What was the first instance of power armor in fiction? Has anybody

Dunno about the first. But Lensman came before Starship Troopers

>>15449240

Honestly it's probably some old Greek myth about some God-armor.

>>15449268

Yeah, i am positive that the novel "Galactic Patrol" of 1937 presented the first istance of power armor.

>>15449268
Is there an example of this?

>>15449278
>>15449268
I've yet to read anything past Triplanetary. Is it full-on power armour (i.e. mechanically assisted movement) or armour with various electronics?

>>15449505

It's very mobile, jetpack equipped and capable of deflecting beams. Basically it's the rough idea of a power armor, but it lacks the details of Heinlein's defining interpretation of the concept. The latter is like Mazinger Z compared to the precursor Tetsujin 28.

>>15449570
Neat, thanks. I need to get on reading that, though I've got a literal stack of books to get through before I can even really think about it.

>>15449268
literally who?

>>15450931

The Lensman series by E. E. "Doc" Smith.

If there's an earlier instance (than the Lensman series) of something that could accurately be described as Power Armor it's either so blindingly obvious (like the Golem from Hebrew Mythology being a proto-robot) that I can't think of it or it's remarkably obscure.

The Lensman series is pretty fun stuff, though as stated quite old, so it takes some getting used to if you're accustomed to any writers that are significantly more recent.

LOADS of cool ideas in there, hard science be damned - you can expect to see some very innovative use of Inertia-Cancelling Drives, use of a solar-system-scale vacuum tube as an offensive weapon a-la Gryps, and even some kind of anti-matter/black-hole bomb (can't actually remember which off the top of my head - the phrase "zone of total annihilation" comes to mind).

Generally pretty "pulp-y" in structure, but good fun at any rate.

>>15449240
Didn't Burroughs write something close? I think Nemo's diving suits were powered too