#139 in Classics
Starship Troopers
- 242
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
- Film 1997 +3
- On screen
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
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Our view
“Starship Troopers” is less a war adventure than a close account of how a soldier is made: most of its short length goes to training, discipline and the workings of the powered infantry suit. That focus tests some readers, who find the boot-camp chapters and technical detail slow. Those who know only the film may be surprised by how different the book is. For anyone curious about classic military science fiction.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Written in a few weeks in reaction to the US suspending nuclear tests, the story was first published as a two-part serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as Starship Soldier, and published as a book by G. P. Putnam's Sons on November 5, 1959.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 4 times — from 1997 to 2017.
- FilmStarship TroopersIMDb
- FilmStarship Troopers: InvasionIMDb
- FilmStarship Troopers: Traitor of MarsIMDb
- SeriesRoughnecks: Starship Troopers ChroniclesIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 1,070 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 88% of the weight and the score stays at 7.8 — the Classics average of 7.7 barely moves it. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 64 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 1K | 94% |
Frequently asked
How long is Starship Troopers?
It has 242 pages — shorter than 87% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.8 and 7.9, closest to this book.
