Starship Troopers

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Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein from 1959. The German-language edition was only published 20 years later under the title Star Warriors in a translation by Bodo Baumann .

The novel received the Hugo Award in 1960 .

action

The story describes the military career of Juan "Johnny" Rico from a first -person perspective , who initially signed up for military service relatively carelessly and was assigned to the unit with the "Mobile Infantry" that came last in his preferences. Nevertheless, he passed the extremely tough training and made a career in the war against alien monster insects, known as "bugs", so that, contrary to his original intentions, he finally signed up for an officer career and saw the military as his home.

You experience your training at Camp Currie from day one to graduation and to promotion to full soldier. Then various combat missions follow. In between, there is always a look back at the school days, the voluntary registration together with his school friends Carmen Ibanez and Carl Jenkins for the Federation military and the selection process are described in the retrospective. The school subject “History and Moral Philosophy”, whose teacher Mr. Dubois later turns out to be a retired Colonel of the Mobile Infantry, takes up special space in the story. Juan / Johnny's parents are against his decision, but cannot prevent it. After Johnny has gained some combat experience and has risen to the rank of non-commissioned officer at "Rasczaks Rauhnacken" , he signs up after a key experience for the professional soldier's career and is sent to the war school to become an officer . On the way there, he meets his father, who has been assigned to his old unit as a replacement for himself. Johnny's mother was killed in an attack by the Bugs on her hometown of Buenos Aires , and he also volunteered for the military. At the officers' school, Johnny is trained again in order to gain further combat experience as a "sub-lieutenant on probation". On the Tours he learns to take command and responsibility and has other skirmishes in which he is wounded and then returns to the officers' school. At the end of the book he is a full-fledged officer and commands his old unit, which is now named "Ricos Rauhnacken" after him. His father is his train sergeant there, and they form a team.

In several places the discussion of the role of the military in the history of societies / states occupies a considerable space in the novel. In short, the teachers of the main character represent the following theses:

  1. Military service is rough and dangerous. Only those who really want it should do it.
  2. Only the states / communities that are ready to fight survive.
  3. Only those who have done military service are allowed to have a say in political life.
  4. Communism and mass democracy were heresies, as were the “inalienable rights” of every person to “life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness” as formulated in the United States' Declaration of Independence .
  5. Consistent punishment of crimes and offenses (also for young people), approval of corporal punishment.

society

In the novel, after the collapse of the nation states at the end of the 20th century, humanity is united under the banner of the "Federation", a world government in which active and passive suffrage is only granted to people who have at least two years of service in the military or a have served as a military affiliate. Those who continue to commit themselves after these two years only receive the right to vote at the end of their service life. The service is intended as a kind of "school leaving examination" to ensure that the voters and elected have the necessary sense of responsibility. In principle, access to this “examination” is open to anyone who has reached the age of 18. Age, gender, origin, skills or disabilities are irrelevant. During the medical examination of the new recruits, a doctor mentions that one cannot be admitted unless one is unable to understand the oath of service . Despite these factors, however, only a relatively few (earth) “citizens” perform this service. There does not seem to be any restrictions on those who are not served, except for the right to vote. In fact, the protagonist's father takes pride in the fact that he and the rest of his family never served. The military also attaches great importance to everyone registering completely voluntarily and not out of exaggerated career expectations or compulsion. This is how you want to ensure that every soldier does his job out of conviction.

The previously existing legal system, in particular how it deals with juvenile offenders, is viewed as a wrong path and made jointly responsible for the collapse of the old world order. The legal system of the federation aims to condition the offender through real-time corporal punishment so that he does not want to repeat the misconduct. The normal means of doing this is public beating with a stick or (for more serious crimes) whip. The death penalty by hanging is justified by its deterrence to others and by the offender's avoidance of reoffending. Psychiatric treatment of offenders, on the other hand, is seen as superfluous, as one can never know whether the treatment will have been successfully completed and whether it will be effective over the long term. In addition, the patient can no longer respect himself after his recovery because of his past actions and must inevitably commit suicide. Another peculiarity is that military law can also be used for crimes committed outside of the service, including the "31 crash landings", which usually result in death by hanging.

The bugs

The bugs (literally "bedbugs", generally "insects" or "vermin") or "pseudo- arachnida " are an extraterrestrial, spider-like species from the planet Klendathu and the main enemy of humans in the "bug war". The bugs are described as an intelligent species that is capable of laser weapons , cities (the only city that is a little described, is a city on the planet P, the far-reaching than large underground mesh tunnel systems is shown) and spaceships to build . Even when dealing with other species, the bugs are not limited to aggression, they are also very diplomatic. Their society is divided into warriors and workers, who are controlled by a leadership caste made up of queens and the so-called "brainbugs" (" brain beetles "). This makes the bugs dangerous opponents, since they can coordinate their actions better than humans and their soldiers are only inspired by their purpose in life, fighting. Large casualties are also not a problem, because a large number of warriors can be hatched in a short period of time and go into battle immediately after hatching. At one point Rico cynically remarks that if the mobile infantry killed a thousand bugs and lost a soldier, it would still be a victory for the bugs.

The mobile infantry

The Mobile Infantry, or MI for short, is an important, perhaps the most important (elite) part of the Federation's army . These are exclusively male soldiers in self-propelled, armored exoskeletons , who join in every movement of the wearer and strengthen them with artificial muscles. They give the wearer immense strength, flexibility and resilience. This allows the soldiers to be equipped with large quantities of weapons. Usually the infantrymen are thrown out of orbit by a spaceship in “cocoons” . After landing, they fulfill their mission objectives and then go to a landing zone, where they are picked up by a landing ship and brought back to their ship.

Much of the novel is devoted to describing the Mobile Infantry from Rico's point of view, from the rigorous training that only 187 out of 2009 recruits can manage, to the life of a soldier, to combat procedures.

The description of the mobile infantry stands in contrast to the army units that exist today, although parallels to today's infantry such as the US Marines or historical armies are clearly recognizable and are also indicated repeatedly in the chapter headings. The biggest difference is the concept "everyone fights, everyone works". Every member of a unit takes an active part in combat operations, tasks such as cooking or priests are only secondary activities of soldiers, in larger operations the highest officer ranks fight. For this they almost always have one or more sideline jobs, especially the higher ranks who have to deal with the administration. In addition, all soldiers fight completely voluntarily and have the option at almost any time to be transferred or to quit duty.

The skinnies

The Skinnies (. Engl skinny : thin, lean), also " hop poles called" eight to nine feet tall, very thin, humanoid aliens. They have a higher body temperature than humans, do not wear any clothes, have language and, at least, something like humanity. You live in a civilization comparable to humanity. First of all, they are the bugs' allies. They told the bugs the location of the earth. In the later course of the war, however, due to demonstration strikes by the mobile infantry against their cities, they switch to the people. The Skinnies pass on valuable information about the locations of the bugs and that they hold many MI soldiers prisoner.

Adaptations

Starship Troopers was prepared for a strategy simulation by Avalon Hill in 1976 and was the template for the Japanese anime series Uchū no Senshi (Japanese: 宇宙 の 戦 士) in 1989 and for a film of the same name by Paul Verhoeven in 1997 . The film takes up the fascistic elements accused of the literary model and exaggerates them satirically . Also, Starship Troopers template for the animated television series Starship Troopers of the 1999th

see also:

Publications

Web links

Starship Troopers


book

Starship Troopers

Movies

Starship Troopers • Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation • Starship Troopers 3: Marauders • Starship Troopers: Invasion • Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars

series

Starship Troopers

OVA

Uchū no Senshi

computer game

Starship Troopers