Old Soldiers (Bolos) (Mass Market Paperback)

by David Weber (Author) "Welcome to Sage, Captain..." (more)
Key Phrases: assault pod, heavy assault brigade, cav mounts, Death Descending, Captain Trevor, Maneka Trevor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
In the campaign on Chartres in Bolo! (2005), Trevor Manecka of the Dinochrome Brigade lost her Bolo, Benjy. She is now going into action again, teamed with a venerable veteran Bolo, Lazarus. Their mission is to plant Concordat colonies where the Melchonian empire is unlikely to find them. Unfortunately, the "Puppies" (i.e., the aliens of Melchonia) have both natural and military intelligence--and the persistence to follow the colonizing expedition across the light-years. The result is a deadly, prolonged battle, recounted with all Weber's customary high-tech vividness, but this time Trevor is not separated from her Bolo or even from her human lover, Edmund Hawthorne. Also convincingly depicted is the process of downloading a human personality into a Bolo, which confers immortality of a sort and gives the novel a warmer tone than the battle scenes, unaided, would have. The Bolos, the late Keith Laumer's best-known creation, are clearly in capable hands with Weber. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
Captain Maneka Trevor was the sole human survivor of the Dinochrome Brigade's 39th Battalion . . . but she hadn't wanted to be one. The Bolo known as "Lazarus" -- Unit 28/G-179-LAZ -- was the 39th's sole surviving Bolo . . . but he hadn't been hers. The doctors and the Bolo techs have put them both back together again, yet there are wounds no doctor or technician can heal. And now Maneka and Lazarus must serve together once again, in a war whose stakes are

literally the survival or extermination of the human race. They are all that stand between a desperate, secret colony of humanity and destruction: a Bolo commander torn by survivor's guilt and a Bolo whose very existence reminds her of all she has lost. The odds against them are heavy, the stakes are huge, and surrender is not an option. The Dinochrome Brigade is used to that, but can Maneka and Lazarus survive their own shared past to defend the present?

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Baen (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416521046
• ISBN-13: 978-1416521044
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #298,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Terrific novel..., August 8, 2005

By	Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Old Soldiers (Hardcover)

Captain Maneka Trevor, of the Dinochrome Brigade, is one of the few to have survived the horrible battle on the planet Chartres. Though still active military, she carries guilt of surviving when her Bolo "Benjy" and the others in her brigade did not. Maneka is surprised to find herself before Rear Admiral Sedgewood until she learns why she was summoned. Maneka has been chosen to be part of a special mission called "Operation Seed Corn". The Melconian Empire is winning the war. The Humans are losing. Those chosen for this special mission are to travel far away, find a new habitual planet, and begin a new human colony.

Commodore Lakshmaniah was to be in charge. However, when the Puppies arrive she and her people go out to meet them head on, in hopes of keeping them away from the transports and industrial ships. They mostly succeed. Both teams seem to wipe each other out. Yet some of the "Seed Corn" convoy is also destroyed. Maneka and Lazarus, the Bolo who is assigned to her and was also at Chartres, are now in charge. Commodore Lakshmaniah, before her death, had believed there was at least one Puppy ship under stealth somewhere. Though Maneka prays the info is incorrect, she takes all precautions. (The reader knows from the beginning that Lakshmaniah's info IS correct. The stealth ship shadows the convoy until, over a year later, a new planet is found by the Humans.)

The new planet is named "Indrani". As the humans settle in, the Melconians prepare to attack. They intend to wipe out the human race and take the human's higher tech equipment as their own. Only two Bolos stand in the way of the overwhelming number of Melconian troops.

**** This is David Weber's second Bolo novel. The first is compiled out of several stories, like an anthology where the stories all link together eventually. This novel, however, is one long story. The author, David Weber, is famous for having complex tactical strategies in his works. This book is no different. The readers get to see the tactical equations taken by the Humans AND the Puppies. Many of these are utterly brilliant! All-in-all, another winner for Weber. I look forward to his next release, which is to be another "Honor Harrington" novel (due out in October 2005.) Stellar reading here! ****

(...)

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better, Much better on the whole., September 16, 2005

By	Erik Weikum "eaweikum" (Lansing, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Old Soldiers (Hardcover)

The books is a take off of one of the stories from David Weber's Colletion of Bolo stories entitled "BOLO!" and I found it a decent read.

Captain M is a wounded Bolo commander and would like nothing better than to have died with her Bolo... But soldiers sometimes aren't given a choice and she is sent off to defend a secret mission to establish a colony where hopefully the Dog Boys won't find it.

But unfortunately things don't go according to plan and the enemy does find them. To make a long story short, victory while costly doesn't destroy the colony... But it does give Captain M a much longer lease on life as a Bolo commander...

I found this book to a good deal better than the previous effort by Weber's Bolo! Definately a good read if you like David Weber and Bolo's!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a Bolo as the antithesis of a Beserker, November 3, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Old Soldiers (Hardcover)

For years Keith Laumer wrote Bolo stories, and now, after his death, David Weber skilfully continues the storyline. There are certainly places in this text where you can see Weber's style of writing from his Honor Harrington series.

This book could have been improved with a map of the land conflict between the humans and the Dog Boys. Think back to such classic military SF as Pournelle's Janissary series, or Stirling's General books. Both series came with simple maps that greatly helped the narrative.

You may already be aware of another long running series - about Beserkers, by Fred Saberhagen. Weber's book, and the earlier Bolo stories, are a nice antithesis to the bleak universe containing Beserkers. Or to the entire idea that dates back to Frankenstein, of a machine turning against its creator. The Bolo in this book is crucial in preventing a group of humans from being wiped out. Indeed, the backdrop of the book is a larger genocidal conflict between humans and the Dog Boys, where the humans are outnumbered and losing.

While there are some logical discontinuities between this story and earlier Bolo tales, some readers will surely wish that Weber writes more in this setting.