Old Soldiers Review

Booklist

In the campaign on Chartres in Bolo! (2005), Trevor Manecka of the Dinochrome Brigade lost her Bolo, Benjy. She is now going into action again, teamed with a venerable veteran Bolo, Lazarus. Their mission is to plant Concordat colonies where the Melchonian empire is unlikely to find them. Unfortunately, the "Puppies" (i.e., the aliens of Melchonia) have both natural and military intelligence--and the persistence to follow the colonizing expedition across the light-years. The result is a deadly, prolonged battle, recounted with all Weber's customary high-tech vividness, but this time Trevor is not separated from her Bolo or even from her human lover, Edmund Hawthorne. Also convincingly depicted is the process of downloading a human personality into a Bolo, which confers immortality of a sort and gives the novel a warmer tone than the battle scenes, unaided, would have. The Bolos, the late Keith Laumer's best-known creation, are clearly in capable hands with Weber. Roland GreennCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved n