John Steakley - Armor

Admiring bow cause, here, we're talking about the best military science-fiction.

Steakley wrote this cult classic war novel as a tribute to Heinlein, who didn't write fight scenes specially well despite his, on the other hand, undeniable mastery in all othe aspects of novel writting.

I really like how R., from Line of Eld, describes this book and its hero: "A seemingly unkillable protagonist develops a split-personality disorder in order to survive being thrown repeatedly back into combat."

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the plot:

Armor is the story of humanity's war against an alien race whose foot soldiers are three-meter-tall insects ('ants') and it is also the story of a research colony on the fringes of human territory which is threatened by pirates. The two sub-plots intersect at the end.

The Plot on Banshee

The protagonist is Felix, an anonymous enlistee who's been given "scout" duty on an alien planet in the seemingly endless "Antwar." Little is known of him initially but that he suffers from burnout and refuses to die, even when it seems inevitable. He is part of the armored infantry arm of the Fleet, deployed to fight a war of extermination on an alien planet.

The Plot on Sanction

Most of the action of the final 2/3 of the book takes place on Sanction, a planet far removed from the fighting, at a Fleet research facility.
The deuteragonist is Jack Crow, a notorious celebrity and one-time pirate. A morally questionable character and a tough man who does not hesitate to kill.
We meet Jack in prison on an alien world just prior to his breaking out. He will infiltrate and sabotage the Fleet research project on Sanction.
On Sanction, Jack takes an old suit of battle armor to project Director Hollis "Holly" Ware, to ingratiate himself and get the necessary access to fulfill his bargain with Borglyn. But Jack is then asked by Holly to participate in an experiment to retrieve the data from the suit's battle recorder, which is the "memory" of the wearer while the suit was active.


This Amazon's customer review by OK "oneofme" is in my opinion very inspired:
"Armor is a subtly compassionate novel that explores human suffering like no other piece of fiction i know. it's english is not perfect. but the style is perfect for the story. the battle scence are graphic. the characters are rough. but once again they are true to the story. "

20th century american prose at its best, Armor is really a great book. Five stars, if you ask me.

As far as John Steakley is concerned, unfortunately he was not a prolific writer. He published two major novels, Armor (1984)^[3] and Vampire$ (1990) and four short science fiction and fantasy stories. He was born in July 26, 1951, in Cleburne, Texas and died November 27, 2010, in McKinney, Texas

Charles Stross - The Atrocity Archives

Composed of two different text, the short novel The Atrocity Archive and the Hugo-award winner novella The Concrete Jungle, this story deals with spionage in a Lovecraftian world where higher mathematics are the key that opens gates to other dimensions. The protagonist of both stories is a computer expert named Bob Howard forced to work for a secret British intelligence organization called "The Laundry". Here horror themes are combined with retro-nazi threat and mixed with a satire of bureaucracy. First-rate book, not too easy to read but shamelessly fun.

Make no mistake, The Concrete Jungle has nothing to do with Tom deSimone's film.

In one of my favourite reviews about this book, the one entitled "Never park in a Hilbert space" by Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" in Amazon, he says:

Intrigued? If you are comfortable with computers, or at least have a handle on geek speak and enjoy twisted, funny writers whose imaginations have run wild, this is something you will want to read. Despite a large serving of sarcasm and irony, Stross also manages to deliver a genuinely interesting plot with as much action as there is esoteric muttering.

It's geeky but also hilarious and different from everything else I've read, genuinely and thuggishly original.

From SF Site

Bob Howard is working on a desk job for the "Laundry", but he's bucking for field service. We meet him on his first trial, breaking into an industrial building to destroy the traces of a dangerous discovery a young mathematician has made. It turns out that certain kinds of math knowledge lead to the ability to summon demons from other universes -- the sort of thing once done with chalked pentagrams, but much more efficiently achieved with lasers instead of chalk, and with computers to keep track of the summoning rituals. It's the job of the Laundry to keep such knowledge under wraps.

