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The title character is an innocent, singly-named farmboy who is enlisted into the military (the Space Troopers) by a mix of technological tricks and ego-reducing drugs (as all soldiers are). "This broad-shouldered, square-chinned, curly-haired chunk of electronic-cannon fodder" is loaded with fake medals and a paper uniform before being sent off to boot camp (Camp [[Leon Trotsky]]) for an exhausting and unpleasant period of training under the be-fanged Petty Chief Officer Deathwish [[Sturm_und_Drang|Drang]] ("Very soon you will be hearing stories about me, vicious stories, about how I killed and ate a recruit who disobeyed me ... That story is true.").
Bill quickly learns how to be a good trooper - the first rule being "Keep your mouth shut" and the second "never volunteer" - for the war with the "seven-foot-high saurian" Chingers. After a space battle with four million casualties Bill's training is cut short and he, with the entire staff of the Camp, are shipped out onto vessels still under construction for the next space battle.
Bil ("Two 'Ls' for officers only") becomes a Fuse Tender Sixth Class on the ''[[Christine Keeler]]'' (''[[Fanny Hill]]'' in UK editions), a ship with a particularly strange '[[#The Bloater Drive|star drive]]' and a serious heat dispersal problem in combat. A Fuse Tender has the job of replacing the man-size fuses of the ship's weapon systems and shields. These tend to burn out with spectacular electrical arcs in the heat of battle. Heat in the fuse room means that the tenders have to work naked. A direct hit can kill all the Fuse Tenders by creating a massive electrical arc. Bill uncovers a Chinger spy, discovering that the lizards are only seven inches tall Bill is taken to the Imperial planet Helior (a satire on [[Trantor]]) to receive his medal. Helior is a planet of 150 billion sheathed in gold (anodized aluminum actually) with all the problems that suggests, notably atmosphere, waste and getting anywhere. Not being a officer he is treated very poorly and given his medal by a stand-in, "Do you think they have the real Emperor giving out medals to other-ranks?" Bill has his floor plan stolen, a hanging offence. It takes him eight days to find his way back to the Transit Rankers' Center, where he is promptly arrested.
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Having wisely saved his money Bill bribes Drang to get him a lawyer - the Arabic-Jewish-Irish Abdul O'Brien-Cohen. Saved from the death penalty Bill is found guilty of sleeping on duty, reduced to Fuse Tender Seventh Class and given a year in prison. In prison he falls in with Blackey, an eternal soldier and expert on avoiding both trouble and duty. Unfortunately a slip of the pen on a transfer card lands Bill on the front-line at a prison labor camp in [[Tabes dorsalis|Tabes Dorsalgia]] on Veneria.
Veneria is an unpleasant over-adjectived poisonous swamp planet where there is constant [[guerrilla]] fighting with the Chingers and their Venian allies. In three years the Space Troopers have conquered 100 square miles; about two square miles more than they captured on landing. Heavy infantry in powered armour spend their time lobbing 'teensie' A-bombs and sinking to their deaths in the swamp when their fuel runs out. ("It's always Bowb-your-buddy week") Bill is part of a road building squad, a pointless and near-suicidal job with no escape. The desperate soldiers have a Permanent Mutiny Committee but it "didn't work last four times we tried it." Bill becomes lost in the swamp during a Venian attack, rescues a few prisoners - including Drang - because they have food and they get back to the base.
Bill also finds they have a foot shortage and are shipping foot injuries off-planet Bill becomes a fanged, steel-footed recruiting sergeant and is assigned to Phigerinadon II where he recruits his own younger brother for the one-month off his own service time it will give him.▼
==The Bloater Drive==
▲Bill becomes a recruiting sergeant and is assigned to Phigerinadon II where he recruits his own younger brother for the one-month off his own service time it will give him.
The standard ways of avoiding relativity in 1950s and 1960s science fiction were [[hyperspace (science fiction)|hyperspace]], [[hyperspace (science fiction)|subspace]] and [[spacewarp]]. Harrison's tongue-in-cheek contribution was '''Bloater Drive''' which inflated the space between the atoms of the ship until it spanned the distance to the destination, whereupon the atoms would be moved closer together in the direction of travel, so the ship re-formed in the place where it was headed. An occasional side-effect was that the occupants of the ship saw the planet of departure drifting, in miniature, through the hull.
[[Category:Science fiction novels]]
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