One thought on “Armor”

1. As I finished Armor by John Steakley this morning, I laughed a laughter from the depths of me Part 1The story s divided into pieces and begins with Felix.He s on a military starship orbiting a hostile planet called Banshee and about to be dropped into combat along with 10,000 fellow warriors The invasion is similar to Normandy on D Day, and we get our first glimpse of Felix in the mess hall the morning of the drop He s a little like this A woman vomits at the breakfast line right in front of Fel [...]

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2. An ard scout named Felix is dropped on the planet Banshee, a hostile alien world teeming with Ants When Felix s team is wiped out on their first mission, only The Engine, his second personality, saves him Can Felix and the Engine survive the war against the Ants And does he want to I read about Armor on John Scalzi s blog and decided to give it a shot At first glance, Steakley took the parts of Starship Troopers he liked the most, power armor and aliens that resemble insects, and expanded it int [...]

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3. This is a fascinating novel It is, for the most part, a military science fiction story Then again, it s something else entirely Steakley actually juggles two stories here, both of which read like a novel in their own right However, it soon becomes apparent that there is only one tale here, even if it takes two to get it told.The novel opens like a fairly standard MilSF novel, reminiscent of Starship Troopers or The Forever War This first sequence introduces us to Felix There is a lot of momentum [...]

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4. If you liked Heinlein s Starship Troopers Haldeman s The Forever War here is a third to read On the surface, the similarities are obvious a future war in space with a young male soldier in powered armor The similarities stop there, though Where Heinlein is very pro military Haldeman just the opposite understandable considering their ages military experiences this book shows a better balanced view of war its effects mature, IMO The POV changes, unlike the other two I think that heightens the poi [...]

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5. A lot of people here have criticized this book because of poor grammar While it is 100% true that this book is definitely not completely grammar accurate, it should be noted that most of the book is told from the perspective of one of the characters I didn t think one needed to be grammar accurate if telling the story from the point of view of a character, who is not necessarily an educated person.If you are a grammar Nazi, you ll probably hate this book I m certainly not a grammar Nazi and I lo [...]

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6. I don t remember how long GR had been recommended this book to me based on my reading list And some of my friends gave solid 5 star for this book How can I not try to read this book It is a very good novel with great start and the last quarter of the novel There are many psychological aspects in the story to make it not just a dumb action story But I won t discuss the psy factor much, that s one of main reading pleasure for this book.The character of main protagonist is pretty deep, and without [...]

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7. From an author named Steakley you d expect a two fisted, macho sized t bone of a story, and that is exactly what Armor delivers.This is a story of one man s desperate attempts to survive as he is dropped on a strange alien world over and over again to fight endless waves of huge ant like aliens intent on tearing him to pieces.Like all good stories of this nature, however, there is to Armor than marines frying bugs , yelling HOO rah and engaging in homoerotic bonding rituals.Armor is an engaging [...]

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8. 4.5 stars, audio versionORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature everything you were hiding from was in there with you That s the trouble with armor It won t protect you from what you are Felix is a loner, a broken man with a mysterious past When he s dropped with thousands of fellow soldiers on a toxic planet nicknamed Banshee, he s the only survivor of the battle with the 8 foot tall Ants that live there That s partly because of the special armor he wears his black nuclear powered scout suit an [...]

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9. If Armor comprised pages 7 89 and 261 374 in my edition, i.e Felix s story , John Steakley would have had the gripping, forceful and compelling tour de force the cover blurb promises Something that really could compare to Starships Troopers or The Forever War Instead he had to go and break the narrative with Jack Crow s story It s a WTF moment as you re roughly torn from the claustrophobic, terrifying, soul crushing milieu of Banshee to the cafeteria of an alien prison And Steakley never recover [...]

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10. Armor is a science fiction book from my top ten list of favorite Sci Fi books, maybe in my top ten in any category This is probably my third or fourth re read of this great book.It s the story of Felix, a foot soldier in a war against an alien ant like race It s got your standard hard core sci fi plot elements aliens who are seemingly unstoppable, a hero who might be than he seems, a crusty space pirate who might really have a heart of gold, beautiful women, space ships, interstellar travel, et [...]

