The year is 2040, and Earth is at war—and losing miserably. The war was unannounced and not of humanity's choosing. At a certain innocent point in time, enormous Projectiles launched from an alien outpost on Ganymede began raining out of the sky at intervals, precisely destroying cities with sheer kinetic force and geysering up clouds of dust that threaten to plunge the planet into a new ice age. Retrofitted space shuttles comprise a puny force that seeks to detour the Projectiles whenever they can be caught in space. And the combined armed forces of the world—the vast majority of which are American—are gearing up to make some kind of further response. What, no one yet knows.

Through first-person narration, the reader is plunged into this horrific milieu on the shoulders of one Jason Wander, a 17-year-old who is initially far from heroic. Smart but with an attitude, his only relative, his mother, lost in the destruction of Indianapolis, the orphaned Jason has run afoul of the law. But this proves his salvation. The first authority figure he can respect turns out to be Judge March, a veteran turned jurist who is in charge of Jason's fate. Judge March convinces Jason to enlist in lieu of prison. But unlike his genius high-school buddy Metzger, who has joined the elite fledgling U.N. Space Force as a pilot, Jason ends up in the infantry, where both hardships and mortality historically run high.

In boot camp, Jason next comes under the influence of Drill Sergeant Ord and begins to learn how to be a soldier. He gets through boot camp without too many major infractions, except for one awful incident that results in the death of a friend. Nearly drummed out, Jason manages a reprieve and vows to soldier on more resolutely. While detached to aid the science bigwigs investigating the scraps left by Projectiles, Jason exhibits a talent that eventually lands him on the moon. There he will be instrumental in discovering the nature of mankind's enemy: the Slugs.

Armed with their new knowledge, Earth's leaders resolve to mount a one-of-a-kind, last-ditch assault on Ganymede, bringing the war to the enemy. With his best friends—a female grunt nicknamed Munchkin and a drone teleoperator named Ari—Jason sets out with 10,000 other infantry in a hastily cobbled-together ship piloted by Metzger. The two years of travel time to Ganymede is tedious, but once at the moon of Jupiter the troops are soon wishing for the blessed tedium. The Slugs are waiting for them, and they seem indestructible.

An homage to Heinlein

We should always distinguish between sheer soulless commercial imitation and artistic homage when we encounter a work of fiction that follows closely in the footsteps of an illustrious predecessor. Several factors that highlight the latter kind of work are 1) an authenticity of voice that chimes melodiously with the ancestor's; 2) an urgency of theme and message; 3) a willingness to extend the remit of the original; and 4) the ability to discern between the core values of a format and its accidental fripperies. By all measures, Robert Buettner's debut novel stands out as a true homage to Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959).

Buettner's voice—that of Jason Wander—shines out with real force of character and authenticity. Jason's transformation from something of a punk to a seasoned veteran happens so gradually and believably that by the book's end we have been seduced into accepting his somewhat improbable career. The other characters come across quite empathetically too, all of them just deep enough to sustain their roles.

Buettner's affection and respect for his subject matter are evident, too. Yet he's not didactic or overbearing, fully acknowledging the horrors of warfare and the insanity of a soldier's life, while still maintaining the necessity of the profession. As he—or Jason—comments at the end of the book about their sacrifices and what they earned, "Horrible trades that those were, they are no less fact." Of course, as America lives through years of war in the present, the topicality of Buettner's book lends it even more heft. No doubt this volume will spark some of the same controversy occasioned by Starship Troopers.

As far as extending the remit of his model, Buettner holds back a little here. This is not a book laced with alluring high-tech gimmickry. In fact, Jason goes through basic training employing weapons and equipment of the Vietnam era, due to unpreparedness on the part of the peace-lulled governments of Earth. When he finally reaches Ganymede, the tech has been upgraded somewhat, but even the near-future soldiers of, say John Birmingham's The Axis of Time: Weapons of Choice seem more advanced in their gear. Neither does Buettner delve into the sociopolitical ramifications of warriorhood as Heinlein did. One thing Buettner does that Heinlein did not do is in fact a dubious move: he extends the amount of plot spent on pre-combat life. Heinlein's hero was fighting Bugs by roughly page 100, whereas Jason doesn't get into combat until two-thirds of the book is past. But it's hot and heavy after that, as if to make up for the delay.

Finally, Buettner is wise enough not to fetishize such things as Heinlein's powered battlesuits, realizing that such gear is nonessential to his main thrust, which is to tell a tale of heroism, duty, sacrifice, friendship and honor. All of which he does, in a simple yet affecting prose that recalls the voice of William Barton.

Once in a while, Buettner seems to stage things in a suspect manner just to prolong the action. Would any invasion force really have attempted a landing on an alien terrain without at least dropping a probe first? Why aren't there any mass evacuations from sitting-duck cities? But the reader's defenses crumble at these moments, given the overwhelming firepower of Buettner's emotional narrative.