Books written by John Steakley
John Steakley : Armor
I first ran into this book on a coffee table at a friends house 15 years ago... got into the first chapter or so and had to leave it behind (he was still reading it). He loaned it to a different friend who loaned.. Loaned. Loaned it again. I spent the next 5+ weeks seeking out that book with the funny cover about the man in the armor on that desperate planet. I had to know what happened to him. I finally found it and devoured it. I became a lump on the couch for a day and a half; stopping only to eat and sleep, so engrossed was I with this masterful tale of war and survival. In the years since I have read Armor, I have not stopped recommending it, and I do so again here.
Armor is at first a very superficial book, seemingly only a collection of stories about one man who becomes almost schizophrenic in his fight with aliens. My initial reactions was with almost everyone else who read the book, was to compare it to Starship Troopers. But their similarities are solely in the fact that they are about people in large war suits fighting aliens. Armor is like Starship Troopers without the politics or emphasis on what military life is like. Armor is emotional where Starship Troopers is intellectual. Starship Troopers used the pretext of a futuristic war to deliver the author's views of society and the military, whereas Armor barely sketches in details about it's society and military in order to tell the story of one man's struggle to survive in an unsurvivable situation. This book is a stripped down power machine. The plot is the action and the action is the plot. The character development is sparse but it is enough because again , this book is about action.
"Armor" is a glimpse into the horror of war, the despair of the soldier, and the unconscious willingness of the human spirit to survive. The action is intense and believable, pulling you into the character of Felix and "The Machine". Time and time again he is put in situations that mean certain death but somehow his skills allow him to survive. I was really interested in how he described his mind when it came time to fight, how the "Machine" took over and how his true personality was just an observer.
This book is a great read for any one who's ever wondered about what it would be like to be soldier in a complex web of politics in and off the battle field. It very well may be the most real portrayal of a soldier driven to battle yet written. "Armor" achieved something that few novels ever do. It put me in touch with physical sensations. I can feel the fear and dread that main character Felix and his fellows experience when they encounter the harsh planet where the enemy waits. There is also a painful sense of being woefully outnumbered and too slow to defend against the mass attack of ant-like creatures. My heart pounded. . . I felt short of breath when I read the battle scenes in this book. "Armor" is the best action-oriented science fiction I have ever read. I often find myself checking the aisles of the bookstores for a sequel.
Armor:
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