Customer Reviews

Old Guard: A Bolos Anthology: Book 5

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

 

 

The Bolos, sentient robotic tanks, are humanity's guardians. We build them, and then send these beautiful children out to die in our stead. But war, any war, engulfs all those involved; not just the front-line Bolos, but every human on the planet. Some will live, some will die, but all, humans, Bolos, and the Enemy, will be forced to face their own strengths and weaknesses before the fighting is done.

These are beautiful stories of "grace under fire," and I am not ashamed to admit that, at the end of the third story, I was weeping for the Bolos, and for the humans who love them, but must send them out still.

This book was more than worth my time.

An outstanding read. The compilation of stories collectively paint a portrait of future warfare as few series do. And with today's ground breaking research on AI and robot technologies, these stories may prove to be prophetic. A common thread weaves its way through each story in the anthology, yet with each author contributing thier own image, a quite complex tapestry is woven for the reader. The differences between the stories are sometimes subtle, and at other times easily apparent. Yet together they blend an awesome tale of firepower and willpower, immersing the reader into the minds of both the men and the machines. Perhaps the most intriguing short is 'Rook's Gambit' by John Mina. The reader is tangled in the web of interactions between a green officer, with all his pride and naivete; a crusty old general, set in his quirky ways; and of course, the bolos, given the name Turkey. Through these three, a tale is spun that soon becomes a futuristic version of Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'. Any more would give away the story. This book is a must for any sci-fi fan, futurist, or military connoisseur.

I enjoyed the three stories contained in this book. having not known that before I read the book, it was interesting to discover it. I believe the stories gave an impression of the flow of war, and that Bolos provides protection, or at least a menance to the Concordiate's enemy on all fronts.

The Bolo's and their commanders see alot of action in and around the Delas system by a horde of attacking Kezdai - creatures that resemble bird-like reptiles. Hellbores away! Infantry, tanks, and and full scale battles rage over the planet systems. And the book shows that Bolos should be left alone to do their jobs - to protect humanity.

The book earned a 4 stars instead of 5 stars because the first story - seems like it was cut off. 3 characters were introduced, and two at great length, but each had no impact on the story's ending. It seemed the story was cut off. In the second story, a Concordiate Officer ignores his Bolo, and the result is death and and some destruction to a Concordiate task force. The commander, supposedly academy trained, is told to "just forget about it" and to get back into the war because "he did a good job" because he came up with a good idea prior to his terrible orders. Only one sentence was givin to a possible court martial. I wanted the character to be punished, not patted on the back. I believe the first two stories dragged a little when they went into the Kezdai personal worlds, except for one plot line.

The third story, the shortest - was marvelous. And the final moments of the the battle should have been made into artwork for the book cover with the vivid descriptions of the battle.

Time changes all things, and the latest installment in the multi-author universe of the Bolos is no exception. As the books have become either more popular or more prized, a certain sense of community seems to have developed between authors: all of the short stories in this book, unlike its predecessors, are woven together by tales of the same planet, and the same conflict.

This has obvious advantages and disadvantages- first and foremost, the line between authors has blurred. Part of the fun of the series was recognizing the times and places each author chose to put themselves in, usually by creating an entirely new conflict in which they make the rules of the plot. However, with the setting concretely agreed upon, that freedom was lost. Also, by creating a singular time in which to play, the authors didn't have a chance to tinker too much with the machinery or sentience of the Bolos themselves- which, aside from the Bolo soul, are the essence of the stories.

That said, the book was, to me, enthralling. I'm a Bolo finatic, what can I say? And the connectivity of the plot did make the anthology feel much more like a novel than previous editions- but all in all, my favorite Bolo book remains undisturbed as Book 3.

"Stand and be judged" is the regimental moto of the 39th Terran Lancers and it is also what this book does. Old Guard contains 3 extremely exciting short stories and one that is only exciting. The characters are well rounded, especially the bolos, and many characters undergo some character developement even in the space of a short story. Story conflict is high, much as you'd expect from stories about 14,000 ton jugernauts, with cerdible "conflict from allies" within thier own service. All of the stories center around the Kezdia incursions into human space over the span of roughly a decade or so. Mostly centered on the resource rich world of Delas. The Kezdia are a cross between a buzzard and a lizard with a storng warrior tradition. They are quick to develope counters measures for bolos but you can't keep a good bolo down. This was my introduction to bolos and I've made some new friends: Chains, Ziggy, and Hank. Old Guard is a great read without short story fatigue, just as much a page turner as a regular novel. This book STANDS on its on merits- SO JUDGED.

Readers of the previous books in the series, take note: you may be disappointed. I was. Much of this book may not be up to the standard of quality that you're used to. Be prepared for weak storylines, relatively shallow development of human characters, a lack of character development in the bolos themselves, a *striking* (and very irritating) lack of consistency with previous books, a weak understanding of the setting, and, well, grammatical errors (sigh). This is not one of those books that's hard to put down; if anything, it's hard to pick up again. Earlier books in the series accustomed me to the casual, easygoing excellence of authors like David Weber, Linda Evans, Mercedes Lackey, David Drake and others. I don't know what happened to this book, whether it was the authoring or the editing, but much of it just doesn't "feel" like the quality work I enjoyed in the previous books. The major exception is the last story- kudos (and thanks!) to William Kieth, author of the last story (and, incidentally, author of two complete bolo novels), for the only story that reminded me of previous Bolo books. If you're a bolo fan, I'm not recommending that you not buy this book; I'm simply recommending that you be prepared to be a bit disappointed.

This book is a compilation of short stories by different authors. What I found uniqe was the fact that all of the short stories take place on the same planet. A look at the future of AI and future applications in war. The star of the books, of course, are the Bolos. A self-aware robotic tank with a long distinguished history. Some of the story lines move to fast, so as to not be developed to my taste. But I assume that is the problem with short stories in this series....

I am sure that the Bolos books were a good read. It is unfortunate that I happened to begin with the dregs of short stories written by different people. This is obviously an attempt to captialise on what must have been a good series.

This book does not stand on its own. As far as I can tell the Bolos are just very big tanks that can do a bit of thinking for themselves. After that it's a case of bang bang flash, ten year old kid's stuff with ray guns. No characterisation, no empathy with the characters, who they defend or the "dreaded" enemy. Nothing. This is cheap thin cardboard and is just the kind of rubbish that should not be published.

Whoever the editor and publisher are - shame on you. There are too many good books waiting to be published to put this trash on the shelves. Go hang your heads in shame.

There is so little substance in this book, it is impossible to really attack it. How can you attack something without substance. I want my money back!