Saturday, November 27, 2010

Armor- John Steakley

On Wednesday I decided to finally start reading Armor by John Steakley for the independent reading project. The weekend was busy so I have only been able to read until page 60 of 430 but so far a lot has happened. So far it has been an interesting book. It has a really unique setting and story line that are unlike anything I have ever read before. The novel is more reminiscent of a futuristic videogame rather than a typical fictional sci-fi novel.

After reading a decent portion of the book, this book can only be classified as a "military science fiction" novel. I am usually not a fan of of fantasy novels, but so far I have been pleasantly surprised by the way the book doesn't have much of an introduction and just cuts to the chase so the reader can experience some "military science fiction" action. The story begins by introducing Felix, the main character. He is a young man who is a military trainee for a interplanetary army. The novel begins while he awaits his first "Drop" or deployment onto a planet to fight aliens. After only nine months of training to fight, he is finally ready to try on the suit in which the soldiers use to give themselves superhuman characteristics. The suit makes them virtually indestructible. It is made of a material called "plasteel", which is probably a combination of plastic and steel. It makes the soldiers very strong: they can pierce through a skeleton and metal with a single punch or kick. The suit can also make them run at a hundred kilometers per hour.

Felix is deployed in a strange planet with poisonous air and water. He and the rest of his blockade must fight thousands of nine-foot tall ants with rock hard exo-skeletons. Out of hundreds of scouts, he is one of only a couple of people to survive. He meets a woman named Forest who helps him find civilization again, and he meets up with three very experienced soldiers, Obel, Yin and Bolov. Then they will start a new tactic for their battle against the ants.
They will climb atop a mesa which can only be climbed by a narrow trail to prevent their army from being further destroyed.

So far the novel is quite interesting and is a good challenge for the reader. I look forward to finishing it up in the coming weeks.

15 comments:

  1. I'd like to start off by saying that I don't read military science-fiction novels much. In fact, I have hardly even read a solid amount of books in my life. I have always viewed reading as a great source of both entertainment and universal knowledge about life, but never have I made the choice to actually read. But out of the few books I have read, I would say I generally like the fictitious books that have been based off something in reality. Books in the same style as Armor by John Steakley do include the reality of war, but usually are too futuristic for my liking. The reason of this is because having a futuristic book means having a novel based on a whole new world. That means that the author must be able to successfully describe the setting and the situation or else the whole novel would be difficult to understand.
    In the novel Armor, the author has successfully described his futuristic world but in a somewhat confusing way. Steakley starts off rather slowly by describing the main character, Felix, wandering around on a space ship called the Terra. While he wanders around, he ponders about many that do not help much when describing the setting. In about 10 pages, the author has already placed Felix into his first "drop" onto the planet Banshee for his first fight in the war against ants. At one point in the introduction, Felix describes a typical ant, three meters tall, four times heavier than an average human being, and four claws large enough to split a human in half.
    The reason why I do not like the novel's introduction is that the description of Felix's situation is somewhat unorganized and can be difficult to understand in the way that the reader is left with many questions about what happened. Further on in the novel, Steakey does describe everything needed in the introduction but after a good amount of action has taken place. Some people like this sort of writing as it cuts straight to the action. However, I appreciate understanding the entire situation, something I could not accomplish fully until halfway through chapter one (The chapters are long). Besides the minor organization problem I had with the first chapter of the novel, I would say that this is a great novel in the categories of characterization, plot development, and of course suspense.
    This novel is clearly one of the most suspenseful novels I have ever read. After making it by the short, and rather painful, introduction; I could not put the book down during the entire 3 hour car trip home from Seattle. I would describe what has happened so far in the novel, but I would only ruin his great imagery of John Steakley’s novel.

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  2. "Armor" by John Steakley
    "It was then, for Felix, it began. The hatred for the briefing officer had expanded to include his superiors, the captain of the ship, the commanders of the Fleet itself, and finally the thick-headed idiot humans who had undertaken something as asinine as interplanetary warfare in the first place. The hatred blazed brightly, then vanished. From somewhere inside came a shock of all-consuming rage, the nova-like intensity of which startled even him. But then the rage was gone, too. It seemed to shoot away, like a comet. What replaced the loathing and fury was something cold and distant and...only impersonally attentive. It was an odd being which rose from Felix and through him. It was a wartime creature and a surviving creature. A killing creature.
    The Engine, Felix thought. It's not me. It's my Engine. It will work when I cannot. It will examine and determine and choose and, at last, act. It will do all this while I cower inside." -John Steakley

    * * *

    What image comes to mind when someone mentions "ant?" For all of us
    Earth-men, the monosyllable "ant" is synonymous with the small, shiny black insect that
    preys on our picnics. The beginning of Armor is no different from this scenario except for
    the fact that it takes place on a gargantuan scale. The picnic--earth--has been attacked.
    These ants, however, stand around three meters tall. Weighing around four-times more
    than the average human, these nightmarish creatures are armed with six claw tipped arms
    and a pair of pincers capable of ripping mature homo-sapiens to shreds. As prolific as their
    earth counterparts, these ants also are possessed by a hive mind, acting amongst the
    myriad of its kind they have no regard for their own lives but are bent on
    the destruction of others. Those are "ants". Ants that swarm into and threaten the fragile
    sanity of Felix's mind.
    They are not the only race that has evolved. The product of millenniums of human
    struggles, armor now has atomic-powered and blow redirecting features. Armed with the
    newest killing toys, Mankind's fate is left to Felix and his greatly outnumbered kin.

    In the aftermath of an ambush, Felix is the sole survivor of his division because his
    Engine--an innate driving force--keeps him alive. Battle after battle, year after year,
    both sides experience high mortality rates. Felix, however, survives. By surviving, Felix
    realizes the key to victory. In these battles the only thing between victory and defeat
    is Felix. And, the only thing between Felix and the Ants...is Armor!

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  3. Let me start off by saying that I am not really as impressed with this book as I was a few weeks ago. Why? The pace of the action and story line is really starting to slow down and become sort of monotonous. The novel started out with many battle scenes within the first hundred pages and now all the reader gets to hear about is an abandoned space suit and a riot involving a red faced pudgy dude. It’s quite frankly a little disappointing. I thought my holiday season was going to be spent reading an entertaining war story, not a star wars like monotonous ongoing saga of events. As I am writing this, I am currently at about page 135 of 426. Yes I know, it’s kind of sad that I'm not farther along in this novel, but it’s really not inviting me in as much as it used to. Im sorry that this sounds more like a 400 word complaint, but there are a number of some of my literary pet peeves in this novel. The first is the way that the novel is organized. Chapter one was a hundred pages long! Some organization would be nice, just a thought. Then there are the frequent punctuation errors. I am reading along and all of a sudden the last sentence in the paragraph doesn't end with any punctuation. Rather disappointing considering this paper was written by a professional and it makes it very difficult to take the novel seriously.

    One of the things that intrigue me about this book is the way that so far, two different main characters have been introduced. In the first chapter, the book was all about Felix and his life as a military scout fighting against the "ants" that I mentioned above. Now in chapter two to where I am now, the focus is the life of Jack Crow. However the author doesn't take as much time to explain this character as he did with felix. This book has a really unique structure that I havent really seen before, alternating between the lives of characters. It is certainly an interesting approach to writing a novel.

    The other thing that is really distinguishing the book is the voice. It is blatantly obvious that this book was not written for kids. There is all kinds of profanity and suggestive situations in the novel. Not something you find every day, except in "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian."

    We will just have to wait and see how this one turns out. Theres still time for it to redeem itself and to earn my respect back.

