I agree on all counts. I read it in HS, and then re-read it after seeing the movie, which I agree was terribly disappointing.

I used to own the Avalon Hill board game, which was my motivation for reading the book!

Didn't know about board games. Except for designing educational role playing games and some beta testing, never got in to it. But sounds like it might be an interesting addition to the class.

The only thing worse than the movie was the sequel. I think it went straight to DVD. I caught it one day on Sci Fi.

Great book . I'm a fan of Heinlein's fiction for young adults , Hole in the Sky ,Glory Road and all that .

The movie wasn't the book ,would it have helped your feelings if it had a different title ? The only real problem with the film was some plot holes , the absence of battlesuits and the survival of Doogie Howser .

I am also a fan of Heinlein including PAST THROUGH FUTURE HISTORY STORIES. Great way to present libertarian politics.

Without the title, the movie would have been straight to DVD (as the sequel was).

I don't know how true it is, but I read somewhere that the producers had intended to use the battle suits, but spent so much on the CGI "Bugs", that there was no budget. Pity, I thought it was one of the more interesting aspects of the book. Oh, yeah, I missed the canine units, too!

Here's a good pic of the game. Don't know what happened to mine, might be in a box at my mom's for all I know!

https://www.msu.edu/user/storto/sstsale.htm

I heard that rumor too. When I worked with Combat Developments at Ft. Benning (a millenia ago), we used to kid about the suits being the model for the future infantryman.

If you look at the new Land Warrior System, it may not be too far off.http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/05/28/9450-army-to-equip-brigade-with-land-warrior/

I Agree also, Book is in the top 5 of Sci-fi all time. Big Heinlein fan over all. The movie was so wrong it hurts my gut. The BattleSuit is the MI! The movie was wrong on so many counts its not even funny. Rizzo was a man in the book and died early in boot camp. The bugs were over played with CGI and not even really portrayed correctly. I read this book at least once yearly, and have since I eas 9 years old. Its interesting how you use it for the politics in teaching. I would add another to your class as a excellent direct opposite, Joe haldeman's Forever War, this is another of the top SCi-Fi books of all time, and gives almost direct opposing views to Heinleins. Give it a read. I read military sci-fi quite a bit also. I read other classic and golden age books as well.