But aside from the dangerous job, the Laundry is just another Dilbertian government job environment. So the first few chapters show Bob dealing with bureaucratic hassles: stupid bosses demanding silly paperwork, dumb training classes, computer problems, etc. It's all very funny stuff. He's also dealing with his crazy sometime girlfriend, and his weird roommates. Then he gets sent to California to try to pry a beautiful redheaded Irish scientist from the clutches of the US -- it seems she might be studying some dangerous stuff. But his mission turns bad when she is kidnapped by some Islamists who may have bitten off more than they can chew. Before long, Bob is posted to a more curious part of the Laundry, with a boss straight out of classic spy fiction, and it looks like they might be dealing with a secret Nazi project -- or something even scarier...



And there is a secuel called Jennifer Morgue

Good recommendation from an even better friend :))))

Jack Vance - Cadwal Chronicles

The Cadwal Chronicles are a trilogy of science fiction novels by Jack Vance set in his Gaean Reach fictional universe. The three novels are called

Araminta Station, 

Ecce and Old Earth 

and Throy.

Storyline:

Cadwal is a planet of extraordinary beauty. To protect it, the "Naturalist Society" has set up a Charter which allows only limited settlement on the planet in order to enforce the laws of the Conservancy. These laws forbid extensive human habitations, mining and other exploitation activities. Only six "Agents" and their staff are allowed to reside permanently on the planet: their main function is to prevent other humans from establishing residence. From the earliest days, the Agents recruited members of their own families to help them; but only 20 such family members were allowed, to a total planetary population of 120 (although numbers are swelled by additional non-resident personnel, known as "collaterals"). At his 21st birthday, each resident on Cadwal discovers his Agency status which hinges on an "index number" indicating his genealogical rank. A person whose index number is greater than 20 must leave Cadwal to seek his fortune elsewhere in the Gaean Reach. Thus, the society of Cadwal is a highly stratified aristocracy, where success depends on birth as much as aptitude. The system is designed to minimise the number of residents on the planet but is highly inflexible.

Despite these restrictions an additional groups of persons reside on the planet: the "Yips", who are described as "descendants of runaway servants". Forbidden access to the hospitable continent of Deucas, the Yips are confined to the tiny Lutwen Islands; their extremely crowded settlement is informally known as Yipton.

Much of the story concerns the tensions between the Yips, who would like to colonise the continent of Deucas and have no concern for ecology, and the members of the Cadwal Conservancy who wish to uphold the Charter and keep Cadwal as a nature reserve.

Perhaps, what I find most striking of this series are the dialogues, so formal and polite as to verge on the absurd. Wicked villains that, in their hatred, speak with poisonous contempt to patient and imperturbable heroes who answer these verbal aggressions with enviable tranquility and commendable courtesy. Invariably polite and serious, without ever responding to provocations nor being drawn into futile discussions, Glawen Clattuc, an intelligent, capable young man and a member of the Conservancy at Araminta Station, joins Bureau B, the department responsible for enforcing the laws of the Charter, and quickly becomes embroiled in a plot to allow the Yips to take over Deucas. Glawen makes a somewhat discreet hero, without fuss or display, but he's resourceful and endowed with tenacity and tireless devotion to duty.

Funny, detailed and agile story, great plot, credible characters. Perhaps the somewhat convoluted and contrived dialogues may tire a bit at first, but I enjoyed them a lot because of the subtle sense of humour woven into them, specially once I realized that the style was necessary for a proper description of the characters and their idiosyncrasies.

Jack Vance - Planet of adventure - Tschai series

Jack Vance was born John Holbrook Vance in August 28, 1916 in San Francisco and was a genius as a sci-fi writer. Perhaps his writing style was not cultured and subtle, but that was more than compensated with a prodigious and fertile imagination, from which emerged complex , dangerous, exciting and varied worlds, full of adventures and challenges and of heroes willing to overcome obstacles and enjoy surprises. Books that will make you dream with open eyes fixed on its pages, refusing to sleep: ten more minutes, ten more pages, only until the end of this chapter, it's still not to late, I can read a bit more...

