Keith Laumer's Bolos are Back
—and New York Times Best-Selling
Author John Ringo has Signed on
with the Bolo Brigade!
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
Praise for the Science Fiction of John Ringo
"MARVELOUS!" —David Weber
"As much action as you could hope for. . . . And then there's that quirky sense of humor running like a vein of gold under the mayhem." —Eric Flint
"Explosive. . . . Fans of strong military SF will appreciate Ringo's lively narrative and flavorful characters. . . . One of the best new practitioners of military SF." —Publishers Weekly
". . . since [Ringo's] imagination, clearly influenced by Kipling and rock and roll, is fertile, and his storytelling skill sound, [When the Devil Dances] is irresistible." —Booklist
"[Ringo demonstrates a] flair for fast-paced military sf peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse." —Library Journal
"If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo . . . good reading with solid characterizations—a rare combination." —Philadelphia Weekly Press
"Ringo provides a textbook example of how a novel in the military SF subgenre should be written. . . . For those who have read everything David Drake has written or who may have wished that Tom Clancy, Larry bond or Harold Coyle would write SF, Ringo provides what's needed. . . .Crackerjack storytelling." —Starlog
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Product Review
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Product ReviewA decent read, although I'm glad it's part of the free library. Substantially different from other Bolo novels, this book focuses almost entirely on civil unrest, with the traditional alien antagonists of the series mentioned only peripherally, but I think it manages to hold to the central themes laid down by Keith Laumer.
Other reviewers have commented on the political overtones that are different from, and perhaps unique among, the rest of the Bolo novels. I prefer not to step on that particular hornet's nest, except to say that the political themes are similar to those found in John Ringo's more recent works; you can take that however you prefer.
Overall, this is a very good addition to the Bolo stories, and worth a read by any fan of the series.Posted on
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Product ReviewBest dang book I've read in a long time! We need more of this type of SF! It had an intelligent plot, characters I could relate to and enough twists and humor to keep it interesting. My only complaint is that it ended too soon, I would've liked to see the criminals get theirs...
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Product Review
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Product ReviewThis is the Bolo story that Laumer wanted to write. Sonny isn't just a big, adolescent talking tank, he is a full-grown soldier, with all of the soldier's confusion over right, wrong and duty. Not a mechanical slave to his commanders, he nonetheless must obey their lawful orders, even those which set the reader's teeth on edge. Heaped with praise and condemnation, these come to mean nothing. Then, as those who once loved him prepare to destroy him -- before he destroys them -- one brave, lone figure is all that stands between them and the final battle.
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Product ReviewConsidering that this book was written years earlier without McCain vs Obama in mind, it really spells out what can happen to a free society when the inmates take over the asylum. Destroy the engine and the car won't go is a truism that can be applied to what is about to happen to our poor besieged country. It is easy to blame the leaders when economic changes (destructive alien attack parallels the emergence of Asia and India into the modern world). Poppa is wooing the gullible crowd with promises of wealth and prosperity just like the Obama Pied Piper show going on now. It should be interesting to was as this fiasco unfolds over the next four years. Don't say I told you so.....GREAT BOOK WHICH WILL BECOME A CULT CLASSIC IN DUE TIME.
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Product ReviewIt kind of sneaks up on you, you don't see how it can end well, but.....
I think it was one of the best of the Bolo series, as it was thought provoking in many ways. One can really see how that kind of opression can slip into a society, and destroy it internally. Always nice to have a Bolo with a soul around when that happens!Posted on
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Product ReviewI enjoyed this book a lot. It ended up being a bit thin in places, though. There were parts of the plot that never made any sense, and were never supported in any way other than the authors saying that's how it was. I agree with the other comments that say the Bolo was not a necessary part of the book, but I don't think it detracted in any way, either.
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Product ReviewI'm glad this was a free download. It is nowhere close to the quality of the other Bolo novels or to the Legacy of the Aldenata series. It is mostly way too thinly veiled ultraconservative (as in borderline fascist) propaganda in the culture war going on in the USA. Such a thing might be interesting and entertaining when presented as such, but not in the Bolo universe.
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