Old Guard: Bolos Anthology 5

Bolo #Anth5

by Bill Fawcett (Editor), Mark Thies (Contributor), John Mina (Contributor)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXYThe onslaught of the Melconians was not the last conflict that humanity's interstellar Concordiat would have to face. For now the Kezdai -- a newly encountered species with war at the center of their philosophy -- have taken to arms against the Concordiat and its colony worlds. For war, the Terrans have only one answer:

Break out the Bolos

Self-aware robotic tanks, the Bolos have fought bravely and well since the days when humans fought each other. Now they battle across the stars to defend us all...and though the times are perilous, we've never been in better hands than those of our old metal guardians: Keith Laumer's greatest creation, the Bolos.

Includes:

Incursion by by Mark Thies
Rook's gambit by by John Mina
The sky is falling by by J. Steven York & Dan Wesley Smith
Brothers by by William H. Keith, Jr.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Anthologies, Space, Adventure, Military Science Fiction, Short Stories

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2001

About the author

Bill Fawcett has been a professor, teacher, corporate executive, and college dean. His entire life has been spent in the creative fields and managing other creative individuals. He is one of the founders of Mayfair Games, a board and role-play gaming company. As an author, Fawcett has written or coauthored over a dozen books and dozens of articles and short stories. As a book packager, a person who prepares series of books from concept to production for major publishers, his company, Bill Fawcett & Associates, has packaged more than 250 titles for virtually every major publisher. He founded, and later sold, what is now the largest hobby shop in Northern Illinois.

Fawcett’s first commercial writing appeared as articles in the Dragon magazine and include some of the earliest appearances of classes and monster types for Dungeons & Dragons. With Mayfair Games he created, wrote, and edited many of the Role Aides role-playing game modules and supplements released in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, he also designed almost a dozen board games, including several Charles Roberts Award (gaming's Emmy) winners, such as Empire Builder and Sanctuary.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

more stories from the old guards series

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of tales following the Dinochrome Brigade as they defend a planet against a new alien threat.
Starts with some older models in the opening engagements then moves up to new Mark XXXIV's.
All of the stories are focused on one planet and one enemy, rather than just being a collection of short stories with nothing in common.

As usual with Bolo books, there's the wimpy/scared/incompetent leader holding them all back, a kid whose lost his parents to the aliens but befriends a Bolo (with a whole load of schmaltz thrown in), and massive machines of destruction who seem to be more human (sentimentally) than their creators.

Not a bad collection, but there's no real stand-out stories in it.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was really good. This is not by Keith Laumer, of course, but by other writers working with Laumer's concept of the Bolos.

This anthology has four stories, by Mark Thies, John Mina, William H. Keith, JR, and a novella called "The Sky is Falling" by J. Steven York and Dan Wesley Smith. The "Sky is Falling" was the best but all the stories were good. I definitely found it worth reading.

[Lynn Calvin]

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