GregHowley.com

Starship Troopers was one of those movies which was only so-so, but from which I got the strong impression that the book would be very interesting. I was right, but what I failed to predict was that many of the ideas in the movie which I'd thought were central to the universe of the book were in fact manufactured solely for the movie, and in fact never actually existed in the book.

For example, the “bugs” in the book are actually humanoid bugs with weapons, just like the humans. I think I preferred the movie's notion of enemies so vastly different from humanoids.

Aside from that item though, most of the book's differences were positive. M.I. troopers don’t fly down to a planet’s surface on shuttles; they are dropped from space in individual phone-booth-sized canisters, so that if one is destroyed on the way down, only one trooper is lost. The equipment employed by M.I. troopers is also very interesting: a suit of armor with jump jets, portable flamethrowers and, mini-nuke grenades.

There was far less focus on the Rico's scientist friend and the female pilot, the focus being on the mobile infantry. We see Rico's progress through the ranks of the M.I., and are introduced to a world with a government far different from our own. The right to vote and serve in favored government jobs must be earned through military service, which is actually discouraged by those in the military, their thinking being that were it easy to earn, citizenship would be less valuable.

At the very least, this is an interesting and thought-provoking book, and one I would recommend.