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The Compleat Bolo

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I read this book on flights. This book is a collection of several Bolo short stories, as well as two longer stories. This was a pretty common technique it seems with early science fiction, and it works ok here as long as you remember that the chapters are unlinked short stories. In fact, several of them are inconsistent with others in the collection, but I think that's a minor annoyance. Year Title Notes 1963 Night of the Trolls This story appears in Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow as well 1961 Courier This is a Retief (Laumer's other major series) story which includes a Bolo. This is my first encounter with Reteif, and it felt a little like a Stainless Steel Rat story, but where the hero isn't a criminal, and without the requirement to suspend disbelief as much as you need to for the Rat. 1966 The Last Command 1969 A Relic of War 1960 Combat Unit 1986 Rogue Bolo Book 1 1986 Rogue Bolo Book 2 No relation to the Rogue Bolo Book 1, despite Overall I enjoyed this book, and have now read it several times over the years.

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Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow

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I read this anthology as a child, but when I found a copy on ebay that was cheap I couldn't resist. This is a collection of short stories focusing on what war might be like in the future. It's a good read, although a couple of the stories are out of place compared with the others. Superiority (Arthur C Clarke) Single Combat (Joe Green) Committee of the Whole (Frank Herbert) Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card): a classic, and in some ways I prefer the short story. I've read the extended series of novels a few years ago, but they're probably worth revisiting at some point. Hero (Joe E. Haldeman), later became The Forever War. The Survivor (Walter F. Moudy): I have strong memories of this story from reading this anthology as a child. This is still a good story. The Last Objective (Paul Carter) What Do You Want Me to Do to Prove Im Human Stop (Fred Saberhagen): a Berserker story, also known as "Inhuman Error". Hangman (David Drake): this one is included in Volume 1 of the Complete Hammers Slammers. The Night of the Trolls (Keith Laumer): this was a really good story about Bolos -- good enough to…

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Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee

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I'm not really sure what I think about this book. Its well written, and very readable, but depressing. The book starts with a sexual assault, and then moves on to describe what its like to be the minimum wage labor in a space colony. The short answer -- its not much fun. Worse than that, when you try to escape your oppression, you end up being abused by both the authorities who have power to help, as well as assorted criminals. This is not a feel good book. [isbn: 0380841940]

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Daughter of the Empire

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This is a really good book. It was a delight to find something so good that it kept me up well past my bed time several nights running. I really enjoyed this one -- its set on Kelwan, the planet that invades Midkemia in the Riftwar series, and is written from the perspective of the invaders. [isbn: 055327211x]

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Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Prodigy

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This is the fourth book in the Robot City series, which is based in Asimov's Foundation universe. This one follows Odyssey, Suspicion and Cyborg. This book has quite a different style, the robot characters using quite convoluted sentences, which I found annoying. It is a little jarring in this series that each book is by a different author -- it takes me a little while to transition between the authors' various styles when I read them, especially when they're back to back. I think what Cover was trying to achieve is a more intellectual style of book than the others in the series, and it suffers the same fate as the Benford's Foundation's Fear -- the style is out of place with the rest of the books in the series, and that decreases from the enjoyment to be derived from this book. The actual plot line is fine though, if a little simplistic. Because of the very verbose style, it feels like less happened in this book than the others (which are of similar length). Overall, a bit of a disappointment.

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Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Cyborg

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This is the third book in the Robot City series, which is based in Asimov's Foundation universe. This one follows Odyssey and Suspicion, and is a pretty good book. Its also a very fast read. The robot-wandering-the-city subplot is very reminiscent of Caliban, which is yet another Asimov spinoff. The plot lines are different enough that it doesn't feel like a rehash, but there are certainly strikingly similar elements. I liked this book.

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Polgara the Sorceress

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This is the final continuation of the Belgariad and the Malloreon series, following on from the Belgarath the Sorcerer continuation. The two continuation books are really just the same stories told from other perspectives, yet Belgarath the Sorcerer managed to be a really interesting read. It probably helped that Belgarath's story predates the Belgariad by thousands of years. On the other hand, most of the territory covered in this book is not new. This book started well, but the tone quickly became annoying for me. I think it was the several hundred pages of Arendish history that ruined it for me -- its just not that interesting where Polgara's bathroom is located, and who won a particular jousting match. There are also these really annoy asides littered throughout the text. The same element appeared in Belgarath, but seemed less annoying there for some reason. It annoyed me that there would be a passage of prose, broken in the middle with supposedly witty comment, which invariably fell flat. The other problem with this book is that Polgara herself comes across as a bit of a sociopath. She's always sure of herself, and lacks depth as a character because of it. I've…

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Darkspell

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This is the second book in the Deverry series, and I liked it. Its a direct continuation of Daggerspell, and deals with Rodrhys and Jill's life on the road. [isbn: 0553568884;0586200797]

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Amtrak Wars

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A post apocalyptic struggle between the three groups of North American survivors -- a military society called "The Amtrak Federation", the mutes (the survivors of American poor neighborhoods), and Ne Issan (former Japanese who sailed from Japan when their islands were flooded). 1983: Cloud Warrior 1985: First Family 1987: Iron Master 1988: Blood River 1989: Death-Bringer 1990: Earth-Thunder

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