Starship Troopers

Giyenah wrote on the Read or Die weblog her top ten Literary Cosplay Wishlist. Number one, Juan "Johnny" Rico, reminded me about my impressions of Starship Troopers.

I didn't watch the movie in the theater but I do remember seeing clips of it from TV (which means I didn't see it in its entirety and was watching a local broadcast of it). I was a big fan, however, of the animated series (and so far, a lot of friends loved it too).

It was only later on that I got to read the book. Now the differences between the novel and the movie are huge, they're worlds apart. As far as I'm concerned, they only have three things in common: the concept of super-powered armor for military use, the aliens (and not so much even then... the movie/cartoon showed a wider variety of alien scum), and the names of the characters.

In the novel, Johnny Rico is the only protagonist. The story is told from his point of view. The rest of the cast, really, are minor characters. Most of them either die or get transferred in a few chapters or so. Except for a few, their personalities don't even match. But coming from watching the animated series, it was nice seeing those names--I had mental images of the minor characters that helped me remember them (even if they weren't true) when I see their name pop up. And in many ways, I think that's what helped me enjoy the book more. But as I said, the two texts, the novel and the book, are entirely different animals that you could read/watch one and not get spoiled by what happens in the other.