Armor

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!
Review: That people would rate this novel with less than 5 stars shows they didn't get it. Armor was wonderfully written, and Felix is an amazing character. His deep down determination and fatalistic attitude are conveyed very well. He's an amazing character... He just keeps going...
Even though he's a character in a novel, you can't help but be pulled in and admire his strength and hope you'd be as strong.

It's a great stand alone novel, but you're left wanting the author to make it a series and write more about Felix. A prequil, a sequil... anything!

If you are one of those who didn't get it, look below for an explanation:

IMPORTANT PLOT BACKGROUND BELOW DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY READ THE BOOK:
The war with the ants has no point they say- but that's exactly the point Felix tries to make... but he keeps going. As to why Felix ran away from his destiny? That's answered clear as day- his wife wasn't popular with the people and so ran away, but was killed in an accident. Felix left because the people failed him in protecting her. He felt betrayed. He joined Fleet to run away (How many people do the same thing every day?) As an Air Force officer I can tell you, a data glitch is VERY believable (shoot, the govt screwed up my credit because Finance didn't pay the govt travel charge company)...He kept going because he had to...

Rating:
Summary: Classic Pulp Powerarmor
Review: The controversy about this book on this site is amazing. All I can say is with a library of over a thousand science fiction books this is one of the very few I read over and over again. Yes, it is an 'unending numbers against one guy' book, but it does it so well that I was actually purchased Steakley's other book despite my extreme dislike of the entire vampire genre.

If you like Weber, Drake, Ringo, Flint and the like you'll probably enjoy this. If you search for deep meaning in science fiction perhaps you should stick to others.

Rating:
Summary: Action, Heroes, and ?
Review: The field of military science fiction is a very limited one, with only a very few excellent examples, mainly Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Haldeman's Forever War, and Dickson's Soldier, Ask Not. Armor attempts to meld some of the great characteristics of these works, from Heinlein's powered armor to Haldeman's anti-war message, but it is only partially successful.

The first section of this book deals with Felix, a new recruit on his first battle drop. We are not given any background to this man, but is rather a blank slate that we watch as he and his powered armor scout suit turn into an impossibly efficient killing machine, becoming the sole survivor of his battle group after being faced with an opposition of literally thousands of human-sized Ants. We see a man of action and few words, whose interior mental state is oddly split between the fighting, survive at all costs, totally unemotional 'Engine' and a terrified, confused, and very fatalistic 'other'. When the 'Engine' is not in command, we see Felix have some interaction with other soldiers on the drop, from finding out what the survival percentage is for scouts on their first, second, etc major drop from some experienced veterans, to who their military idol is, a man named Kent, supposedly impossible to defeat in hand-to-hand suit combat, and a quickly burgeoning love interest in a extremely capable scout from another battle group. This is the best section of the book, as we see by their actions what molds a military group together, what values soldiers must have if they are to survive as a group, how emotions become a riotous tangle under the demands of battle.

Abruptly, the book leaves Felix and picks up a new character, Jack Crow, cynical, worldly, known for impossible (and marginally illegal) exploits, fighting his way out of a prison and onto a mutineer space ship run by master pirate Borglyn. When Borglyn presents a plan to refuel his ship at a Fleet science base on the planet Sanctity, owned by the eccentric alcoholic Lewis, and offers as prize to Crow a beautiful little ship and a de-activated scout suit for defeating the science base defenses from the inside, all the pieces are in place. From this point on (about page 130) I found the book to be totally predictable, from just who Felix and Lewis really are, to what actions each character would take leading to the final battle.

The characterization of Crow is not very well done, as we are only given hints of his past, a rather murky inside look at his emotional triggers and defenses, and a constant mannerism of lighting a cigarette at every available opportunity, mention of which I found quite irritating after the thirteenth repetition. Unlike Felix, whose past must remain a blank for several reasons, Crow's past should have had far greater explication to make us really believe in him as a person, to where his final actions would be more believable and not just a predictable stereotype. Roger Zelazny was known for building characters like Crow in works like This Immortal, but Zelazny's were believable, three dimensional people. Crow is not. This is unfortunate, as the characters of Crow, Felix, Kent, and Holly (the scientist in charge of the Sanctity base, and also very much a stereotype) form a group of different looks at just what it is that makes a hero, which is really Steakley's theme.