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11. Love Hate.Some people love this book than Halloween, kittens and Disney World combined They see it as emotionally charged, creative and raw.Others see it as a schizophrenic mess that could have than half it s pages removed and, only then, be laudable as a very mediocre novella.Like many things that have a huge following, both parties are correct I loved the book and thus overlooked its flaws, which are glaring.If the secondary character of Crow fell off the earth and was eaten by Great Cthulhu [...]

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12. Roll together Joe Haldeman s The Forever War, Heinlein s Starship Troopers and Arnold s Terminator, and you get the influences on Armor It must have been part of the zeitgeist of the mid 1980s, as Card s Ender s Game was published right around the same time The suit of armor is its own character, which binds the two bits of the story together At first, we follow the exploits of semi superman Felix, as he battles the Ants, an insect like interstellar enemy of Earth very like the Buggers of Ender [...]

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13. 3.0 stars Certainly deserves to be listed among a handful of classic military SF though I rank it below the likes of Starship Troopers and The Forever War Focuses on the psychological effects of combat and the effect it has on the soldiers fighting it That alone makes it worth reading It does have some weaknesses such as the slowness of the middle sections of the book and the occasional lack of quality writing That said, I still recommend it for military SF fans.

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14. What a ride It s truly a military science fiction jewel If you liked Starship Troopers your re gonna love this one, Steakley was obviously inspired by Heinlein s work ugly giant insect like enemies, battle armors.Somehow, I think this book hasn t had the attention it deserves Can we please make a movie out of it Or, better yet, a TV series Please listen to me, Netflix It is now one of my all time favorites Highly recommended.Concept art by Adam LucasAccording to , a sequel was in the works at th [...]

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15. Many have compared this book, often unfavorably, to Starship Troopers Some going as far as to call it a rip off of Starship Troopers I take a different perspectiveIn an interview Steakley has actually said that he was inspired by Starship Troopers when he wrote Armor, and took many ideas for his book from Heinlein s Not in an effort to steal, but as a compliment Borrowing a scenario he loved and using it to explore a different idea.Starship Troopers is an exploration of citizenship, duty, and pa [...]

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16. John Steakley was born in 1951, he and I would be almost of an age He wrote only 2 major novels the other being VAMPIRE which I plan to read as soon as I can shoehorn it into my reading list You can see the influence of Vietnam in this one Written in 1984 the book pictures a 2084 universe where humans have spread through space and Earth is involved in its first interstellar war I like this book and found it very involving I did find my interest waning a bit during our first encounter with Jack b [...]

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17. Armor consists of two storylines One follows Felix, a soldier fighting against alien creatures known as ants on a planet known as Banshee, and the other storyline which begins abruptly about a quarter of the way through and continues until the final quarter follows a criminal named Jack Crow.Felix s storyline is intense and powerful Despite Steakley s lack of skill as a writer, he managed to create a character who was interesting, terrifying, and likable In Felix, we have a genuine sci fi superh [...]

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18. I ve gotta say, I came into this book with high expectations It started off brilliantly, with a great Starship Troopers feeld then not only did the wheels fall off, the whole plot caught on fire and crashed into a kitten orphanage No one survived.The Jack Crow plot arc was AWFUL, waffling, pointless GET ON WITH IT There were points where the editing was abysmal, and I m not just talking about the occasional typo I m talking about bits where paragraphs collided and partially repeated themselves, [...]

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19. I had this one written down on a little piece of paper I keep in my wallet after reading a gushing review at another website For months I kept an eye open for it until finally it had been re issued as a classic.It was OK but I d hardly call it a classic It does have its moments While battle scenes begin to bore me after 10 pages, I have to admit these ones were pretty intense And, yeah, the armor was pretty wild.And, yeah, I did begin to feel for the poor guy Damn, the I think about it, the I [...]

