Bolo Series Keith Laumer

[ahcrosw10]

The Bolo Series by Keith Laumer is a space/planet opera of a series of wars with alien forces the Deng and the Melconians. These are long and costly wars on both sides with mankind seemingly getting the worst end of the
war as Earth is destroyed and there are only a few "seedcorn" colonies scattered throughout space. The Bolo
which started out as an oversized heavy mechanical tanks. As time wore on and the improvements increased along
with artificial intelligence they got larger, heavily armored against anything, including in some stories even nuclear.

Then they became stonger still with higher artificial intelligence they were self aware and could carry out missions
even if their commander was dead. They had psychotronic link with the commander in the command center of the
Bolo and at one stage could even use the enemies fire power against them as the bolo could channel it into the battle
screens of the bolo and increased returning firepower. They had a self awareness that not only allowed them to carry
out missions on their own, but also caused them to mourn their fallen comrades and sacrifice themselves if necessary
to save the humans they were protecting.

Most of the books were written by Keith laumer, but due to illness and then his passing, the others were written
by other sci-fi story tellers such as David Drake, Mercedes Lackey, William H. Keith jr., Linda Evans, Larry Dixon, David Weber and others. The entire series which also included anthologies was in this reviewers opinion one of the really great sci-fi series that not only showed the true spirit of mankind, but that of a machine that can save mankind.