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Bolo #Anth3
The Triumphant
Two new powerhouses of science fiction, David Weber and Linda Evans, continue the amplified history of the Bolo, the nearly indestructible tank/artificial intelligence that changed the shape of the galaxy.
Contains:
The Farmer's Wife
Little Red Hen
Little Dog Gone
Miles to Go
A Brief Technical History of the Bolo
A Brief Design History of the Bolo
General Armament Notes
Contains:
The Farmer's Wife
Little Red Hen
Little Dog Gone
Miles to Go
A Brief Technical History of the Bolo
A Brief Design History of the Bolo
General Armament Notes
389 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
483 people want to read
About the author
Keith Laumer
498 books225 followersJohn Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. His brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Keith's The Other Side of Time).
Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."
Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.
In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.
In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:
Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.
-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)
His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.
Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."
Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.
In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.
In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:
Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.
-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)
His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.
Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2013
This is the third Bolo story collection based on Keith Laumer's original creation. It's pretty similar to all of the other Bolo story collections in that it generally uses the Bolos themselves as examples of "human" behavior and to explore what it means to be human. One of the interesting things that I noticed with this novel is that David Weber is really getting his feet wet as a writer of military science fiction. There's a lot of seeds of style and substance that I think that I've seen in his Honor Harrington novels,though the two universes are in no way connected.
April 21, 2018
By far my favorite Bolo book. Each of these stories contained within pulled at my heart strings, while flaring my imagination with great action and foreign worlds. It’s hard to understand that stories about sentient leviathan tanks and the humans that join in their campaigns can be so moving or that such weapons of destruction can be utterly human but the two authors Evans and Weber did the series justice in proving such. Absolutely brilliant.
April 16, 2018
Great collection of short stories. Enjoyable read, just wanted it longer.
February 12, 2024
This series is starting to get better. David Weber is a more interesting writer, at least.
July 6, 2011
Bolos are huge self-aware robotic battle tanks/mobile fortresses. Throughout a very long history of wars and conflicts, they have served humanity selflessly.
After Laumer’s death, Baen thought to resurrect the Bolos with a series of anthologies featureing a variety of authors. There is some excellent, some good, and some less good, but the overall quality is surprisingly high. It is military SciFi in a very pure form, and many will probably be put off by this. I have read the first four books:
Bolos Book 1 – Honor of the Regiment
Bolos Book 2 – The Unconquerable
Bolos Book 3 – The Triumphant
Bolos Book 4 – Last Stand
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=911
After Laumer’s death, Baen thought to resurrect the Bolos with a series of anthologies featureing a variety of authors. There is some excellent, some good, and some less good, but the overall quality is surprisingly high. It is military SciFi in a very pure form, and many will probably be put off by this. I have read the first four books:
Bolos Book 1 – Honor of the Regiment
Bolos Book 2 – The Unconquerable
Bolos Book 3 – The Triumphant
Bolos Book 4 – Last Stand
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=911
February 10, 2016
I have yet to read a Bolo book that doesn't make me cry. It's just one of the Truths of my literary world - good stories about honorable warriors who give their best to save everyone and everything else? - yeah, sniffle-time.
This Bolo book is fantastic and well-written using the universe that Keith Laumer, in his infinite wisdom, set up. And yes, it's about Bolos. And yes, it was just as good as that first Bolo story I read so very long ago.
This Bolo book is fantastic and well-written using the universe that Keith Laumer, in his infinite wisdom, set up. And yes, it's about Bolos. And yes, it was just as good as that first Bolo story I read so very long ago.
April 12, 2023
Above average anthology.
May 17, 2011
Four outstanding stories about the AI-enhanced supertanks from Linda Evans (3) and David Weber (1).
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March 1, 2016to-read
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews