Detta kan vara Dave Wolvertons (AKA David Farland) 1989-roman På min väg till paradiset.
FrånAmazon-länkenovan:
In a world of ever-worsening crisis, Angelo Osic is an anomaly: a man who cares about others. One day he aids a stranger. . . and calls down disaster, for the woman called Tamara is also a woman on the run, the only human with the knowledge that will save Earth from the artificial intelligences plotting to overthrow it.
Fleeing the assassins who seek him as well as Tamara, Angelo seizes the only escape route available: to sign on as a mercenary with the Japanese Motoki Corporation in its genocidal war against the barbarian Yabajin. Jacked into training machines that simulate warfare, Angelo "dies" a hundred times. . .and is resurrected to fight again. In a world of death, he dreams only of life-and the freedom to love once more.
Huvudpersonen,AngeloOsic,ärenläkare(avolikaslag,hanärmeravenapotekaresomanvändernanotekniska"droger") Efter att ha hjälpt en mystisk kvinna, ansluter Osic till en grupp syd- och centralamerikanska "chimärer", genetiskt förhöjda superhumaner skapade för att bekämpa ett tidigare krig. Chimera legosoldaterna har anlitats av ett japanskt företag för att bekämpa ett annat japanskt företag på en omtvistad kolonimiljö. Boken är uppdelad i tre delar - händelserna fram till sin tid på fartyget, hans tidsträning på fartyget och händelserna efter landning. Latino-kimärernas legosoldater hålls skilda från resten av den japanska besättningen och soldaterna på skeppet. Hans träningstid för fartyg är begränsad när han sätts i stasis för sitt engagemang i en misslyckad muta. Den avancerade träningen som han saknat innehåller kampdroger och mentala discipliner för att hjälpa soldater att tänka och flytta snabbare.
Här är "slowing time with their minds":
Kapitel 22:
“We’ve learned much,” the chimera said. “You were frozen before training really began. You did not spend time studying your own individual kinesthetics through the holographs, learning not to waste a move, learning the spins and throws and drops necessary to defeat the weapons of the Yabajin. You were still studying how to achieve munen, the state of no mind, the state of the living corpse. You did not progress into the higher mental states necessary for battle—Instantaneity or Perfect Control. The great genius of the samurai comes from their knowledge of these states of being—”
“Pardon me, but what do you mean by Instantaneity?”
The chimera looked at me thoughtfully. “Perhaps you have had a moment in your life, a moment of great fear when your life was in jeopardy, and time seemed to stop. I once lived such a moment. In an alley in Temuco during the riots a human came and put an ancient revolver in my face and pulled the trigger. The hammer was cocked, and when he pulled the trigger it began to fall. Time seemed to stop. A car passed on the street before me, and a woman was looking out the window and watching. I remember her face perfectly, her ruby lips shaped in a circle of surprise. I saw the steam rising from a sewer grate across the street, and a man in a store there was turning out the lights. I looked into the frightened eyes of the young man who planned to murder me and knew he could not be more than fifteen. And all this time the hammer was falling and I thought, ‘When the hammer drops, I die.’ So I reached up and put my finger in front of the hammer and it never dropped. That is Instantaneity, living life in a moment. It is a state of mind a warrior can learn to induce at will. It is one secret of the samurai. Beyond this lies Perfect Control—the ability to achieve a measured heartbeat, to stop one’s breathing, to put all muscles under voluntary control.”