"Starship Troopers" by R.A. Heinlein

This is not a science fiction novel! Although Heinlein is one of the 'Great Three' SF writers, and has written many other excellent SF books (like 'Moon is a harsh mistress'), 'Starship Troopers' is more of a military, moral and ethical discourse, and that's what makes it amazing. You will find very little of the space ships, interstellar federations, amazing and imaginative technologies, but a lot of discussion on how democracy should be overhauled, who should have the rite to vote and why, how the judicial system should be working and how criminals should be punished, and mostly about the aim and meaning of the army, and being in the army, and becoming a man, a good man, through the training, suffering and service in the army. As you might have noticed so far, the book is completely different from the movie, which just took a few scrapes from the book and developed them into something completely different.

The book starts with Juan Rico's graduation from high school. His two friends Carmen (an occasional girlfriend) and Karl (a math genius) enlist in the military, and Rico does the same, despite his fathers cutting all communications with him because of this. Unlike the movie, Karl is never heard of again, until the end of the book when we learned he died in bombing of his base on Pluto, and Carmen is seen only once again for a short time, with her head shaved. There are no other female characters in the book.

Rico is sent to the north of the Midwest (Earth is united under the Terran Federation), where the boot camp is situated, below the Canadian Rockies. He goes through a grueling training, taxing both his body and his beliefs to the maximum, but eventually rebuilding him into a better person. He is in the 'Mobile Infantry' (probably a pun on the 'Mechanized Infantry' today) which consist of soldiers wearing Mech-suits, powered, armed, extremely mobile, which puts humans on the same fighting level with the 'Bugs' and the 'Skinnies', the other two races in the known universe humanity is at war with. Most of the book happens in the boot camp and describes, in painstaking detail, the life of the privates (everyone is a volunteer, as two years of military service grants 'citizenship', which in this universe is the right to vote and be voted for), their physical suffering and moral decisions, as well as the moral and law codes of the military and the reasons for them.

Here Heinlein discusses how our modern world can be improved, from social organization point of view. He says that democracy is flawed. Everybody should not have the right to vote, only volunteers who have been to the military and have been trained and impressed with putting the group before the individual should vote. He is proponent of physical punishment for crimes as deterrent; doesn't believe in 'reforming' criminals, but in deterring them from crime with violent punishment from the earliest age. He doesn't believe in 'juveniles' benefiting from being treated more softly than adults, and proposes their parents be physically punished (whipped) together with the delinquent children.

Rico eventually gets onto space, being shot onto planets in tight, one-man capsules, vulnerable to enemy fire. On the ground the power suit ('Marauder' for the regular MI soldier) gives enormous freedom and power of movement, coupled with amazing fire power and seamless integration with the natural musculature of the soldier. He eventually meets his father in one of the planet bases, who joined the army after his wife was killed by an asteroid directed to earth by the 'Bugs'. Here Heinlein goes into father-son relationships, military tradition and how it is related to the filial connections.

Rico excels in his tasks and eventually 'goes career', meaning signs a professional contract for 20 years (As opposed to 2 for privates), and goes through officer school which process is also described in detail. Eventually, towards the end of the book, he takes part in the raid of 'Planet P' where the 'Bugs' have a base, and helps capture a 'Brain Bug', the thinking caste of the 'Bugs' and bring the war closer to the end. At the end of the book he has been promoted to Captain. He is the 'old man' now, and his platoon is called 'Rico's Roughnecks', the same platoon he served in as a newly trained private.

The book is amazingly clear and strong presentation of the military view of the world, democracy, morals, ethics, justice, duty and honor. This is the only fiction book that is a required reading at West Point, and several US generals have stated (they have all read the book), that power suits like the 'Marauder' are the future of the US army.