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Bolo #4
Bolo Brigade
SEMPER BOLO
Freddy and Ferdy were obsolete, which was why they'd been stationed on the planet Muir as part of a defense treaty between the Strathan Cluster and the Concordiat. Even in their obsolescence, however, they possessed incredible and devastating firepower. Possibly that was why the military high command insisted on tying the two Mark XXIV Model FRD Bolos down with rules of engagement designed to cripple their initiative, and guarantee the safety of Muir's human population. It wasn't, after all, as if they would actually have to fight....
Unfortunately, the high command hadn't counted on the Malach, a deadly alien race descending on Muir from the uncharted Gulf between the galaxies. A race that looks and acts remarkably like pack-hunting dinosaurs, the Malach destroy everything in their path. All that stands between them and the population of Muir is two obsolete Bolos with their weapons locked down....
Freddy and Ferdy were obsolete, which was why they'd been stationed on the planet Muir as part of a defense treaty between the Strathan Cluster and the Concordiat. Even in their obsolescence, however, they possessed incredible and devastating firepower. Possibly that was why the military high command insisted on tying the two Mark XXIV Model FRD Bolos down with rules of engagement designed to cripple their initiative, and guarantee the safety of Muir's human population. It wasn't, after all, as if they would actually have to fight....
Unfortunately, the high command hadn't counted on the Malach, a deadly alien race descending on Muir from the uncharted Gulf between the galaxies. A race that looks and acts remarkably like pack-hunting dinosaurs, the Malach destroy everything in their path. All that stands between them and the population of Muir is two obsolete Bolos with their weapons locked down....
376 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1997
3 people are currently reading
280 people want to read
About the author
William H. Keith Jr.
126 books179 followersBill Keith was raised in the mountains of western Pennsylvania, and served in the Navy as a corpsman for many years. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction works, he is an award-winning illustrator/artist.
He has also published under the psuedonyms:
Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark)
H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series)
Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series)
Bill Keith
Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series)
Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)
He has also published under the psuedonyms:
Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark)
H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series)
Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series)
Bill Keith
Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series)
Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 31, 2016
I want a bumper sticker that says "My other transport is a Bolo".
August 25, 2014
This is still a fun book for me to read, although it probably is a bit dated now. It is a full-length novel about a detachment of Bolos stationed in an outlying arm of the Milky Way Galaxy as a mans of assistance to a now-independent human planetary system. It still moves at a good clip, and it is still an enjoyable read. It has been several years since I last read this novel, so there were some things I noticed this time around that I did not notice the previous times I read the book. One of the things I liked most about this book was that it was a full-length novel; other Bolo books in the series consist of 'short stories' where each chapter tells a different story about the Bolos in their 'extensive history.' I also liked how this book ended on a relatively positive note [unlike some of the short story 'anthologies' that seemed to regularly end on a negative note; perhaps if I reread them again this perception will change]. The new alien threat was beaten back and the humans and their Bolos are planning on taking the fight to them to free the other human planets as well as onward to the alien invader's home system.
It was interesting to read the author's hypothesis that there are planetary systems in the gulf between galaxies; there is so much space between them that the stars are practically invisible due to their being such old stars with very little high-metal content. It was an interesting hypothesis and leaves many openings for future alien invasions if the author [or other authors] so desired to tell such a story. The alien invaders in this story are called the Malach and come from metal-poor planets; they highly desire heavy metals. They also have four eyes, four arms, and worm-shaped tentacles used for communication that dangle beneath their jaws. Their blood is bluish-green, and their entire society is run be females. The males are only kept for breeding purposes.
The 'peace at any price' individuals in the story really reminded me of a scene in 'Old Man's War' in which an individual believes that all intelligent species just want to get along. The soldier dies for his beliefs. In this story, there is a liberal group that pooh-poohs the military and believes all conflict is merely the result of misunderstandings [such as the misunderstanding that an alien race really does not desire to live in peace with humanity and really does desire to remove all of humanity from existence]; they take their believes to their logical conclusion and die for their beliefs as hideous trophies for the invading lizards.
The Bolos are always the best part of these books. There are individual Bolos stationed on each of the human planets in the system; they are 'merely' Mark XVIIIs [it would be great to locate some kind of book or something that has extensive diagrams of each of the Bolo classes!] controlled by simple algorithms in order to fight a battle. The Mark XVIIIs do not stand much of a chance against the invading Malach warmechs; this gives the Malach a deadly sense of overconfidence that will be their downfall later. There are two Mark XXIV Bolos stationed together on the governing planet of the star cluster; they are able to think on their own and have developed their own personalities and thought processes that are well outside of the established norm for Bolos of their class. It's great!
