Andy and Darcy’s Blog

I have never been able to sit through a showing of Starship Troopers, even though I’m very familiar with the beginning of it. But everyone seems to love this book, so I wanted to find out what its all about. And I have found out that the book is pretty good.

This is a Heinlein book. So that means it could be either kind of good, weird, and well written like Stranger in A Strange Land or really bad like Time Enough For Love. It is definitely more like Stranger in a Stranger Land in the fact that it is enjoyable and succinct. (There is no shocker at the end, unlike SIASL.)

Heinlein’s military is probably the main exhibit in this book. He points out some deficiencies in the militaries of the past (which is now), so this must be why Starship Troopers is called “controversial”. One point that Heinlein makes is about how there are so many officers compared to soldiers in militaries of the past (he means now, again). Everyone in Heinlein’s military fights, and those who do not are civilians. Heinlein draws attention to how many of the officers of our era are commissioned without ever being “experienced” soldiers. And another interesting tidbit about Heinlein’s society is this: only those people who have served a term in the military and retired are allowed to vote. The idea is that you make a sacrifice for the honor of having a voice in the government. Another very interesting concept.

Here’s one more thing that I saw. Heinlein has quite an obvious stance on corporal punishment. He’s for it. In this book a public flogging was the punishment for drunk driving. And that sounds like a fitting punishment to me.

And if there is any other controversy in this book, I didn’t catch it. I am, after all, reading for pleasure.

So one thing about this book is that the war involves space-alien hive bugs. Have you ever heard of this plot before? Hmm…Uncle Orson, if you’re out there…would you like to comment on that?

This is a short and easy read, if you like science fiction. And the story is enjoyable, even if it is about war. So I say go for it. Much of what I read isn’t as good as this book.

I bought this book because it had a fabulous cover, and it was half off the normal price at the Scholastic warehouse.

I started reading it, and I wanted my money back. I felt this way until at least half way through the book. Up until the middle, it was just boring. But the ending was rather good, and there is a lot of potential built up for more of the story (and I think there are indeed sequels). I think that it might even make a good movie. Looking back, it may have just been my own impatience with non-Harry Potter books that spoiled the beginning for me.

One thing I noticed is that the author mentions treacle at least twice in this book to describe something. Maybe treacle is very important to British authors. I really don’t find American authors using “like molasses” a lot or even “like [insert a dessert]” to describe anything.

If you liked The Prestige, then this book may be for you. It is set in a world where magicians are the highest caste in London. This book gets a 3/5 on my personal rating system.

I just wanted everyone to know that I have finally reached the end of The Great Book Of Amber. I don’t know if I’ll have as much reason to mention it in so many of my blog posts anymore. The biggest impact it had on my life was that it was long, and it was really hard to carry around in my purse.

I have decided that I did in fact enjoy it, despite all my complaining. Whether it deserves its status among the best fantasy books of all time according to some sketchy internet sites cannot be confirmed or denied by me. But Robert Zelazny definitely has his own style.

So I’m left with reading The Mysteries of Udolpho, Darcy and Elizabeth, and The Amulet of Samarkand. That is only three books!! Time for a trip to the library?

People have said I should read it and now I have. The Time Machine is very old science fiction / fantasy, and even though it is a classic it is very readable and even quite suspenseful. It is really a very simple story (just one story line), which is really refreshing. And it’s a quick read. Like many other books of this era, the main character, who is a sort of snooty scientific fellow invites all his snooty scientific friends over to discuss physics and time travel. The second time the snooty science friends meet, the main character tells the story of his journey to the future where he discovers the Morlocks and the Eloi. The Morlocks and Eloi are both descended from humans, but the Eloi are more like cows and the Morlocks are more like Eloitarians. And the Morlocks are slimy (figuratively) and could be the foreunners of the Tlulaxa (in my imagination anyway).

I think the main character went about 108,000 years into the future. It’s too bad he didn’t stop in the 24th century to meet Jean Luc Picard because this guy needs to know about the prime directive. He created some really serious havoc to get his time machine back. Those slimy Morlocks took it.

Three Stars on Darcy’s Sci Fi / Fantasy rating scale, which is quite respectable.