Retief. What a guy. Reminds me of Jim DiGriz (The Stainless Steel Rat -- see the author Harry Harrison). Gets into interesting situations. Somehow manages to get out of them with surprising ease. Seems to know things nobody around him does. Even has the same first name (early Retief books refer to him as Jame, but in later books, that gets shortened to Jim). The biggest difference is that DiGriz is a criminal, while Retief works for the government. Which government, by the way, seems to be run by people of the same caliber as Dilbert's boss. These books are fun, lighthearted reading. As for the Bolo series, think of a tank. A large, self-aware tank. One that moves very quickly. That's kind of what a Bolo is. The books I have read so far kind of track the Bolo through some of its evolution, from initial concept to much later generations. Makes Robotech look like children's toys. Very good books. I like these better than the Retief books.
Honor of the Regiment
 | BOLOS: What is a BOLO? The symbol of brute force, intransigent defiance, and adamantine will. But on a deeper level, the BOLO is the Lancelot of the future: The perfect knight, sans peur et sans reproche. The perfect gentleman. With plated armor, a laser canon, an electronic brain, and wheels. Honor of the Regiment is the amplified history of the BOLO, from the first armored AI on Earth rescuing an American legion stranded in a forgotten part of the glob, to the last peacekeeper among the stars, defending humanity from aliens that threaten the entire
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The Unconquerable
 | "DEFEAT" DOES NOT COMPUTE The Unconquerable continues the Amplified History of the Bolo: From the earliest entries in the Bolo saga comes the account of a besieged American platoon and their experimental robot tank facing an enemy who controls a live volcano and inundates his opponents with molten lava. In the more distant future, Bolos must survive alien computer viruses infecting their electronic brains, repel attacks on their assigned planet by space pirates, outmaneuver alien battle machines with firepower and robotic intelligence equal to their own, and challenge their own programming when that programming requires them to slaughter an enemy even though the war has ended. Throughout the galaxy, in the millennia to come, the formidable Bolos stand guard as the faithful and tireless protectors of the human race.
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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. David Weber tells the story of a Bolo, the epitome of the knight sans peur et sans reproche, who is driven over the edge by the very humans it is pledged to protect. Linda Evans gives us the tale of the "Little Dogs Gone" in a which a bored young woman on a frontier planet tinkers with a mothballed Bolo and revives it, only to discover that the artificial intelligence that ran it is hopelessly
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Last Stand
 | LIKE A ROCK Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Almost. Nearly. A sufficiently determined enemy armed with nearly limitless firepower and willing to sustain terrible losses could destroy a Bolo. But even a terminally damaged Bolo is still an opponent to reckon with. And as long as a Bolo's artificial intelligence retains a flicker of conciousness, its indomitable drive to defend the human race against all enemies will propel it forward. Bolos can be
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 | GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY The onslaught of the Melconians was not the last conflict that humanity's interstellar Concordiat would have to face. For now the 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
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 | THE THIN STEEL LINE Spreading throughout the galaxy, the human race finds that some of its new neighbors are very unfriendly. But when threats arise, the humans know what do do: Break out the Bolos! Gigantic tanks, with enough firepower for an army, controlled by a human-level artificial intelligence, and programmed to defend their creators at all costs, the Bolos have been decisive factors in battle since the time centuries ago when humans still warred with each other. Now they battle on star systems across the galaxy to defend us all. The dangers are great, but the Bolos are faithful and fearless. And though Bolos can sometimes be destroyed, they never surrender! The saga of Keith Laumer's greatest creation, the Bolo continues. And though the Bolos are formed from cold steel, they have warmer hearts than many of the flesh-and-blood creatures they protect.
