Road To Damascus (Bolos) [Mass Market Paperback]

ROAD TO DAMASCUS is a story about one such machine. Obsolete and scheduled to be scrapped, a new war with aliens requires "Sonny" and his human commander be sent to Jefferson to protect them from the Deng, which he does with the usual Ringoisk style where you would swear that you were in the middle of the battle instead of just reading about it.

However the Bolo and the various wars it comes to fight are secondary to the real plot of the book, the subjugation of a once prosperous planet by a group of truly evil people. It was like reading Hitler's Mein Kampf all over again. The POPPA, a hideous blend of Nazi's and communists, use class warfare, brainwashing, gun control, goon squads, death camps and one really big semi-sentient machine to maintain their iron fisted rule. It is a story as much about politics as it is about war.

So what is a thinking machine suppose to do when the revolution comes? That's the big question and what makes this story different from any other Bolo story I've ever had the pleasure to read.

Lots of blood, guts, mystery, intrigue, and even a little romance thrown in. While RTD isn't your average Bolo war story it is a fascinating new look at human/machine interaction, revolution and dictatorship.

I liked and wholeheartedly RECOMMEND it.

Given that Earth history is still known and studied, we are at first given to believe that POPPA's founders have some sort of commercial motive for their power grab, knowing full-well what the ultimate results will be. A half-hearted smuggling subplot attempts to explain some of this, but the book later has a change of heart and suggests that the top of the cabal are True Believers.

Also, given that the Bolo has a built-in FTL tranceiver, which apparently costs him nothing in resources to operate, it strains credulity that he doesn't give more situation reports to HQ and receive better guidance. This situation becomes completely untenable when Vishnu's Brigade rep decides to commit herself to action against POPPA. All it should have taken is one report from her to HQ for HQ to send a cease-and-desist down to the Bolo..

All that said, if you put aside your disbelief at the setup, there are some nice scenes here, including a surprisingly moving Bolo epiphany.

Caught in the middle of this is a giant, AI-run machine of war known as a Bolo. Obsolete and abandoned, it is used as an instrument of an oppresion it does not understand, as it carries out increasingly bloody actions in support of what was once a free and prosperous society, and now is little more than a brutal socialist welfare state.

Bolos were created by Keith Laumer, and have been the subject of several novels and short stories. They are to mere tanks what tanks might be to the Pharoh's chariots. "Historically" they evolved from the highly automated battle tanks of the 21st century; in fact some contemporary tankers who read Bolo stories call the M1 Abrams MBT the "Mark I Bolo" due to it's high degree of computerization. Intelligent machines of war, they are the ultimate war machines, designed to defend humanity from its enemies.

But what if those enemies are human? That is the question faced by Unit of the Line SOL-0045, also known as "Sonny." Ringo and Evans are top notch authors, and they spare few punches looking at the fundamental self-defeating politics of the left, while simultaneously portraying the tortured psyche of a machine caught between duty and honor. Likewise caught betwen friendship, family, and duty are two people fighting against Sonny -- Sonny's former commander and his wife, who are at the same time, desperately tyring to save their daughter from the clutches of the State. I recommend this book, whether you like military yarns, political intrigue, or love stories, it's got something for everyone.