Bill, the Galactic Hero (1984) Harry Harrison

Bill, the Galactic Hero is a satirical science fiction novel by American writer Harry Harrison, first published in 1965. A novella length version appeared in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction in 1964 under the name "The Starsloggers".

Harrison reports having been approached by a Vietnam veteran who described Bill as "the only book that's true about the military". Terry Pratchett once said: "I don't think The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the funniest Science Fiction novel ever written. The funniest Science Fiction novel ever written was Bill, The Galactic Hero".

Plot summary
Bill is a farm boy on a small backward agricultural planet who is drugged, hypnotized, then shanghaied into the Space Troopers and sent to recruit training under a fanged instructor named Deathwish Drang. After surviving boot camp, he is transferred to active duty as a fuse tender on the flagship of the space fleet in battle with the Chingers, a small reptilian race who are, in Trooper propaganda, portrayed as being 7 feet tall.

Before the battle one of Bill's fellow troopers, known as Eager Beager, is revealed to be an android operated from within by a Chinger, who is in fact only 7 inches tall. Injured and with the fleet almost destroyed, Bill accidentally fires off a shot from his ship's main gun. The shot is witnessed by an officer and Bill is proclaimed a hero.