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  4. I have finished Armor. In my lifetime I have read a myriad of novels; Armor is my favorite. Yes, there are some respites--the 200's (pages) are rather slow. There is also unnecessary profanity and carnal content. This is, however, an adult novel. While I do not support the presence of these acts, they correlate with the caricature of both Jack Crow and Felix.
    John Steakley, the author, purposely jumps into the less-intense (at least for now) life of Jack Crow after the fist hundred or so pages without introducing him. Contrary to Nick, I enjoyed this method as it allowed you to gradually become more acquainted with the character. What I mean to say is that your opinions on him will constantly be either refined or discarded and in the end: confirmed.
    This book is like a mystery in which which everything ties together masterfully at the conclusion. Yes, some parts do leave you with questions. But--like any good mystery--the character's past, profanity, skills, psychology, and even their lovers all contribute to the most breathtaking conclusion EVER!!! I encourage all readers to see to the end of this novel.
    -Eric

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  5. Wow Eric you seemed from day one of reading this book to find something about this novel really outstanding. I feel like by the time I make it through the "Jack Crow" part of the book I'm going to have forgotten all about Felix and the whole first part of the story. How many different people are they going to introduce like this?

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  6. I just want to say, Nick, that the part with Felix in the start is part one, not chapter one. It was made to be different.
    First off, I would just like to add a little of my thoughts to the 18 and older content (Violence and Profanity). I really must say, towards the end of the first part was extremely gruesome. Besides the fact that there were a lot of soldiers dying, people with detached limbs, and Forest had a sad death; I feel Felix's engine is way to overpowered as he throws his last friend into the hive of the ants to save himself. That scene already caused me to shake a little...then again it islike 60 degrees in my house. But it did keep me reading to the point I was late for my Taekwondo classes (something that rarily happens). Really all I am trying to say is John Steakley has great imagery, too great for what he is writing...

    Right after the first part ends, it jumps straight to a new character, Jack Crow. Contrary to what Eric said, I have to say that i did not like this transition. In fact, there was no transition period. I really wanted to know more about Felix's situation, despite how violent it was. Reading Jack's situation is almost boring right now (I would like to say that i stopped right before the profanity got too serious). And to add a vote to Nick's statement, I too feel that I will forget some things about Felix when we return to him, if we even do.

    Eric, you keep telling me that this book is AMAZING, and that no matter how weird, bad or violent/sexual it is, its all worth it. But to me your statement really doesn't provide me with a good reason to liking this novel. Unless the ending is like eating Frosted Flakes in the morning (Their Grrrreat!!), I do not see how going through this confusion and violence/profanity is worth it.

    And the last comment I would like to add is...I'm going to have nightmares tonight...thanks Eric

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  9. Well after a nice relaxing winter break, I am at page 320 of 430. I am determined to give this novel my fullest attention until the end and my full effort trying to figure out why John Steakley took the time to write this book. Now the book focused back into Felix's life. The book suddenly got slightly more interesting by merely leaving the melodramatic Jack Crow, Lya and Karen crowd and their scientific endeavors and romantic episodes. Its back to the battle field at last. Felix is again working with the intergalactic military, counting, not fighting the ants. Interesting turn of events. Yes, there are still unnecessary secondary characters and this book is still not really drawing me in and Steakley is still not on my list of favorite authors, but hey, I guess I just have to persevere the last hundred pages. Anyway, my rant is shorter this time because I think I covered all of my complaints on my last post. Thats all for now, I better get reading.

    And Eric, I'm still wondering this so called "best conclusion EVER!!!" is going to show up...

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  10. Oh sorry, I quoted Eric wrong. My mistake.
    It's supposed to be the "most breathtaking conclusion EVER!!!"

    I'm still waiting for it...

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  11. Whoa guys hold your horses. Yes, there are gruesome and carnal events in the story. This is, however, an adult novel. While these kinds of books do contain the latter, they also are better written. I make this generalization because books from the past centuries generally are written by authors who can wield a wide range of vocabulary. Their ideas are also more imaginative and unique because the imagination-killing softwares of Nintendo, Facebook, and the like were not around. Other great writers--those who sadly are only familiar to past generations--such as Isaac Asimov, T.E. White, and Jules Verne will also write in unique but similar styles in which YOU HAVE TO PAUSE AND CONTEMPLATE WHAT YOU JUST READ!!! Like good movies, there are respites in the book (e.g. Jack Crow's life at first). Like good movies, there are seemingly irrelevant tidbits of dialogue or items (the armor) that are introduced which will play a greater part in the role of the story later on.
    Take Transformers. Or James Bond. Or Braveheart. Or Star Wars. Or Transporter. All these incredible movies have had great reviews. And do you know what else they have in common? HOT GIRLS! Thats what! CURSING! DEATH! RIPPED GUYS WHO CAN TAKE ON WHOLE ARMIES WITH A PISTOL/LIGHTSABER/AXE/ BAD ASS CAR!!!
    Armor is among those ranks and like a good movie, it has all of the above.