Dirdir

Planet of Adventure is the name given to a series of four science fiction novels by Jack Vance, which relate the adventures of Adam Reith, the sole survivor of an Earth ship investigating a signal from the distant planet Tschai.

Chasch

 In order, the books are:

• City of the Chasch
• Servants of the Wankh
• The Dirdir
• The Pnume

Wankh

 Plot
Adam Reith is sent with another scout in a small ship to investigate a distress signal sent centuries before from the previously unknown planet. The mother ship is destroyed and the rest of the crew killed in a surprise missile attack. The two survivors are forced to set down on Tschai and soon enough, Reith is alone. The four books describe the attempts of a man of singularly strong will and resource to return to Earth. He overcomes the obstacles of dealing with four different alien races and various human groups in his efforts. In the process, he profoundly disrupts several of the societies, human and alien, with which he is forced to deal.

Pnume

"Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials

Reith acquires two faithful human companions in the course of his travels: Traz Onmale, the dour, proud boy-chieftain of a nomad race obsessed with emblems, and the renegade Dirdirman, Ankhe at Afram Anacho, loquacious, fastidious and flamboyant. (Vance has said that the novels were commissioned as a juvenile series, which was why he included Traz; but the action is no less ‘adult’ than in his other works.) The third novel also introduces a villain in the enormously fat, petulant, pedophilic, shamelessly avaricious contractor Aila Woudiver.
The vast teeming planet with its clashing civilizations and multifarious cultures affects Reith to the point that he realizes that if he succeeds in returning to Earth, his life will seem dull and colourless in comparison.

Jack and Norma Vance

If you want to read a great article about Jack Vance, visit this one in More Red Ink

Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity

Mesklin is a very large and very dense planet. Its surface gravity varies greatly from 3g at the equator to 700g at the poles.

 
The oceans are liquid methane and  snow is frozen ammonia. Under these nightmarish conditions live mesklinitas, who have developed a culture and a society perfectly suited to the conditions of their environment. Barlemann, a bold mesklinita sailor agrees to undertake an impossible journey to save an expensive Earth probe broken on the pole of the planet. For mesklinitas the trip is a wonderful opportunity to discover science and progress in the path of knowledge, and this is the driving force that guides them through many adventures motivated by working and negociating with humans.



This is "hard" science-fiction, of the kind that pays special attention to scientific and technical details of the story. The most characteristic aspect of this book is the clarity of its approach.  Clement introduces his characters without further preamble, and in fact does not even bother to explain how humans managed to arrive to Mesklin and there's no hesitation, no doubt or speculation. The mesklinitas are remarkably intelligent, and therefore smart and cunning, basic characteristics of any self-respecting adventurer. In that sense, they can seem too human but that's part of the clarity of approach. 

Masterpiece and classic.  

Harry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 – October 29, 2003) better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He went to Harvard, graduating with a B.S. in astronomy in 1943. His further educational background includes an M.Ed. (Boston University 1946) and M.S. in chemistry (Simmons College 1963).

During World War II Clement was a pilot and copilot of a B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe with the 8th Air Force. After the war, he served in the United States Air Force Reserve, and retired with the rank of colonel. He taught chemistry and astronomy for many years at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.

He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard.

He created (below from wikipedia) a number of notably unusual fictional planets as settings for his works. They include:

