Keith Laumer’s
are Back
In
Road to Damascus
I sat down the other day and tried to figure out when I read my first Keith Laumer book. I know what the book was; it was a collection of stories about a thinking tank. A machine designed to defend humanity against it’s enemies, able to resist a Nuke hit, with the power to level a city at it’s command.
It had to be sometime in the mid 1970’s. I guess it really doesn’t matter except to me. Just a reminder of how old I am I suppose. But I never forgot those stories.
The tanks were called Bolo’s.
Sorry? What is a Bolo?
Well, basically the Bolo is simply a massive tank, the largest land-borne combat unit ever designed and built by man-kind. They are a high-tech combination of electronics, armour-plate, artificial intelligence and weapons that we can only dream about. So, why did they have such an impact on me, making me a fan of the stories for over 30 years?
The Bolo is also something far more in reality. While they are icons of war and destruction, and represent total defiance to an enemy and an iron will to continue against all odds, they have a deeper level, a “White Knight” mentality.
They are the Lone Ranger of the future, who have been given the responsibility of defending all humanity from it’s enemies, human or alien who attack or threaten our way of life.
They have the dedication of a warrior that lives only to defend the people who can’t defend their selves.
Guided by an electronic brain and programmed to accept no possibility of defeat, the huge robot tanks are virtually unstoppable. They can be beaten. They can be destroyed. But as long as a Bolo’s AI unit has even a slight idea of life, it will push itself forward, fighting the good fight for the human race.
Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
And this is why I like them. I have all of them, even extras in case one falls apart. And every time I go to my local bookstore I check to see if any new ones have come it. Which is why I am very happy to say that John Ringo and Linda Evans have given us a story that would make Keith Laumer happy, carrying on his tradition of the ultimate fighting machine to a world ripped by violence and despair.
On the world of Jefferson, Simon Khrustinova and his friend and partner Sonny, Unit SOL-0045 of the Dinochrome Brigade have been assigned to protect the planet from Deng and Melconian invaders.
They are not on the surface of the beautiful planet long before a Deng invading force arrive, and set out to destroy all human life on the world.
It is only because of Sonny and his commander that they are able to survive. But there are other heroes on Jefferson; and when a ruthless political group seize power, these other heroes find that they must fight against both the government and Sonny to find their freedom.
Among them are Kafari, a beautiful and smart young woman who proves her courage and determination during the Deng invasion by saving the life of the President of her world, as they fight the Deng warriors from farmhouse to barn and more.
Her courage is seen by many, including Simon. Simon is alone on a strange world, his only friend is Sonny, but meeting Kafari he sees a beauty and strength that he misses and finds the love he needs.
After the invasion, Kafari finds herself involved against her will in a battle for her homeworld against Vittori Santorini, an ambitious, greedy, charismatic man who intends to take over Jefferson and transform it into his version of a Utopia, even if it means killing millions of his people in an ethnic cleansing to match Hitler to do so.
Kafari must fight not only Santorini and his army and special police but her own daughter as well, Yalena Khrustinova, who has been brainwashed by the schools and TV to believe everything Santorini and his group, POPPA say and to disbelieve anything said against them.
And she also must battle the Bolo who was once her friend, Sonny. His commander and her husband are gone, and Sonny is left with only the orders to obey the leader of the planetary government. This places Sonny in a desperate situation. He is forced to fight his own way through orders and commands that while he feels are wrong, must still obey. The moral issues become stronger and more demanding of him, and he sinks deeper and deeper into a depression that threatens to do what neither the Deng or the Rebels have been able to do, destroy him.
Finally, Sonny faces the one thing he never expected to find on this world and finds his own deeds and actions coming back to haunt him.
This is not just a story of a thinking tank; it is also the story of people. People who live, love and care for one another in a fashion we seldom see in our own ‘real’ world. It is a story of ethics, of morality, of making choices about right and wrong, and especially of not just listening to the news but looking at the story itself.
It is about trust, between friends, lovers, family and even the people and the elected officials that rule them.
While Santorini’s desires for a Utopian world where all are equal and everyone has an equal share of the worlds wealth is a wonderful idea, Santorini warps this dream turning the farming communities into a slave group, forced to work for almost nothing while feeding the people in the city; people who have been promised by Santorini that they would always be taken care of, from cradle to grave. A people who live on subsistence offerings while the rulers live in palatial homes and lord over the rest of the population like Royalty.
John Ringo and Linda Evans are both first class writers and they have pulled out all the stops while looking at the basic fallacies of the left while trying hard to show the torture of a warrior caught between honor and duty.
This is an amazing story, one of the best in the Bolo Brigade as far as I am concerned. A story of love, of family and a little boy with a stuffed bear and a pop-gun. Most impressive.
Thanks to John Ringo and Linda Evans for keeping the Bolo’s alive, and please please please… Give us more.
The Road to Damascus by John Ringo & Linda Evans
ISBN: 0-7434-7187-3
The Bolo series:
The Compleat Bolo by Keith Laumer
Created by Keith Laumer:
The Honor of the Regiment
The Unconquerable
The Triumphant by David Weber & Linda Evans
Last Stand
Old Guard
Cold Steel
Bolo Brigade by William H. Keith, Jr.
Bolo Rising by William H. Keith, Jr.
Bolo Strike by William H. Keith, Jr.
The Road to Damascus by John Ringo & Linda Evans