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  12. Haha, eric I must applaud you for successfully defending your favorite book. But I have to say that the illicit contentin this book isn't really that bad. Besides the few sort scenes like the one where Steakley uses...unique imagery to describe Jack Crow attacking the angel(lets leave it at that...).

    But honestly, compared to everything else that we are exposed to this novel isn't "oh my god" bad. I mean, the violence in the novel is strong but that is of little difference to what we are seeing in relation to the Halocaust. Then the sexual adult content may be...really descriptive, it is something we all understand but don't feel comfortable talking about. I mean, I understood the scene where Jack attacked the angel but I admit I do not feel going into any more depth.
    One thing that I myself do not like about this novel regardless of the ideas/plot, are the transition the author uses. Steakley uses almost no transitions every now and then, and it really confuses me. Besides the end of parts there have been multiple chapters that started without an intro/transition from the previous chapter. The first chapter that comes to mind would be the start of chapter 12 in part two. The scene before was already unclear, but to add to that Steakley throws in two new things. Jack Crow being sick, and them being on a...picnic? I really didn't understand that scene. I mean, i really didn't get how Karen was reading a book under a tree, Jack was lying on a pillow/sheets, and they had to...run for a while to get back to their home...

    I, however, do like John Steakley's imagery. Many times there would be a period where the main character would stop and examine something. And what ever that somethin was, I would understand it almost as if I had seen it myself. Overall I do like this book, but I do not know if its good enough to be on my favorites.

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  13. Ok, so maybe I was a little harsh on this novel. I really should have given it some more credit for the unique novel that it is. Amidst a generally boring book, one thing John Steakley did well when writing this novel was his use of imagery. The battle scenes especially came to life to the reader as a result of Steakley's sometimes overdone imagery. Another thing that Steakley did well was the conclusion of the novel. No, it was not as good as Eric promised it would be, but it provided a good closure to the never ending transitions between Felix and Jack Crow. However, it took a while. Out of 426 pages, only the first hundred and the last ten or twenty pages impressed me, leaving about three hundred pages of monotonous plot. The seemingly endless, unnecessary chapters in the middle of the novel are the fatal trait of this book. This is one of the main reasons why I would probably steer people who want thoroughly exciting entertainment in their reading away. Although I might recommend it to someone who would enjoy the pointless profanity and scenes about social situations, I would not deem the book meaningful or exciting enough for a freshman class to read.

    It takes a certain kind of person to really enjoy a book like this. After all, few novels can really say that they are "military sci-fi" but although Eric seems to be a fan, this book is really not one of my favorites. I appreciate the novel's level of action at times, and its imagery, but someone should have proofread this book again... It would have saved the reader's time by eliminating some of the many grammar errors and unnecessary, irrelevant scenes.

    My favorite part of the novel was the scene just before the conclusion where Jack goes in to the building to rescue Holly, but they ended up fighting Borglyn’s army singlehandedly. I also liked how Felix "came back from the dead" in the end. This scene unified all the main characters' lives introduced throughout the book and it ended the novel on a happier note. I don't think I could have come up with a better way to end that book.

    Overall, I'd give this book a five out of ten. It was a good book in the beginning in the end, but the areas in between lacked meaningful, enjoyable content. There were too many irrelevant characters introduced, like "Eyes" or "Cortez". Although the book had a considerable amount of flaws, I give it credit for its imagery, its detailed action scenes and its introduction and conclusion.

