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The Road to Damascus (The Bolo Series) Hardcover – March 1, 2004

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John Ringo (Author)
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Linda Evans (Author)
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Linda Evans (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars 61 customer reviews
Book 13 of 3 in the Bolo Series
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Product Details

  • Series: The Bolo Series
  • Hardcover: 688 pages
  • Publisher: Baen (March 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743471873
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743471879
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsTHE BOLOS ARE BACK!
By Phillip B. Spotts on June 7, 2004
Format: Hardcover
For those of too young to have grown up on Keith Laumer's stories of self-aware fighting machines you now get a chance to taste what you missed. But these aren't KL's Bolos. No sir, gone are the independent tank sized fighting machines, the Bolo of the Ringo/Evans era are massive, 13,000 ton brutes that are large enough that only one is needed to protect a planet from enemy invasion
ROAD TO DAMASCUS is a story about one such machine. Obsolete and scheduled to be scrapped, a new war with aliens requires "Sonny" and his human commander be sent to Jefferson to protect them from the Deng, which he does with the usual Ringoisk style where you would swear that you were in the middle of the battle instead of just reading about it.
However the Bolo and the various wars it comes to fight are secondary to the real plot of the book, the subjugation of a once prosperous planet by a group of truly evil people. It was like reading Hitler's Mein Kampf all over again. The POPPA, a hideous blend of Nazi's and communists, use class warfare, brainwashing, gun control, goon squads, death camps and one really big semi-sentient machine to maintain their iron fisted rule. It is a story as much about politics as it is about war.
So what is a thinking machine suppose to do when the revolution comes? That's the big question and what makes this story different from any other Bolo story I've ever had the pleasure to read.
Lots of blood, guts, mystery, intrigue, and even a little romance thrown in. While RTD isn't your average Bolo war story it is a fascinating new look at human/machine interaction, revolution and dictatorship.
I liked and wholeheartedly RECOMMEND it.
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3.0 out of 5 starsNot Quite Right
By Ben Klausner on July 17, 2005
Format: Mass Market Paperback
One of the threads running through all the Bolo stories is a consistent feel and style. The Road To Damascus (the title being a New Testament reference) has some of this style, but it is also a bit off. The Bolo's internal reflections, which are central to any Bolo story, don't come off quite right. Although "Sonny", the Bolo, is _only_ a Mark XX (the first fully self-aware series), he has almost no personality. Also, Bolos rarely take more than hundredths of a second to run analysis and programs. For some reason, the authors have Sonny sometimes needing tens of seconds.

Ringo and Evans are both experienced authors, who manage to drag this saga through some 750 pages, at least a third of which could be dropped without a loss. I didn't think authors were paid for novels by the word. Worse, the ending is a bit unfinished, and I really hope this doesn't mean there will be a sequel for Unit SOL-0045 of the Line.