• Abyormen – A planet circling a dwarf star (Theer), which in turn circles a blue giant. This produces a hot and a cold season, each of 65 years' duration. The native intelligent life forms undergo a seasonal mass death. From Cycle of Fire.
• Dhrawn – A high-gravity world settled by Mesklinites in Star Light.
• Habranha - A planet that is tidally locked with its sun, such that the far side is a mix of solid CO₂, solid methane, and ice, and the other side completely ocean, in Fossil.
• Hekla – An ice-age planet in Cold Front (short story, Astounding July 1946).
• Kaihapa – An uninhabited ocean planet, twin of Kainui, in Noise.
• Kainui – An inhabited ocean planet in Noise.
• Mesklin — A planet with ultra-high gravity (up to 700 g) in Mission of Gravity. Clement later corrected his model of Mesklin and determined that the maximum surface gravity would be "only 250 gravities".
• Sarr – An extremely hot planet with an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur ('air') and liquid copper sulphate ('water') in Iceworld
• Tenebra – A high-gravity world with a corrosive atmosphere in Close to Critical.
• Enigma 88 - A small planet near η Carinae in Still River. The interior of the object is honeycombed with caves, due to evaporation of accreted ice-rich planetoids. Unusually for Clement, Enigma's structure is not fully consistent with the laws of physics.

Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others

A tower that rises above the Mesopotamian plain to touch the vault of heaven.

Two men who achieve a level of intelligence so high that they resemble gods.

The mathematical proof that Mathematics are meaningless.

An alien language that allows those who read to expand consciousness over time.

Kabbalah and the theory of preformation combined output in a Victorian England of our dreams, or our nightmares.

Before the arrival of the metahumans, human science is reduced to a footnote on page.

In a universe where God exists without any possibility of doubt, is it possible not to love?

And if you could program yourself to ignore the appearances, will you risk losing all perceptions of human beauty?

Ted Chiang, awarded the John W. Campbell Jr., shines like a new star in the firmament of science fiction. With a Hugo Award, three Nebula, a Sturgeon, a Seiun, a Sidewise and two Locus, The Story of Your Life is an essential book.

Tower of Babylon, Understand, Division by Zero, Story of Your Live, Sevent-Two Letters, The Evolution of Human Science, Hell is the Absence of God, Liking What You See: a Documental, What's Expected of Us, The Merchant and The Alchemist's Gate, eight stories, eight masterpieces.

Chiang's ideas are full of that originality and wonder that I wish I could find in everything I read but is so rare that it's precious. Magnificent.

Frank Herbert: Dune

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.

Lego sandworm

Surely Herbert's Dune is to sci-fi what LOTR is to fantasy literature. It's also a true classic and its background of political intrigue makes it reminiscent of the historical novel.

Yes, I know this one up is silly, but I don't feel like inserting here the classic image from Lynch's movie

Frank Herbert's greatness is the creation of a cosmos where everything is distributed perfectly, with characters actually defined, large shades, and a really impressive fusion between the feudal nineteenth century with a credible futuristic society. His prose, simple in appearance, is very rhythmic and descriptive, and the progression of the characters makes us believe that they are really alive. 

In the book, Herbert gets quickly rid of the problem of predicting scientific advances by creating a Jihad that removed them (lacking computers, man has to make do with his brain, and discover a whole new universe) and then he proceeds to write formidably one of the more philosophical and mystical novels I've ever read. The always interesting idea of the messiah and legends that always end up happening in one way or another, here are masterfully developed.

 Indisputable masterpiece whose only drawback is an overabundance of continuations of the saga that do not reach the quality of the first books in the series.

And although I've resisted so far to place here those images that everyone expected, I will not hold the urge to leave my tiny tribute to Kyle gorgeuous MacLachlan who we'll always be Paul in my imagination.

To know more (and better):
http://moongadget.com/origins/dune.html

Philip K. Dick : tormented genius, lots of fun

 

 Philip K. Dick android missing head in metro, by NikiSublime

Philip K. Dick. Greatest among the great. Biggest imagination ever, although he often drew upon his own life experiences and addressed the nature of drug abuse, paranoia and schizophrenia. Tormented writter often called "american Borges", obviously intended as a flattery. 44 published novels and 121 short stories, impossible to say which is the best: nevertheless those are the ones listed among Top 100 Sci-fi books in Sci-Fi Lists:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Filmed as Blade Runner, this PKD classic has lost none of its appeal over the years. Bounty hunter Rick Deckard tracks down renegade 'replicants' - almost-faultlessly lifelike androids created to fill the void left by the devastating World War. As usual, Dick keeps us guessing - and the hunter becomes the hunted. Must read novel. Let's see some covers:

The Man in the High Castle.

