Cold Steel: Bolos Book 6

This is Book 6 in the Bolo series, originally created by Keith Laumer. The action takes place on a remote mining colony world that has an... indigenous population of a sort... that no one knew existed previously.When things go sour, the colonists enlist the aid of the bolos... one of whom, Dirk, is an obsolete hulk that has been converted to a strip mining machine, and another, Senator, who is an upgraded antique who does not have proper control over his weapons systems.For those not familiar, a bolo is a self-guided tank of sorts, though they are much more massive and powerful than any tank currently in use by anyone... it would be more accurate to say that they are land-going battleships on treads... though even that analogy is flawed. Bolos... at least the later marks are self-aware and there are not many forces that can stand against their might.As badly prepared as these particular bolos are, the massive metal soldiers do their best and inspire the efforts of the Human colonists as well. The Humans are down to using WWI marble throwers, longbows, and a Sharps breech-loader... but they hold their own against an enemy that is not the real enemy.With Humanity embroiled in a dispute with the Deng, not much effort can be spared to defend the colony. This book also introduces the Melconians to the time-line, with whom Humanity is destined to have another Galaxy-wide conflict that will leave both races barely enough genetic material to survive.Like all the bolo books, this one is worth reading twice. The self-sacrifice and dedication that these living machines display will inspire the heart of any desk-bound warrior. Go ahead and buy it, if you like action-adventure, and/or hard science fiction, you won't be disappointed.Dale A. RabyEditor/PublisherThe Green Bay Web

There are two types of AI(Artificial Intelligence)that stand out very favorably in my extensive reading and viewing of sci-fi books and TV. One is Star Trek's Data, who, other than his presumably deceased evil twin, Lor, is literally in a class by himself. The other is a gigantic, self aware battle tank called a Bolo. Bolos are numerous, evolving over the course of decades, even centuries into different classes and types. Of the two, I have found the Bolo to be the most compelling. Why? Picture a war machine endowed with enough firepower to glaze a planet,yet embued with the soul of a poet. This incongruity is all the more remarkable in that there is nothing remotely anthropomorphic about these machines in the physical sense. Unlike Data, whose resemblance to humans makes it easier for audiences to identify and sympathize with his desire to be human. The Bolos featured in the four books I've read so far, have no wish to be any more or less than what they are. However, they have all demonstrated the best qualities of human nature: honor, loyalty, integrity, duty,even humor. Their abilities to speculate and philosophize on matters unrelated to their programming makes them more than self aware, that designation, in my view, being a diminishing one, but sentient in very humanlike sense. The stories in Bolos: Cold Steel, continues in that fine vein of portraying not only the destructive capabilities of these facinating machines, but providing us with their thoughts in delightfully rendered first person sequences. The setting is a volatile planet called Thule, which is being exploited by the Confederation, a human dominated entity. The planet is rich in the type of deposits important to the Confederation's war against a hostile species. Suddenly, Thule's colonists find themselves under attack by natives whose existence escaped the notice of Confederation surveyers. The indigenous population is Stone Age primitive, but armed with hi-tech weapons and using them to devastating effect. Confederation reinforcements, including Bolos are sent to the rescue. There's a lot of great action in this book, not all restricted to Bolo combat. The non-Bolo characters, I'll call them organics, are interesting and suitably complex. But it's the Bolos who are the stars of the show. There was one minor, but persistent problem that the writers of each story shared: their referal to Thule's natives as aliens. If a population is indigenous to an area, it cannot be alien. Other than this redundant mistake, Bolos: Cold Steel, is a worthy contribution to the Bolos' ongoing saga.