Shantaram is the story of Lindsay, an Australian armed robber who escapes from prison in Australia and makes his way under an assumed name to Mumbai in India. There Lindsay quickly falls in with criminals, lepers, and other lowlifes as he begins to learn the details of the incredibly densely populated center of human society. Over the course of the novel Lindsay decides to abandon his life as a criminal and seek peace in Sri Lanka.
Starship Troopers is the story of Juan "Johnnie" Rico, a Filipino soldier in a futuristic spacefaring Earth military unit called the Mobile Infantry. Told in flashbacks, Rico's story is one of intense violence, taking place during a war with a race of sentient insects from another world. The novel spends a great deal of time reflecting from a Conservative point of view on war, service, nationalism, and other pertinent issues.