Bolo Brigade

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: A really great story. Sadly, I wish a follow up book or two came out

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Bolo books!
Review: Bolo brigade is a well crafted, actioned packed story in the universe of Keith Laumer's Bolos, giant sentient tanks that are humanity's most stalwart defenders.

In Bolo Brigade, a bolo officer with a dead end career winds up posted to a backwater planet that is about to become a raging battleground. The Malach, a race of reptile-like aliens appears from the depths of space and invades the planet. The only force that can stop them are two old bolos and whatever forces the planetary government can muster.

Bolo Brigade thunders to a crescendo of action that is glittering in in its intensity and at one point seems to literally roar with the fury of battle. The bolos display courage and humanity that goes far beyond the call of duty, and the ending may even leave you with tears in your eyes.

Sometimes authors just nail it right on the head and William Keith excels with Bolo Brigade.

Rating:
Summary: me bolo you hamburger
Review: bolos are bad and this is just more proof. this is the first bolo single story novel and it is a good one. a must read for all bolo fans and a if you never read bolo befor this will get you hooked.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasing!
Review: This is one of those books you can read again and agian. Entertaining to the last. Believable characters and an extrodinary setting. I really wish (hint HINT) that a followup would come along one day.

Rating:
Summary: Humanity's best friend, the Bolo, to the rescue yet again!
Review: This latest entry into the continuing future history of humanity's best friend, the Bolo, is entertaining and gripping, most especially during the battle sequences. The nemesis this time, the Malach, are actually pack-hunter Velicoraptors with a high I.Q. and superiority complexes who work under an absolute matriarchy. They come from across the great void between galaxies to prove their genetic superiority, while stripping human worlds of refined materials along the way. The only thing that stands in the way of their plans are the cybernetic armored behemoths renown as Bolos. The hero, a middle aged lieutenant who has a difficult time following orders from incompetent superiors, well commands two Bolo Mark XXIV's. Even though harnessed under queer constraints of an a-typical, paranoid bureaucracy, the Bolos work their usual miracles with the lieutenant close at hand providing the "human element" that helps save the day. In a fight to the finish with the Malach, after they've conquered two human-occupied worlds and defeated numerous older, much less capable Bolos, the Mark XXIV's give them an outstanding contest. In comparison with earlier installments of Bolo tales, this story is a bit slower when the romantic and chivalrous aspects of the tale are invoked to carry the story line. Some of the interaction between the hero and heroine are thin, but the action sequences will blow you away. Another fine addition to the on-going chronicles that builds on the immortal legend that is . . . Bolo

Rating:
Summary: It's hunting season and Malachs are fair game.
Review: When a fleet of visious Malachs (picture four armed Velociraptors) invade two worlds on the edge of human space, the only thing that can stop them are two Mark XXIV Bolos. There's just one problem, the Bolos have been tied down with ill made, conflicting ROE (Rules of Engadgement). Fortunatly, the human officer in charge of the Bolos secretly changes the Bolos' programing, much to the Bolos' relief. There's just one chance to stop the Malach's invasion, but to do it could mean the end of his career.

Rating:
Summary: Fighting against the odds and political inertia
Review: William H Keith, JR's book, "Bolo Brigade" (ISBN 0-671-87781-X), is his second contribution to Keith Laumer's Bolo story line. On the edge of the galactic arm and human occupied space, known as the Concordiat, lays the Strathan Cluster Confederation. The Confederation consists of thirty-six human inhabited worlds that gained their freedom from the direct control of the Concordiat, but still maintain an alliance with that larger human political body. Part of the alliance between the two governments is the deployment of sixteen very old, but still powerful ground based war machines, fourteen Mark XVIII and two Mark XXIV Bolos. The Mark XVIII Bolo , was almost the last design to be equipped with only the most advanced super computers of their day, while the two Mark XXIX Bolos, named Freddy and Ferdy, were fourth generation designs using a self-direct and self-aware computer. Lieutenant Donal Ragnor, a Bolo Tactical Officer of the Concordiat, has been transferred to the Confederation as liaison officer as punishment for bucking the Concordiat military chain of command. Soon after Donal's arrival on Muir, the capital world of the Confederation, he discovers the Mark XVIII Bolos have been deployed to fourteen different worlds and that he will be the commanding officer for both Mark XXIV Bolos stationed at the capital. Further, prior to Donal's arrival two member worlds have fallen silent and several starships have disappeared from the space lanes within the Cluster. The Cluster's central government assumes that the loss of communications is due to equipment malfunctions and that the some of the lost ships have been captured by pirates, while others are being reported means of committing insurance fraud. However, the government does not send out investigation teams to verify their theories. After Donal's arrival, Muir receives a garbled message from the world of Wide Sky, near to the edge of the cluster, about an invasion, before communications abruptly cease. Lieutenant Ragnor, Freddy, Ferdy, and Alexie Turner, Wide Sky's Deputy Director General, have to fight off the invasion of an unknown intelligent species on Muir. William H. Keith, JR brings the reader another well-balanced story in Keith Laumer's Bolo saga. This book is another gem for the reader who likes the writings of William H. Keith, JR and Keith Laumer.