Customer Reviews

Honor of the Regiment: Bolos 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Bolos Book 1: Honor of the Regiment" (ISBN 0-671-72184-4) is a collection of stories written by several of today's best science fiction-fantasy authors and edited by Bill Fawcett, continues the history of the Bolo, huge, self-directing and self-aware combat vehicles, first penned by Keith Laumer. Honor of the Regiment is a title, I feel, was developed from Keith Laumer's story "Field Test," which tells the story of the first Bolo, named Denny, to use the full capabilities of self-directing and self-aware computer circuitry. Denny's unknown capabilities and the fear by his creators of not being able to control this powerful war machine also prevent him from being deployed to fight off an invasion of his creators country. When Denny was deployed there appeared to be no chance of stopping the enemy advance, even with his added firepower and other capabilities. Denny does the unexpected, instead of doing a fighting retreat against a superior force he charges towards the enemy's lines. This charge eventually breaks the enemy's invasion and forces them to retreat, but the victory came with a price. Denny, in human terms, was going to die from the many wounds he had taken in his charge, and there was no way to save him. Just before Denny dies, his Commander asks "Why he had continued his charge, when he knew he would be destroyed?" Denny's last words were "For the HONOR OF THE REGIMENT." Each of the stories in "Bolos Book 1: Honor of the Regiment" continues the story line penned by Keith Laumer. Further, after serving my country during a twenty-year naval career I can relate to the ideal of self-sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds and to maintain the history and traditions of my unit and branch of service. I highly recommend the book to all science fiction readers.

I had never read a book that is a collection of works by different authors on the same topic. I was not sure I would like it. As it turned out I liked it very much. I am an avid sci-fi reader and this book really satisfied me and I found myself ordering book 2 before I even finished book one.

If you absolutely insist on full character development this book is not for you. Each of the stories are fairly short and really only tell a comprehensive tale when taken together. I was also longing for much more of the story from the POV of the BOLO than was given.

Bolos: Book 1, is the first in a series of books based on the fighting machine created by Keith Laumer. The idea was that tanks would develop not only better weapons and stronger hulls, but would also have computers build into them which would allow it to perform certain duties without a crew. By the time Bolo Mark XXX was developed, human strategic thinking was no longer required. Book 1 and the rest of the series are short stories done by some of the best, including David Drake, S.M. Stirling, Mercedes Lackey and more. Bolos may be machines, but the ones in the stories show heart.

"More, MORE! I'm still not satisfied!" - T. Lehrer. I echo the sentiments. These are all solid, very re-re-readable works. Long may the Dinochrome Brigade endure, and many the tales which will reach us of them. Keith would have approved.

One of the few books that I have read were I found myself cheering out loud for victories, and tearing up over the loss of friends. Truly a well written work. Causes empathy for our mechanized warriors. All of this series are must reads.

now that I have finished the book and have to catch up on all the things I put of for fear of tearing my eyes away from the paper (things like food, sleep, s-x) I feel that I should tell you one simple thing. READ BOLO BOOKS they are plain awsome they are stand alone but each builds on the whole univese so you do not have to read them in any order. And when you are driving to work imagining that you are a hellbore blasting, infinite repeating, morter spewing incarnat of destruction, just remember that you are supposed to protect all those buggers who cut you off. (the life of a bolo aint easy)

Bolos are the embodiment of all that the human race wants its soldiers to stand for: near-indestructability and ideal principles. One finds it hard to remember that the Bolos were built by humanity to protect and die for humanity; the Bolos themselves know that this is their function and take pride in accomplishing it. It is thier sole function, and to them nothing cfan be of greater joy than the thrill of successfully completeing the mission. From stories that focus on the physical aspects , such as As Our Strength Lessens, by David Drake, to stories that are compromised of more mental aspects of the Bolo's psycotronic brains, such as Operation Desert Fox by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, the Bolos are arguably the most impressive war stories of Sci-Fi

I loved all the stories in this series. The Bolo personalities are so human. They fight for honor no matter the cost to their survival. When one dies you will feel remorse and sadness. I can't wait for vol 4

Bolos have more personality than most people I know. The stories in this book are short, sweet and to the point. I find Keith's views on Artificial Intelligence refreshing and stunningly accurate; Machines that think pages in just a few milliseconds, as opposed to "Data" from Star Trek who can not seem to grasp understanding the simplest emotion. Each of these war machines are unique except for one quality, the determination of their spirit. For an adrenelin-pumping, heart stopping ride, from the standpoint of a machine thinking at the speed of light, be sure to pick this, or any other book from the Bolo series up

If Google died today, would we mourn?
The idea of intelligent machines that kill isn't new.
Making them seem "nice" is just hard to swallow
for me.
The short stories are well written for the most part, just
we are getting to the point where machines nearly like this will be used on human populations. Mostly that doesn't seem any better than using
cannon to quell riots in France.
Weapons are weapons and if the are also intelligent,
then we are going to be in real trouble.