I would recommend this book to any sci-fi fan or to fans of the movie. For the firsts, it will give them a very good story, written by someone who is competent as a writer and as a scientists. The novel feels like it’s been very well researched. Everything is logical and holds up. The way the “aliens” are presented (through the monoliths and the star-gate) is very well inserted and works better than in most stories I’ve read.

For the movie fans, it will certainly give you more details about the story. The movie is fantastic, a landmark, and I love it. But it is a very different animal. It leaves much to interpretation, it’s very poetic. Especially the ending. The novel is more functional. I can’t blame anyone for not understanding the appearance of the Star Child at the end of the movie (one must watch this film a few times, ideally a few years apart). But with the book, it’s all a lot clearer.

Definitely a must read.

I read Starship Troopers and The Forever War before reading Armor. I can see the inspiration from those novels, but Armor is still an original story in its own right.

The structure itself, with the two tales is very interesting. Two main characters, years appart. One told from a narrator’s point of view, the other at the first person. Then they both connect in a beautifully designed way. It’s certainly not perfect but it manages to be both entertaining and deep, something most military sci-fi books fail to achieve (most of them only bother with the entertaining part).

I think Starship Troopers was a very interesting book and helped to define a genre, but that it’s been surpassed by some later stories. Armor is certainly one of them.

I can't get enough Darwyn Cooke. I recommend this book to anybody who even remotely likes his style.

He manages to capture movements and feelings in a way few artists can. His style is much more "cartoony" than Jim Lee's for example, but I find it more enjoyable and actually better suited for the stories he's telling. I'll take the New Frontier's art over Hush's anytime, but I understand it is a matter of taste.

This book has a few very interesting stories (I especially liked the ones on Jonah Hex) and superb art, including some beautiful covers. Really enjoyable, and a book that I'll go back to very often.

Full disclosure, I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, but I wasn’t aware of the author’s notoriety.

I understand that this is her first novel and that in itself is an accomplishment. It has an (somewhat) interesting plot, the pacing is OK (if inconsistent) the humour is mostly good and I had no trouble going through it and following the events. The writing and editing could use some work though, there are lots of redundancies (« a manual car with shift stick »... I mean, come on.) the vocabulary is also quite basic at times, with lots of repetitions.

That being said, this book has some serious flaws. The story a bit generic, it felt like an overlong X-Files episode at times, but through the eyes of somebody who watched Arrival and thought it was cool. I did like that she addressed a big issue with first contact: language. Even though I thought it wasn’t handled with the finesse required for such a vast subject. Again, the fact that it reads like an overlong TV episode didn’t help.

But my main issue is with the characters.

There is almost no character development, they all feel very generic. Cora is the protagonist here. She is a college dropout who lives with her mother, younger sister and brother. Her father sucks and wasn’t here for her. And that’s about all you know about her. The supporting cast gets even less attention. Very bland, uninspired characters.

So, even though the plot could be interesting, I just didn’t care what happened to Cora, her aunt or the rest of the cast. The alien got a little more attention but even then it was quite minimal, even at the end. And it doesn’t feel intended, it feels like she didn’t know how to give personality and depth to her characters.

It felt like this book was written as a movie script, with notes for the actors that said “give this character some personality” and to the director “please give the whole thing some gravitas”... because it lacked both. All the movies references and absence of literary ones also tell me that Ms. Ellis should maybe read more before writing more. If she has more literary bagage, it certainly didn’t show with this book.

You like sci-fi and want to learn about character development? Go read Dan Simmons or Ursula le Guin. I’m not saying I am expecting this level of literacy from everyone but they certainly could learn from these two.

People say that Asimov wrote very plot driven sci-fi stories with thin character development, and although this is true, his characters had way more depth than those.

So, if Ms. Ellis can give more life and personality to her characters in her future novels, I believe she could write interesting stories. But if she keeps with this way of creating her plots and characters, I’m afraid I’ll pass...

This is another beautiful book. The art and colors are phenomenal. Brubaker’s story is also very good, the dialog witty and natural. He really knows how to give life to his characters. Another highly recommended graphic novel.