As a theme, it is distinct from the earlier cited works, and could have made this work into something excellent. But it is marred by several additional factors:

1. The shown high level military strategy/personnel are absurd. Any military consistently run in this fashion would quickly lose all respect by the lower level soldiers. The 'grunts' are famous for always bitching about just how screwed up the 'brass' are, but if they truly believed that, you would see Russia in 1917 all over again.

2. The Ants are equally impossible, seeming to have only one strategy, overwhelm through sheer mindless force of numbers, though they are supposedly a technologically advanced, star travelling culture. This attribute could have been worked into a strong sub-theme, but it wasn't.

3. The human society outside of the military is never really shown, nor is there really any reason given for the Ant War itself.

Thus the hero theme is forced to exist in an almost total vacuum from the normal societal factors that help define just what a hero is. And without strong character definition, it just didn't carry the emotional freighting that would have made this an excellent work.

Read this one for the opening highly action oriented first section, which is excellent. Then close the book.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I was expecting.
Review: The first 100 pages or so of this book reminded me a lot of STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE FOREVER WAR. It was a gritty, realistic look at war from the point of view of a grunt soldier. Very vivid, very compelling, and very exciting. The first person narration gives us a look inside Felix's head and how he reacts to what is going on around him.

Then the author throws us for a loop. The second part starts out in a prison with the narrator (this part is again in first person) trying to escape. I was really confused as to how Felix went from being on a battlefield to being stuck in prison. It takes a while for it to be revealed that this isn't Felix. It's Jack Crow, an interstellar pirate. The majority of the rest of the book revolves around him. I was kind of disappointed in this. I was much more interested in Felix's story. Not that Jack Crow isn't an interesting character. I eventually got into him. I would have liked, though, to get a clearer picture of his history. Mr. Steakley left it kind of fuzzy.

Despite this disappointment of missing out on Felix's continuing exploits, I was still absorbed in this book. Mr. Steakley's storytelling abilities carry this book. His characters are vivid, his dialogue is (usually) great, and the interaction between characters, while sometimes confusing, is entertaining to read. The middle third of the book was a bit slow, but the excitement of the beginning and end more than made up for it. If you're looking for a good sci-fi read, this will definitely satisfy you.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing story
Review: This book put me in a daze for about a week after I finished it. I've read it 2 times since then and every time, it gets better. It is a moving look at the toll of war on the soldiers who fight it.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated - Read Starship Troopers Instead
Review: This book was recommended to me highly but it turned into a real slog fest. It was a bit predictable, including the ending. The beginning was lifted from Starship Troopers in my opinion. The middle, maybe from Time Enough for Love. Not that there was anything wrong with derivative fiction but it has to be well done.

Rating:
Summary: Almost a sequel
Review: This could almost be a sequal to Starship Troopers. Steakley takes a little less political stance than Heinlein. This book is action packed and really shows you the violence of war. The dialogue of the soldiers is realistic. This book captures the soul of the common soldier.

Rating:
Summary: Great read.
Review: This is a wonderful book. Very well developed characters, interesting story and a very unique look at war.

I was somewhat wary when I first began reading this book, because it reminded me so of Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" (which is one of my favorite books). But the 'armor' and the setting on hostile alien world are the only major similarities.

Each character is unique, his motives and traits separate from the others. I find it very rare to find such distinction in science fiction. Steakley does an amazing job of letting you feel exactly what the characters are feeling, and there are a number of times you can relate perfectly to characters reactions because you had the same ones.

The only downside of the book is that I, personally, found a couple parts predictable. This might just be me, though.

Rating:
Summary: superb
Review: this is one amazing book, ive read scant few books twice but im working on my third time on this one. theres many twists and misadventures along the way and shows what people in the pit of combat face (namely lack of intel) and what happens when one fights an unknown enemy.

Rating:
Summary: Able to Stand on its own
Review: This is Steakely's homage to Heinlein's "Starship Troopers". The major difference is that Heinlein writes more about the societal factors influencing his character to join the military and Steakley writes about the futility of war. Both are excellent social commentaries.

"Armor" is set in the future with the military fighting a war of attrition against an insectoid enemy. Armor does a wonderfull job of trying to explain the bleakness of fighting against an enemy that is not understood by soldiers that are not much better than cannon fodder. One of the best sections of the story is where Felix tells a desk jockey that he will not crawl into a hole to prove that the area is cleaned of the enemy because he knows better with his experience. It is one of the most intense moments of the book because by this time the reader knows he is right. In many ways this book can be read as a social critique of the Vietnam War. This book is an excellent military Sci-Fi and should not be missed.