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Armor cover art

Armor

By: John Steakley
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Summary

The planet is called Banshee. The air is unbreathable, the water poisonous. It is the home of the most implacable enemies that humanity, in all its interstellar expansion, has ever encountered.

Felix is a scout in A-team Two. Highly competent, he is the sole survivor of mission after mission. Yet he is a man consumed by fear and hatred. And he is protected not only by his custom-fitted body armor, the culmination of 10,000 years of the armorers' craft, but also by an odd being which seems to live with him, a cold killing machine he calls "the Engine."

©1984 John Steakley (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Gripping, forceful, and compelling....A tour de force." ( Kliatt)

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What listeners say about Armor

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  • Overall
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Mechanised reality

If you could sum up Armor in three words, what would they be?

Better starship troopers

What was one of the most memorable moments of Armor?

Steakley conveys the emotions and concepts of both war and the resulting loss incredibly. His machine concept will be familiar to many.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The final scenes are good - summarising really what the book is about and the themes that run through it.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Man, machine, war.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A wretched experience

By the time you get through this garbage you'll feel as beat up as the protagonist. The story starts out interesting, sort of, but then changes time and location and goes right downhill. I would have given up then, but this tale has some good reviews so I made myself stick it out till the bitter end.

I think the main issue is the author's laziness. Nothing seems thought about or planned and every time we come to a difficult scene that might call for some effort the writer just sidesteps it with a quick bit of narration that sketches in what happened. It's not even that he doesn't follow the 'show don't tell' rule, most of the time he only 'suggests'. One line goes 'I said something provocative.' I mean, he couldn't even be bothered to think of a line. He probably felt pretty clever doing this when he wrote it, but it's just a continual series of slaps in the reader's face. On the flip-side, when we get to something the author does feel like writing about, we don't hear the end of it. It just keeps going and going and going. This book's title ought to be 'Tedium.'

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great bit of martial sci-fi

I'd never heard of this book or author before, just checked it out as it was available for free. Really enjoyed it! Has a bit of a Starship Troopers/The Forever War vibe, centering around armoured suit combat vs unknown aliens. Feel like I should have seen the final plot twist coming much sooner than I did. Sadly it looks like the author only wrote one other book, though I'll definitely be checking that out. Liked it so much I've ordered the paperback to read properly at some point!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting book

I enjoyed the book, not well structured in places but grown up enough to keep me interested as a listener you do want to find out about Felix the whys and what not the end seems a bit rushed

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Liked it

Really enjoyed this story and please write the next as I’ll be eager to listen. Performance and voice was spot on. Great work 😁

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Amazing

Fantastic story and setting. Absolutely recommend it to anyone that want to hear something a little different then generic sci-fi solder book 6782. ^^

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great idea could have been better

Wasn't a big fan of the performance. I had wanted to listen to this story for some time as I heard the battle scenes were meant to be very good. They were and the main character in his battle suit is an unfeeling robot like killer who is legendary in his ability to overcome. I really liked this. Then the story takes a turn and we meet another character and follow him. This is where I began to get bored it did pick up again at the end when the soldier comes back but in between I found uninteresting.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Couldn't get into it. Too jumpy and fractured

I couldn't get into this book. The plot was too fractured, and jumped around, expecting the reader to either already know what was going on, or be prepared to listen to swathed of conversation and plot before things were explained in passing.

It was saved by an excellent reading by Tom Weiner, but ultimately I found it a bit frustrating, and couldn't finish it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great sci fi epic

Really enjoyed this kept wondering what's happened and yes I guessed the end twist but loved it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Classic story telling.

An interesting read with some likeable characters. A few too many loose ends for me at the end but still thoroughly enjoyed the book.

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