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Bolo
Series · 11 books · 1976-2005

Books in series

Bolo book cover
#1

Bolo

1976

Bolo. Originally developed as far back as the 1980's by the Bolo Division of General Motors, these great artillery machines took on awareness in later designs and gradually began to replace man in that most human of endeavors: War. But let Bolo speak for itself. In the action-packed Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade, the ultimate fighting machines tell their own fascinating, far-ranging and ultimately tragic story. Contents: A Short History of the Bolo Fighting Machines (1976) The Night of the Trolls (1963) Courier (1961) Field Test (1976) The Last Command (1967) A Relic of War (1969) Combat Unit (1960)
Rogue Bolo book cover
#2

Rogue Bolo

1986

Danger threatens the human race when a powerful, self-directed fighting machine begins to strike out on its own
The Stars Must Wait book cover
#3

The Stars Must Wait

1990

Astronaut John Jackson expects to wake from suspended animation in another world, but instead he opens his eyes a century later to an Earth populated by post-Armageddon nasties
Bolo Brigade book cover
#4

Bolo Brigade

1997

SEMPER BOLO Freddy and Ferdy were obsolete, which was why they'd been stationed on the planet Muir as part of a defense treaty between the Strathan Cluster and the Concordiat. Even in their obsolescence, however, they possessed incredible and devastating firepower. Possibly that was why the military high command insisted on tying the two Mark XXIV Model FRD Bolos down with rules of engagement designed to cripple their initiative, and guarantee the safety of Muir's human population. It wasn't, after all, as if they would actually have to fight.... Unfortunately, the high command hadn't counted on the Malach, a deadly alien race descending on Muir from the uncharted Gulf between the galaxies. A race that looks and acts remarkably like pack-hunting dinosaurs, the Malach destroy everything in their path. All that stands between them and the population of Muir is two obsolete Bolos with their weapons locked down....
Bolo Rising book cover
#5

Bolo Rising

2001

When the human colony of Cloud is mercilessly attacked and its people imprisoned in a slave camp, Major Jaime Graham struggles to bring Bolo protector Hector, who has been reprogrammed by their enemies, back to the good side. Original.
Bolo Strike book cover
#6

Bolo Strike

2001

When Colonel Jon Streicher leads his team of men and Bolos in a planetary invasion against Caern and the Aetryx, a group of mysterious beings, they find themselves caught in a trap, stranded in the midst of a battle against an immortal foe. Reprint.
The Road to Damascus book cover
#7

The Road to Damascus

2004

Keith Laumer's Bolos are Back-and New York Times Best-Selling Author John Ringo has Signed on with the Bolo Brigade! First Time in Paperback. When a ruthless political regime seizes power on a world struggling to recover from alien invasion, a former war hero finds herself leading a desperate band of freedom fighters. Kafari Khrustinova, who fought Deng infantry from farmhouses and barns, finds herself struggling to free her homeworld from an unholy political alliance, headed by the charismatic and ambitious Vittori Santorini, which has seduced her young daughter with its propaganda and subverted the planet's Bolo, using the war machine to crush all political opposition. To free her homeworld, Kafari must somehow cripple or kill the Bolo she once called friend. Unit SOL-0045, "Sonny," is a Mark XX Bolo, self-aware and intelligent. When Sonny's human commander is forced off-world, Sonny tries to navigate his way through ambiguous moral and legal issues, sinking into deep confusion and electronic misery. He eventually faces a dark night of the soul, with no guarantee that he will understand-let alone make-the right decision. And caught in the middle of this volatile battlefield is Yalena Khrustinova, Kafari's young daughter. Will she open her eyes in time to save herself-and millions of innocents-or will Santorini's relentless brainwashing campaign continue to blind her while the tyrant engineers the ultimate destruction of a helpless and enslaved population?
Old Soldiers book cover
#9

Old Soldiers

2005

Captain Maneka Trevor was the sole human survivor of the Dinochrome Brigade's 39th Battalion . . . but she hadn't wanted to be one. The Bolo known as "Lazarus" — Unit 28/G-179-LAZ—was the 39th's sole surviving Bolo . . . but he hadn't been hers. The doctors and the Bolo techs have put them both back together again, yet there are wounds no doctor or technician can heal. And now Maneka and Lazarus must serve together once again, in a war whose stakes are literally the survival or extermination of the human race. They are all that stand between a desperate, secret colony of humanity and a Bolo commander torn by survivor's guilt and a Bolo whose very existence reminds her of all she has lost. The odds against them are heavy, the stakes are huge, and surrender is not an option. The Dinochrome Brigade is used to that, but can Maneka and Lazarus survive their own shared past to defend the present?
Honor of the Regiment book cover
#Anth1