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20. There are parts of this book that are fantastic, and parts that are a little slow, but overall it was a great action sci fi It reminded me a little of Consider Phlebas mainly the character of Jack Crow as well as The Forever War though it seems like every sci fi soldier book I read reminds me of that one The parts with Felix were just awesome I couldn t put it down The parts with Jack though I kind of wonder what the point was Clearly, when you get to the end the reason for his story is provided [...]

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21. A military action book with heart and compassion Who would ve thunk Initially, it seemed like one of those SF ideas that goes thus Young boy with nothing to do observes an anthill Puts a stick through one of the small holes and lo and behold ants stream out Pokes holes and soon has the whole hive agitated Imagines he is fighting a battle with the ants Ants discover him and start coming up his legs That night, while scratching the itchy welts on his feet, thinks, What if I wrote a science fictio [...]

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22. One of my all time favorite sci fi s from an author who has not done anything nearly as well since.A soldier in a horrific and seemingly unwinnable war loses his identity and self within his armor Willing to die, he never does Meanwhile in the narrative which traverses between the stories , decades after the war, a pirate crook and a pair of scientists discover a piece of armor floating in an abandoned spaceship They begin the process of reviewing the armor s files by basically reliving the expe [...]

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23. There s no easy way to put this this book was a HUGE disappointment Several people had recommended it to me in the past One colleague even went so far as to say it was better than Starship Troopers As Vincent Vega says in Pulp Fiction , That s a bold statement And as Lee Corso if he were a junkie stopping by to buy smack from Lance might have retorted, Not so fast, my friend There are so many things wrong with this book Where to begin First, there is almost no character development for either of [...]

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24. Oh man, if only the whole book was a good as the last 100 pages, it would get 5 Stars not just 3 Alas, there are two or three great stories here, but none are fully fleshed out The first story is about Felix, a survior of uncounted drops on Banshee, home of the enemy Ants Felix is the ultimate soldier in his Armor, wreaking havoc on the hordes of enemy 1,000 ants that attack any military landing on the planet.The second story revolves around Jack Crow, a famous brigand and scoundrel, and his bid [...]

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25. I have given ARMOR stars because it is one of the most realistic and graphically written novels about war, hands down ARMOR is a story of a mysterious guy named Felix who joints the Fleet Navy to escape a painful and terrible past It s during basic training that he s found to have unique warrior skills a remarkable adaptability to combat situations and an incredible, almost superhuman will to live He s made a Scout and given the standard, fully ard battle suit which is complete with the latest c [...]

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26. Meet Felix A soldier scout encased in mechanized body armor.Meet the enemy Huge, bioengineered aliens resembling ants.Felix is dropped time and time again onto a planet where the ants dwell, and time and time again he survives Three to Five successful drops qualifies you for retirementFelix has not lost count of his drops, but somehow his superiors lost trackThe battles are intense, and when wounded, the armor injects the soldiers with pain killers so they can fight on Some of the best hand to h [...]

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27. Look, some books just stick with you and this is one of those books for me This is probably because it was my first experience with well written sci fi At least well written in comparison to what i was normally reading In any case this book tells the story of Felix who leaves through nightmarish experiences in a war on a distant planet I think what is most compelling about the story is that it captures the brutality and savagery of war despite it being set on a distant planet while fighting alie [...]

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28. Wow Armor is some pretty heavy stuff and very memorable story While the pacing could be a tad better it fluctuates from extreme intensity to sometimes rather drawn out it s well worthy of the critical acclaim it has received I could ve easily given this a 5th star except there was some parts that were a little muddled Regardless Armor still reaches inside to mess with your guts While its not one of my favorite sci fi novels, i get the feeling much of it will stick with me, perhaps even in dark d [...]

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29. 3 stars

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30. An excellent book with a fitting end The author does s good job at timing He reveals enough of the mysterious past to keep you turning the pages Very happy I made time for this one

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