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dsrtao_The Space Eater_, David Langford.
The first chapter was pushed as a horror-of-future-war short story, in which regeneration tanks made it possible to have a caste of soldiers who could get used to dying, and as a result became completely fearless. Then the book goes into basic hard SF mode: given the technological innovations herein (the regen tanks, a wormhole with some interesting limitations, a total-conversion weapon, the ability to change G...) how can they all be used to solve pieces of a puzzle? I'm happy to say that I saw several of the solutions coming several pages before the reveals.
Most Langford stories are in the same mode; they're fun, and readable, but the sparks of greatness are the fictional technical ideas, rather than the story telling or characterization or plot or setting. Good on its own merits.
The first chapter was pushed as a horror-of-future-war short story, in which regeneration tanks made it possible to have a caste of soldiers who could get used to dying, and as a result became completely fearless. Then the book goes into basic hard SF mode: given the technological innovations herein (the regen tanks, a wormhole with some interesting limitations, a total-conversion weapon, the ability to change G...) how can they all be used to solve pieces of a puzzle? I'm happy to say that I saw several of the solutions coming several pages before the reveals.
Most Langford stories are in the same mode; they're fun, and readable, but the sparks of greatness are the fictional technical ideas, rather than the story telling or characterization or plot or setting. Good on its own merits.