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The Compleat Bolo
 | The future of war, from the Creator of Retief! The classic military dilemma: can you trust those who are your servants not to turn on you? In the years of the Terran Empire the servants protecting humankind are machines endowed with artificial intelligence, and the most powerful of them all are the Bolos. they started out as simple The Night of the Trolls Courier Field Test The Last Command A Relic of War Combat Unit Rogue Bolo, Book I Rogue Bolo, Book II (book description) |
 | 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 Condordiat. 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 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 |
 | THIS TIME, SPARTACUS IS ARMED WITH HELLBORES... The enemy has struck the human colony of Cloud with merciless precision, an attack so deadly that even the world's sole Bolo, a Mark XXXIII Mod HCT named Hector, was overwhelmed. Within days, the survivors of Cloud's shattered military had been herded into slave camps, while Hector, recognized as kin by the alien machine invaders, was "repaired" his loyalties electronically suborned as he became a slave camp guard in the service of the One human, however refuses to accept defeat. Major Jaime Graham will free his companions or die trying. All he needs to do is find a way to bring Hector back to the side of humanity, stop the enemy's bombardment from orbit, and defeat an ancient, cold, and highly advanced machine intelligence utterly hostile to organic It's the story of Spartacus reborn in steel and hellfire, a daring slave revolt against impossible odds. But if Jaime can win Hector over, it will be payback in storm, fire, and blood, as the masters face Bolo Hellbores in a BOLO RISING (book description) |
 | TO THE VICTOR GO THE And this Victor is fully capable of raking them in, a Bolo Mark XXXIII of the 4th Regiment, Second Brigade, First Confederation Mobile Army Corps, in the vanguard of an all-out Bolo strike against the planet Caern. The enemy is the Aetryx, shadowy, unknown beings who enslave other species with nothing less than the promise of immortality. As a savage, interstellar war begins, Colonel Jon Streicher prepares to lead Victor and the rest of his regiment in that most difficult of tactical But D-Day turns into a disaster, and Caern is a deadly trap. Colonel Streicher and his command team find themselves stranded on the target planet, desperately attempting to survive the hellfire chaos of modern warfare, as Bolo faces Bolo-human hybrid in a cataclysmic showdown that will uncover unexpected truths, reveal hidden secrets, and even call into question the loyalty of the Dinochrome Brigade itself. For just what will happen if the Aetryx aren't slavers after all, but literal gods who can make good on their promise of eternal life? The Dinochromes are about to find out. (book description) |
 | When a ruthless political regime seizes power on a world struggling to recover from alien invasion, a former war hero finds herself leading a desperate band of freedom fighters. Kafari Khrustinova, who fought Deng infantry from farmhouses and barns, finds herself struggling to free her homeworld from an unholy political alliance, headed by the charismatic and ambitious Vittori Santorini, which has seduced her young daughter with its propaganda and subverted the planet’s Bolo, using the war machine to crush all political opposition. To free her homeworld, Kafari must somehow cripple or kill the Bolo she once called friend. Unit SOL-0045, "Sonny," is a Mark XX Bolo, self-aware and intelligent. When Sonny’s human commander is forced off-world, Sonny tries to navigate his way through ambiguous moral and legal issues, sinking into deep confusion and electronic misery. He eventually faces a dark night of the soul, with no guarantee that he will |
 | KEITH LAUMER'S POPULAR SAGA OF THE BOLOS CONTINUES Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Their artificial intelligences were designed to make them selflessly serve and protect humans throughout the galaxy and made each Bolo the epitome of the knight sans peur et sans reproche, and often far more noble than the humans who gave them their orders. Now, David Weber, New York Times best-selling author of the Honor Harrington series, continues the history of the Bolo, in four short novels, one of them published here for the first time. One Bolo is driven over the edge by the very humans it is pledged to protect. Another Bolo must decide whether or not to disobey when it is given an order that constitutes genocide. A third must hunt one of its own kind whose robot brain is damaged and rescue two children which the deranged Bolo thinks it is protecting from a nonexistent enemy. And more, including as a bonus, David Weber's own authoritative technical history of the Bolo, all in a volume that will be irresistible both for David Weber's huge readership and Bolo fans everywhere. Miles to Go The Traitor With Your Shield A Time to Kill A Brief Technical History of the Bolo (book description) |
 | Captain Maneka Trevor was the sole human survivor of the Dinochrome Brigade's 39th The Bolo known as "Lazarus" — Unit 28/G-179-LAZ — was the 39th's sole surviving 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? (book description) |
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