telling him not to. Jelly comes to help and they all make it out, although Dizzy dies on the way up.

We go back in time to his childhood, where Johnny grew up wealthy and his best friend Carl is a smart electrician kid. Carl says he is going to join the military, and Johnny decides to do it also although they both know his rich father won’t let him, and plans to send him to Harvard and take over the company business. Shortly after they graduate and turn 18, a female friend Carmen sees them and says she is going to join up, and Johnny makes the snap decision to do it also. His parents are enraged and is mostly cut off from them. He gets assigned to the Mobile Infantry (MI), and quickly begins to associate with them, as “The real army”.

Johnny gets sent to camp Arthur Curry in the North Pole (I think) for boot camp training. It is incredibly intense, with students dying and many more dropping out. Sergeant Zim is their instructor and he seems a cruel man at first. One trainee is given 10 lashes and dishonorably discharged for striking Zim. Johnny overhears the camp captain and Zim talking and learns Zim considers it his fault for not being fast enough and letting the boy hit him. Johnny starts to feel connection to them, but decides he is going to resign. This is not for him. However before he can they are sent on a long march, and he receives a letter from an old high school teacher and veteran who served in the MI, Dubois. Dubois was a high ranked officer, and his encouragement, despite them not being close in high school, helps Johnny continue on. He receives a letter from his mother but his father still hates him, and they see a deserter hanged for killing a baby girl.

Johnny makes a few friends and graduates with less than 200 of the 2,000 that started. Quickly, a war begins with an alien race called Bugs (large arachnid hivemind). The bugs bomb and destroy Buenos Aires, and Johnny later learns his mother was there and was killed. He and the MI are dropped onto the bugs home planet but suffer a major defeat. Since most of his unit died, he is assigned to the Roughnecks and we catch back up to the present after a few more combat drops. While on R&R (rest and recuperation) on Sanctuary (A secret paradise planet), Ace ends up telling Johnny he should go to officer school. Johnny enrolls in Officer Candidate School (OCS) and begins to train to be an officer. Right before he starts, he runs into his father at a shipyard. They are both happy to see each other. His father joined up after the Buenos Aires bombing, and they are friends now.

Johnny learns about being an officer. He has dinner with Carmen, who is now a Navy pilot, and we learn that Carl died in an attack on Pluto. During his training Johnny is given a temporary command post under Captain Blackstone, and they attack a bug outpost with the goal of capturing some of the hivemind brains. They succeed despite heavy losses, and Johnny getting hit by a falling rock and sent to the hospital ward for a month. We find out Zim was his sergeant for this operation and helped it go smoothly.

Blackstone sends him back to school with good comments and he graduates. Johnny ends up back on the Roger Young as lieutenant, with his dad as his second in command, leading a platoon called Rico’s Roughnecks, about to do a combat drop. THE END.