The book is broken up into essentially three parts [even though there are no 'breaks' in the book] as it tells the story of this group of humans fighting not only for their survival but for the sake of all humanity. The alien invaders have already taken two planets in the star cluster; the inhabitants of the third system [Wide Sky] are attempting to come to some kind of consensus when the invaders attack. Meanwhile, on the government planet of Muir, we see the entrance of our dashing young hero who is designated as the Tactical Officer of the two Bolos. He is to get the monstrous war machines ready for battle; he comes to the planet with a mixed history in the Dinochrome Brigade and this is his last chance. If he messes up on this planet he will be washed out of the service. Even though he knows he will never make it past Lieutenant, he still does his best to get the new machines under his command up to specs. When all communications are lost with Wide Sky, the LT [Donal Rangor] wrangles a flight to the quiet planet to find out what is going on. He discovers the worst. The planet is awash with burning cities as the alien invaders are stripping the cities of all sources of heavy metal while killing any humans contacted. After his scout ship crashes, he and his pilot are picked up by SAR after watching some of the Malach grab the scout's wreckage and vacate the area. The SAR flies them to a batch of floating cities in the middle of the ocean and its perceived safety.
Donal helps Alexie, the planet's equivalent of Vice-President, set up a evacuation flight composed of fifty thousand children after the Malach attack the floating cities and take prisoners. Alexie does not want to leave her people behind, but she is convinced that she would have the best chance of making sure help can be sought for Wide Sky. Rangor's pilot is flying a decoy mission by giving the appearance of attacking the invader's Mother Ship. Unbeknownst to Donal, his pilot fully intends to attack the mother ship to ensure the evacuees have the best chance to escape. The evacuees make their escape to Muir as Donal watches his pilot die to ensure their survival. Donal takes with him as much information as he can about the alien invaders; he can only hope it is enough to help humanity survive. Part of the data includes telemetry from the battle with Wide Sky's Bolo. The Malach are obviously furious that such valuable heavy metals escaped their grasp; they are also smart enough to recognize humanity can only exist around certain stars and send scout probes to the various stars to find the remaining human settlements.
Donal and the evacuees make it to Muir in safety; the evacuees are put into a 'tent city' outside of the capital city. Within days the Malach attack. The Bolos are giving crappy Rules of Engagement that will ultimately cost them the war and humanity the planet. To prevent this, Donal has uploaded code that will allow him to bypass the given ROE. The Mark XXIV Bolos engage the Malach invasion fleet well before the Malach make it to the planet. Several vessels are destroyed, but the Malach are still able to land their ground troops. The Malach focus on attacking the tent city due to the evacuation vessels; Freddy immediately launches a counter-attack to allow the children time to escape. Unbeknownst to Donal, Alexie is captured by the Malach and taken to the Malach command center. Ferdy is ordered to protect the space port; Freddy disappears after destroying multitudes of Malach warmechs.
Donal and Freddy head to the Malach command center to free any prisoners and to wreak havoc on the Malach command units. Ferdy is heavily damaged but manages to defeat the Malach attacking the space port. He is then ordered to a nearby pass to act as a static fortress in opposition to the invading Malach. Freddy rams the fortress the Malach have occupied and stands guard while Donal enters the fortress to free any humans. He shoots many Malach before finding the captured teens and children. He tells Freddy the children are coming out and orders them to take one of the submarines and flee the area. He then finds Alexie; the two work together to fight their way free. He discovers she has been interrogated and strip-searched by the Malach in an attempt to learn more about humans. The two ride out the battle in Freddy's command core as he rejoins his injured brother and the two face off the Malach in a final battle.
It was a good book; moved at a good pace; still held my interest after all these years. I liked how the hero's love interest was not a wall flower. I would also love to read a future book about Alexie and Donal - I think it would be quite good.
