When was Starship Troopers written?

Starship Troopers is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published (abridged) as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November 1959, as “Starship Soldier”) and published hardcover in 1959.

Who started the war in Starship Troopers?

Battle Information After several Human-Arachnid conflicts on colony worlds like Port Joe Smith, the war officially began when a meteor came out from the Arachnid Quarantine Zone and struck the town of Buenos Aires.

What inspired Robert Heinlein to write Starship Troopers?

Heinlein served in the US Navy for five years after graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1929. His experience in the military profoundly influenced his fiction. At some point between 1958 and 1959, Heinlein put aside the novel that would become Stranger in a Strange Land and wrote Starship Troopers.

What impact did Robert Heinlein have on political science fiction?

Heinlein’s books, and Starship Troopers in particular, had an enormous impact on political science fiction, to the extent that author Ken MacLeod has stated that “the political strand in [science fiction] can be described as a dialogue with Heinlein,” although many participants in this dialogue disagree with Heinlein.

What did Robert Heinlein believe about the Cold War?

Robert Heinlein was among the best-selling science fiction authors of the 1940s and 1950s, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke; they were known as the “big three” that dominated US science fiction. In contrast to the others, Heinlein firmly endorsed the anti-communist sentiment of the Cold War era in his writing.

How long did it take to write Starship Troopers?

As was the case with many of Heinlein’s books, Starship Troopers was completed in a few weeks. It was originally written as a juvenile novel for New York publishing house Scribner; Heinlein had previously had success with this format, having written several such novels published by Scribner.