Philosophy (Score 1)

The difference between this and Starship Troopers (once again, the book, not the movie) seems to lie mostly in the philosophy of the writers; that is, Heinlein believed in a utopian future, where the human race, if not perfect, had everything sorted out and running more-or-less smoothly, which was how sci-fi was written until the late 60's, early 70's. Asimov, Heinlein, Roddenberry, were all products of the utopian future era. Haldeman, while undeniably prejudiced by Viet-Nam, helped to introduce the era of "dirty future", where everything is just like it is now, just more advanced technologically. Gibson, Sterling, Haldeman, Vinge, Niven, Pournelle, etc, have taken the "dirty future" idea, fleshed it out, and done for it what Heinlein et al. did for the utopian subgenre, i.e. taken as many possible variants of other genres, rewritten them with advanced technology, spaceflight, etc, and cashed in. (before the flames start, let me say that i don't find anything wrong with this, i'm just misanthropic by nature, if that isn't contradictory) to rehash; great book, sucky sequels, dousing myself in gasoline and handing out matches. BRING IT ON!!!