Honor of the Regiment

Bolos 1

1993

Anthology: Bolos 1 (Bolo, Bk 4) Chronicles the history of the Bolo, a futuristic man-made machine that symbolizes brute force, defiancé, and rigid will, and is responsible for defending humanity. The future of war, and the fate of man, lies with one machine: the Bolo. With plated armor, a laser cannon, an electronic brain, and wheels, it defends humanity from aliens that threaten the entire species. Now comes the amplified history of the Bolo in stories by David Drake, S.M. Stirling, Mercedes Lackey and others. Cover art by Paul Alexander. Contents: Lost Legion \[Bethany Martins • 1\] / novelette by S. M. Stirling Camelot / novelette by Shariann Lewitt \[as by S. N. Lewitt\] The Legacy of Leonidas / novella by Andrew Keith \[as by J. Andrew Keith\] Ploughshare / novella by Todd McCaffrey \[as by Todd Johnson\] Ghosts / short story by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg The Ghost of Resartus / novelette by Christopher Stasheff Operation Desert Fox \[Bolo\] / novelette by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon As Our Strength Lessens \[Bolo\] / short story by David Drake Based on the fighting machine created by Keith Laumer. .
The Unconquerable book cover
#Anth2

The Unconquerable

Bolos 2

1994

The Unconquerable continues the amplified history of the Bolo—an almost indestructible, nearly unstoppable tank controlled by a sophisticated artificial intelligence. These stories by S.M. Stirling, William R. Forstchen, Christopher Stasheff, Shirley Meier, Todd Johnson and more tell of the faithful and tireless protectors of the human race: the Bolos. Contains: ANCESTRAL VOICES S. M. Stirling SIR KENDRICK'S LADY S. N. Lewitt YOU'RE IT Shirley Meier SHARED EXPERIENCE Christopher Stasheff THE MURPHOSENSOR BOMB Karen Wehrstein LEGACY Todd Johnson ENDINGS William Forstchen
Last Stand book cover
#Anth4

Last Stand

Bolos 4

1997

Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Almost. Nearly. A sufficiently determined enemy armed with nearly limitless firepower and willing to sustain terrible losses could destroy a Bolo. But even a terminally damaged Bolo is still an opponent to reckon with, and as long as a Bolo's artificial intelligence retains a flicker of consciousness, its indomitable drive to defend the human race against all enemies will propel it forward. Bolos can be destroyed—but they never surrender!

Authors

Todd Johnson
Author · 1 books
Todd Johnson was born 27 April 1956 in Montclair, New Jersey as the second son and middle child of Horace Wright Johnson (deceased 2009), who worked for DuPont, and Anne McCaffrey(deceased 2011), who had her second short story published that year. He has two siblings: Alec Anthony, born 1952, and Georgeanne ("Gigi", Georgeanne Kennedy), born 1959.
William R. Forstchen
William R. Forstchen
Author · 38 books

William R. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology. Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the "Lost Regiment" series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan. Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory. More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy. In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. and currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States. Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan. His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II. http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...

William H. Keith Jr.
William H. Keith Jr.
Author · 29 books

Bill Keith was raised in the mountains of western Pennsylvania, and served in the Navy as a corpsman for many years. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction works, he is an award-winning illustrator/artist. He has also published under the psuedonyms: Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark) H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series) Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series) Bill Keith Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series) Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)

John Ringo
John Ringo
Author · 49 books

John Ringo is a prolific author who has written in a wide variety of genres. His early life included a great deal of travel. He visited 23 foreign countries, and attended fourteen different schools. After graduation Ringo enlisted in the US military for four years, after which he studied marine biology. In 1999 he wrote and published his first novel "A Hymn Before Battle", which proved successful. Since 2000 Ringo has been a full time author. He has written science fiction, military fiction, and fantasy. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Keith Laumer
Keith Laumer
Author · 89 books

John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. His brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Keith's The Other Side of Time). Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service." Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966. During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety. In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time. In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment: Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books. — Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11) His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them. Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.

S.M. Stirling
S.M. Stirling
Author · 63 books

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series. MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY: (personal website: source) I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

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