In 1962 the few surviving Jews live in fear and slavery is legal - all because America lost World War II. The story of The Man in the High Castle is about daily life under totalitarian Fascist imperialism. The victorious Axis Powers — Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany — are conducting intrigues against each other in North America, specifically in the former U.S., which surrendered to them once they had conquered Eurasia and destroyed the populaces of Africa.

Despite his visions and general craziness, Dick married five times, I don't know what that says exactly about him :-P

His first wife was Jeanette Marlin. During May 1948, Dick married her, divorcing six months later; he never saw her again. I haven't found any photo of her.

This is Dick's second wife, Kleo Apostolides Dick Mini. Married June 14, 1950 – divorced 1959. Dick as in Philip K. Dick, his first husband and Mini as in Norman Mini, second husband who she met because Philip introduced them. You can find a very interesting interview to Anne Mini, Kleo's daughter here.

3rd: April 1, 1959 - 1965 Anne Williams Rubinstein.
Child Laura Archer born February 25, 1960

4th: July 6, 1966 - 1972 Nancy Hackett. Child: Isa, born March 15,1967

5th: April 18, 1973, to Leslie (Tessa) Busby – divorced 1977
child: Christopher Kenneth, born July 25, 1973

Curious facts of Dick's life:

Everything began in Chicago, on the 16th of December, 1928. Philip Kindred and Jane Kindred Dick cried and wept for the first time in their lives. Jane died after 41 days, because of the carelessness of their mother, Dorothy Grant Kindred (who didn't take her to the hospital at the proper time, a money matter). Since then, Phil had a unconscious culpability complex and we can understand perhaps a bit more why he felt anger toward his parents. Moreover, Jane would be found in many phildickian writings later on. Phil's dad, Joseph Edgar Dick, had a nice job indeed: cutting the throats of pigs as an employee of the government. His mother censored official texts of the government's spokesmen. Here again, what feelings went through the young Dick about his parents? Censorship is one of the
most important features in Philip K. Dick's writings: distinguishing truth from falsehood, the real from the imagined.

To learn more: you can find a fascinating interview with Tessa, Chris and Ranea Dick here

To be continued (because he wrote all this wonderful novels):

Solar Lottery 1955

The World Jones Made 1956

The Man Who Japed 1956

Eye in the Sky 1957

The Cosmic Puppets 1957

Time Out of Joint 1959

Dr. Futurity 1960

Vulcan's Hammer 1960

The Man in the High Castle 1962 1963 Hugo Award Winner for Best Science Fiction Novel

The Game-Players of Titan 1963

The Penultimate Truth 1964

Martian Time-Slip 1964

The Simulacra 1964

Clans of the Alphane Moon 1964

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 1965

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along after the Bomb 1965

Now Wait for Last Year 1966

The Crack in Space 1966

The Unteleported Man 1966

The Zap Gun 1967

Counter-Clock World 1967

The Ganymede Takeover (with Ray Nelson) 1967

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968 Adapted for the motion picture, "Blade Runner."

Galactic Pot-Healer 1969

Ubik 1969

A Maze of Death 1970

Our Friends from Frolix 8 1970

We Can Build You 1972

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said 1974 1974 John W Campbell Memorial Award Winner

Confessions of a Crap Artist 1975

Deus Irae (with Roger Zelazny) 1976

A Scanner Darkly 1977

VALIS 1981

The Divine Invasion 1981

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer 1982

The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike 1984

Radio Free Albemuth 1985

Puttering About in a Small Land 1985

In Milton Lumky Territory 1985

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland 1986

Mary and the Giant 1987

The Broken Bubble 1988

Nick and the Glimmung (a children's novel) 1988

Gather Yourselves Together Written in 1950 (Published in 1994)

Lies, Inc. 1964 (Published 2004)

Voices From the Street Written 1953 (Published 2007)