It was interesting to read the author's hypothesis that there are planetary systems in the gulf between galaxies; there is so much space between them that the stars are practically invisible due to their being such old stars with very little high-metal content. It was an interesting hypothesis and leaves many openings for future alien invasions if the author [or other authors] so desired to tell such a story. The alien invaders in this story are called the Malach and come from metal-poor planets; they highly desire heavy metals. They also have four eyes, four arms, and worm-shaped tentacles used for communication that dangle beneath their jaws. Their blood is bluish-green, and their entire society is run be females. The males are only kept for breeding purposes.
The 'peace at any price' individuals in the story really reminded me of a scene in 'Old Man's War' in which an individual believes that all intelligent species just want to get along. The soldier dies for his beliefs. In this story, there is a liberal group that pooh-poohs the military and believes all conflict is merely the result of misunderstandings [such as the misunderstanding that an alien race really does not desire to live in peace with humanity and really does desire to remove all of humanity from existence]; they take their believes to their logical conclusion and die for their beliefs as hideous trophies for the invading lizards.
The Bolos are always the best part of these books. There are individual Bolos stationed on each of the human planets in the system; they are 'merely' Mark XVIIIs [it would be great to locate some kind of book or something that has extensive diagrams of each of the Bolo classes!] controlled by simple algorithms in order to fight a battle. The Mark XVIIIs do not stand much of a chance against the invading Malach warmechs; this gives the Malach a deadly sense of overconfidence that will be their downfall later. There are two Mark XXIV Bolos stationed together on the governing planet of the star cluster; they are able to think on their own and have developed their own personalities and thought processes that are well outside of the established norm for Bolos of their class. It's great!
The book is broken up into essentially three parts [even though there are no 'breaks' in the book] as it tells the story of this group of humans fighting not only for their survival but for the sake of all humanity. The alien invaders have already taken two planets in the star cluster; the inhabitants of the third system [Wide Sky] are attempting to come to some kind of consensus when the invaders attack. Meanwhile, on the government planet of Muir, we see the entrance of our dashing young hero who is designated as the Tactical Officer of the two Bolos. He is to get the monstrous war machines ready for battle; he comes to the planet with a mixed history in the Dinochrome Brigade and this is his last chance. If he messes up on this planet he will be washed out of the service. Even though he knows he will never make it past Lieutenant, he still does his best to get the new machines under his command up to specs. When all communications are lost with Wide Sky, the LT [Donal Rangor] wrangles a flight to the quiet planet to find out what is going on. He discovers the worst. The planet is awash with burning cities as the alien invaders are stripping the cities of all sources of heavy metal while killing any humans contacted. After his scout ship crashes, he and his pilot are picked up by SAR after watching some of the Malach grab the scout's wreckage and vacate the area. The SAR flies them to a batch of floating cities in the middle of the ocean and its perceived safety.
Donal helps Alexie, the planet's equivalent of Vice-President, set up a evacuation flight composed of fifty thousand children after the Malach attack the floating cities and take prisoners. Alexie does not want to leave her people behind, but she is convinced that she would have the best chance of making sure help can be sought for Wide Sky. Rangor's pilot is flying a decoy mission by giving the appearance of attacking the invader's Mother Ship. Unbeknownst to Donal, his pilot fully intends to attack the mother ship to ensure the evacuees have the best chance to escape. The evacuees make their escape to Muir as Donal watches his pilot die to ensure their survival. Donal takes with him as much information as he can about the alien invaders; he can only hope it is enough to help humanity survive. Part of the data includes telemetry from the battle with Wide Sky's Bolo. The Malach are obviously furious that such valuable heavy metals escaped their grasp; they are also smart enough to recognize humanity can only exist around certain stars and send scout probes to the various stars to find the remaining human settlements.
Donal and the evacuees make it to Muir in safety; the evacuees are put into a 'tent city' outside of the capital city. Within days the Malach attack. The Bolos are giving crappy Rules of Engagement that will ultimately cost them the war and humanity the planet. To prevent this, Donal has uploaded code that will allow him to bypass the given ROE. The Mark XXIV Bolos engage the Malach invasion fleet well before the Malach make it to the planet. Several vessels are destroyed, but the Malach are still able to land their ground troops. The Malach focus on attacking the tent city due to the evacuation vessels; Freddy immediately launches a counter-attack to allow the children time to escape. Unbeknownst to Donal, Alexie is captured by the Malach and taken to the Malach command center. Ferdy is ordered to protect the space port; Freddy disappears after destroying multitudes of Malach warmechs.