Finally, the political premise at the core of the story makes no sense. There are some references to Second Amendment issues, and some analogies with Nazi use of scapegoats as an politically unifying tool. But why would a pair of rich heirs to an industrial empire undertake to engineer and pull off the complete destruction of a planetary economy and its society? If they wanted to fill their pockets, a working industrial base would yield more takings. The concept provides an unequivocable set of "bad guys", but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
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3.0 out of 5 starsToo Many Plot Holes
By A Customer on June 9, 2004
Format: Hardcover
Let's leave aside the question of whether making a Bolo _that_ big makes any sense (as I recall, Laumer's original Bolos were much less unwieldly..). That done, there still remain the open questions of the villians' motivations and the lack of supervision from Brigade HQ.
Given that Earth history is still known and studied, we are at first given to believe that POPPA's founders have some sort of commercial motive for their power grab, knowing full-well what the ultimate results will be. A half-hearted smuggling subplot attempts to explain some of this, but the book later has a change of heart and suggests that the top of the cabal are True Believers.
Also, given that the Bolo has a built-in FTL tranceiver, which apparently costs him nothing in resources to operate, it strains credulity that he doesn't give more situation reports to HQ and receive better guidance. This situation becomes completely untenable when Vishnu's Brigade rep decides to commit herself to action against POPPA. All it should have taken is one report from her to HQ for HQ to send a cease-and-desist down to the Bolo..
All that said, if you put aside your disbelief at the setup, there are some nice scenes here, including a surprisingly moving Bolo epiphany.
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2.0 out of 5 starsKinda got monotonous with the political garbage. Bolos are warriors
By moparfreak13 on April 7, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Not what I expected of a book supposedly written about Bolos. It focuses more on politics than the Bolo actually doing something.. The author tries too hard creating a parallelism with the current society's issues than the story line about the Bolo. Kinda got monotonous with the political garbage. Bolos are warriors; they don't really want to know about the cloak and dagger politics behind the scenes. I was left with the impression the author had an axe to grind more than he was trying to write a book.
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1.0 out of 5 starsNot about Bolos
By Rob on September 21, 2011
Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase
At first I was very skeptical about previous reviewers saying this book doesn't use the Bolos a lot. I bought the book anyway, because I am a total Bolo junkie. Well, sadly, the reviewers were totally correct. I am well over 200 pages in, and there's been no more than 10-15 pages of the Bolo's "mind". This is not a Bolo book at all. This is a book about planetary political intrigue that just happens to have a Bolo on the same planet. It's very disappointing. I am so glad I didn't buy this book new when it first came out.

However, if the book had not said anything on the cover about Bolos, it would have been much better. As far as the political intrigue goes, it's all right. Probably a 4-star book if they'd left the Bolo out entirely. But since this is marketed as a Bolo book, I have judged it as a Bolo book and it's total crap. There, I said it. Baen and the authors should be ashamed of themselves calling this a Bolo book. If a Bolo could crap, this is what it would look like.

Update 23 SEP 2011: I have stopped reading this book at 419 pages. It's just intolerable. This is not a Bolo book. I mean, come on, this Bolo is ordered to run over unarmed civilians and it complies with the order!? Ridiculous. Baen, please, please, please don't ever let Ringo or Evans touch a Bolo book again. This is a political book, not a Bolo book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsthis was excellent, if predictable

i hadn't read a book length BOLO story before. this was excellent, if predictable. the last line," i set off for town to slay some philistines" reduced me to full out... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Charles Cunningham
4.0 out of 5 starsNew authors in the BOLO universe, keep the series alive and fresh.

Moar BOLOs, bring it on!

If you know anything about these semi-sentient mechanical protectors of mankind, then you will enjoy this addition to the collection. Read more

Published 4 months ago by D. Naples
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Any Bolo book is all about war action. This book meets those expectations quite well.

Published 5 months ago by Gregory Brower
1.0 out of 5 starsIt was more like a social commentary about how terrible liberalism is...

I finished it. Was overly political, was my first Bolo novel, almost turned me off from the whole series. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Joshua
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

great story!

Published 14 months ago by Ronald Hoff
2.0 out of 5 starsRingo is a fine writer and can produce entertaining reading

Mr. Ringo is a fine writer and can produce entertaining reading. It is wasted in this and other books he has written when he becomes so heavy handed and preachy in respect to his... Read more

Published 14 months ago
5.0 out of 5 starsA very different type of Bolo story

Very good and original novel, possibly the best Bolo story ever. It is told by a Bolo who has been alone for years fighting a war he does not believe in. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Travis Works
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Rise of a Dictatorship, as Witnessed by a Sentient Tank

Very well written, with a really great look at a dictator's rise to power viewed from three sides, the Bolo, who watches and dislikes the events that unfold around him while still... Read more

Published 16 months ago
4.0 out of 5 starsRoad to Damascus

If you enjoy sci-fi techno, Hammer's Slammers and the like, this is a must read. I kept waiting for the answer from the first chapter, and got it wrong. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Josh
1.0 out of 5 starsThis book is why I refuse to read Ringo

I love the bolo series. I spent four years of my childhood checking old used book stores constantly to find the entire collection of bolo stories. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Amazon Customer

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