“Starship Troopers” is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published as a serial in “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction” October, November issues of 1959, although originally written for “Heinlein Juveniles” series for New York publishing house “Scribner’s,” it was rejected, prompting Heinlein to cease writing juveniles series for Scribners, to end his association with that publisher completely. The novel was eventually published as teenage fiction by “Putnam” in hardcover December same year.

A senior editor at Putnam’s, Peter Israel, purchased the novel and approved revisions that made it more marketable to adults, and dodged the issue of whether it was aimed at children or adults: “Let’s let the readers decide who likes it,” he said at a sales conference.

Rico and the other characters discuss moral and philosophical aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, juvenile delinquency, capital punishment, and war. The protagonists laud the utility of corporal punishment as a means of correcting juvenile delinquents.

“Starship Troopers” won the “Hugo Award” for Best Novel in 1960.

Exposition

A recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe—and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind’s most frightening enemy.

Alternative covers