Donal and Freddy head to the Malach command center to free any prisoners and to wreak havoc on the Malach command units. Ferdy is heavily damaged but manages to defeat the Malach attacking the space port. He is then ordered to a nearby pass to act as a static fortress in opposition to the invading Malach. Freddy rams the fortress the Malach have occupied and stands guard while Donal enters the fortress to free any humans. He shoots many Malach before finding the captured teens and children. He tells Freddy the children are coming out and orders them to take one of the submarines and flee the area. He then finds Alexie; the two work together to fight their way free. He discovers she has been interrogated and strip-searched by the Malach in an attempt to learn more about humans. The two ride out the battle in Freddy's command core as he rejoins his injured brother and the two face off the Malach in a final battle.
It was a good book; moved at a good pace; still held my interest after all these years. I liked how the hero's love interest was not a wall flower. I would also love to read a future book about Alexie and Donal - I think it would be quite good.
March 24, 2019
A little too cliche for me: an Alien enemy ruled only by "kill and eat" and just about everyone else (except the lead character) were too stupid and too naive to swallow. Also lacked that special relationship between the Bolo and it's Commander found in other entries of the series.
December 6, 2019
2nd time read, 1st was 20+years ago. Not bad but reminds me of the Military and Political situation of the 80's and early 90's
November 24, 2020
I really enjoy reading all the BOLO books.
June 24, 2021
Weakest of his Bolo novels. Takes too long to get to the action and wraps up too quickly.
January 5, 2025
Another great anachronistic Bolo tale.
November 2, 2019
A new race of alien invaders called the Malach launch an attack on human inhabited worlds. After ripping their way through the Mk 18 Bolo on Wide Sky they head for the planet of Muir.
This planet is defended by Freddy and Ferdy, two Mk 24's, and their newly assigned commander, a maverick who is on his last chance.
The Malach are interesting aliens, described as being like velociraptor dinosaurs with 4 eyes and two pairs of arms.
As usual with this type of story, the upper brass have no idea, mistrust the AI built into the Bolos' (despite them being around for hundreds of years), and have programmed them with conflicting rules of engagement more designed to protect peoples property.
It's a bit predictable in places, but the story moves at a good pace and has some decent action pieces
This planet is defended by Freddy and Ferdy, two Mk 24's, and their newly assigned commander, a maverick who is on his last chance.
The Malach are interesting aliens, described as being like velociraptor dinosaurs with 4 eyes and two pairs of arms.
As usual with this type of story, the upper brass have no idea, mistrust the AI built into the Bolos' (despite them being around for hundreds of years), and have programmed them with conflicting rules of engagement more designed to protect peoples property.
It's a bit predictable in places, but the story moves at a good pace and has some decent action pieces
April 24, 2012
quite a good story enjoyable bit shorter than other bolo stories went fast too fast left me wanting more in a good way such is the case with Keith's writing all ways want more
brother bolos ferdy an freddy against monsters that are so unlike humans the simple act of protecting others to them is beyond their ability to comprehend an they see the bolos as equals to them an thus worthy of the greatest honor
to fight
good read worth your time you get to know the bolo's an the people even a bit of well deserved romance in it as well yes the hero gets his reward always a plus
brother bolos ferdy an freddy against monsters that are so unlike humans the simple act of protecting others to them is beyond their ability to comprehend an they see the bolos as equals to them an thus worthy of the greatest honor
to fight
good read worth your time you get to know the bolo's an the people even a bit of well deserved romance in it as well yes the hero gets his reward always a plus
March 5, 2017
Another exciting Bolo tale! Lots of action, good character development, and a great definition and exploration of a race of high tech dino/lizard alien aggressors make for a 3 star win in this Mil-Sci-Fi adventure. I call it a Really Good Read. Long Live the Dinochrome Brigade!
September 14, 2010
A couple of obsolete Bolos (AI supertanks) with their weapons locked are all that stand between the people of Muir and a merciless alien invader.
Good Bolo story.
Good Bolo story.
April 10, 2012
Pretty good! Readable, interesting, with convincing details on the Galaxy and beyond.
August 26, 2012
Awesome book, highly recommended, one of the better one story bolo books I have read.
January 12, 2016
There's nothing like a good tank battle, especially when the tanks weight 14,000 tons and carry plasma cannons. A faithful addition to the Bolo supertank universe invented by Keith Laumer.
October 11, 2015
Nice solid military SF, good action. Worthy addition to the Bolo canon..
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews