Name: Armor
Author: John Steakley

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Very heavy

Extreme graphic military combat violence; the alien bug battles are depicted with visceral intensity across the entire novel

Language

Some

Adult language in Steakley's military SF register

Sexual Content

Barely any

Minimal sexual content

Substance Use

Barely any

Some drinking in the second storyline

Emotional Intensity

A lot

The psychological portrait of a soldier who has dissociated from his own survival — 'the machine' that takes over when Felix cannot cope — is one of the most powerful examinations of combat psychology in SF

What this book is about

John Steakley's SF novel follows Felix, a soldier in powered armor fighting against alien insects on a hostile planet — and the psychological defense mechanism he calls 'the machine' that takes over when the horror becomes too much. Interwoven is a second storyline following Jack Crow, a space pirate who discovers Felix's journal. Steakley writes military SF with visceral intensity; the combat sequences are among the most graphically violent in the genre, and the psychological portrait of a man dissociated from his own war is extraordinary. An underappreciated classic of military SF.