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  14. Sorry to say this Eric, but after reading the end of the novel I'd have to agree with Nick more than you. You said it yourself that this book had a rather slow climb, and yet you claim this novel as your favorite of all time because it all comes back together in the end. But I just don’t believe the end makes up for the extremely slow build-up

    For me, the worst aspect of this novel is not the dragged-out middle two parts of the book though. But I do not like the style in which the author writes in. I, again, agree with Nick on the fact that Steakley has excellent imagery. But the thing is, he seems to have spent a lot of time on the major scenes, mostly when narrating Felix's perspective. The major points in the plotline are absolutely amazing in the way that the reader can feel everything during that particular scene (It is easy to feel emotion from multiple perspectives. And it isn't easy to predict to the point it gets ridiculous but things happen in a logical order and the general idea can be anticipated, which makes the book realistic and not outrageous), making those scenes perfect. But all of the supporting scenes have fallen apart in many ways such as grammar errors, sentence fluency, and the most important thing, suspense. That is why all of the scenes between the introduction and conclusion almost seem pointless. Those scenes still do set the motive for the great ending, but really creates zero interest for the reader to have. I feel that the author or editor should have waited a little long for publishing the novel to edit the entire novel.

    Now, to go into more fine details of the novel, the author had great characterization and emotion. But there was one important concept that seems to have been left out a few times. The book seemed to lack clarity in multiple situations that caused mild confusion for me. The fact that I normally read the novel at 10 pm shouldn’t have made that big of a difference, but I was confused at least once every time I had a reading session. I personally do not enjoy a book that needs me to read a section three or four times just to figure out the character is lost in a maze. This issue seems to have been in many of scenes during Jack Crow’s portion of the novel but hardly ever in Felix’s portion, which is really quite odd. Considering Felix was the fighter in the war with mass hysteria as the setting, the author expressed it well. Whereas Jack’s calm life in the Project was rather confusing in terms of describing the setting or change of setting. Overall, I give this book 8.5 out of 10 as the book is still a great book, but it lacks the fine details that make a great novel perfect. Really, I feel that it is such a waste for this novel to be ruined by such little details considering the novel’s plotline was so great.

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  15. While there are some unnecessary scenes in the story, I would still give Armor a 9 out of 10 in which it is one of my favorite novels. Some parts of the book were misleading, but for the most part I was able to follow the plot of the story.
    This classic begins centered on the gargantuan struggle between the race of Man vs. the Ants. From the perspective of Felix, this part of the story deals with the experience of the soldier. Here Steakley vividly portrays the frantic mental state of the troopers and successfully provides the suspense that culminates in several drawn-out, glorious battles.
    After having witnessed the horrors of the battlefield, the author introduces the controversial pirate--Jack Crow. Jack is not so different from us in which he does not (at first) dwell on things well known to him such as his name, profession, and the like. Hired by Antwar deserters, Jack is ordered to infiltrate a scientific facility on a backwater planet and steal fuel necessary for piloting their ship.
    This section showcases Steakley's writing prowess in which he greatly develops the character of Jack Crow.
    After being introduced to the protagonists it is now time for their fates to cross. Jack relives Felix's time in the suit with a scientist who is curious about the war. The pirates who hired Jack then attack the facility for fuel; both Jack and the scientist stay behind to delay the intruders and save lives.
    Although they fought heroically, the two are eventually both wounded and are barely dragged to safety by the town drunk. They tell him that there is no way out.
    "Lewis dropped his face into his hands. He rubbed it hard. But then, when he lifted it back up, the grimness had gone. It was replaced with...what? Reckless abandon?
    He smiled. "I was afraid you'd say that."
    Then he stood up and stripped of the jumpsuit. He was naked underneath. I heard a groan behind me. I looked and saw that Holly was openly crying now. He must have known then.
    But I didn't until Lewis walked naked to the far corner of the room and did something that only one human creature in all the universe could do. He touched his open palm to that of the black suit--and it opened.
    Felix."

    While I apologize for the summary above, I did so to show how talented John is at his profession. The unique plot, character development, and the writing itself truly deserve my rating of 9/10; my only complaint being the irrelevancy of some scenes.

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