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Bolo #7

The Road to Damascus

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Keith Laumer's Bolos are Back-and New York Times Best-Selling Author John Ringo has Signed on with the Bolo Brigade! First Time in Paperback.

When a ruthless political regime seizes power on a world struggling to recover from alien invasion, a former war hero finds herself leading a desperate band of freedom fighters. Kafari Khrustinova, who fought Deng infantry from farmhouses and barns, finds herself struggling to free her homeworld from an unholy political alliance, headed by the charismatic and ambitious Vittori Santorini, which has seduced her young daughter with its propaganda and subverted the planet's Bolo, using the war machine to crush all political opposition. To free her homeworld, Kafari must somehow cripple or kill the Bolo she once called friend. Unit SOL-0045, "Sonny," is a Mark XX Bolo, self-aware and intelligent. When Sonny's human commander is forced off-world, Sonny tries to navigate his way through ambiguous moral and legal issues, sinking into deep confusion and electronic misery. He eventually faces a dark night of the soul, with no guarantee that he will understand-let alone make-the right decision. And caught in the middle of this volatile battlefield is Yalena Khrustinova, Kafari's young daughter. Will she open her eyes in time to save herself-and millions of innocents-or will Santorini's relentless brainwashing campaign continue to blind her while the tyrant engineers the ultimate destruction of a helpless and enslaved population?

768 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

23 people are currently reading
643 people want to read

About the author

John Ringo

96 books1,834 followers
John Ringo is a prolific author who has written in a wide variety of genres. His early life included a great deal of travel. He visited 23 foreign countries, and attended fourteen different schools. After graduation Ringo enlisted in the US military for four years, after which he studied marine biology.

In 1999 he wrote and published his first novel "A Hymn Before Battle", which proved successful. Since 2000 Ringo has been a full time author.

He has written science fiction, military fiction, and fantasy.


Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

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5 stars
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531 (22%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for Kirt.
56 reviews11 followers
January 17, 2008
This book is available in the Baen Free Library. If you're enough of a masochist to want to read this book, save yourself the waste of money and download it.

Rather than concentrating on the interesting part -- the moral dilemma of the Bolo -- the book is mainly a right-wing screed against all forms of liberal policy. The bad guys are fascists who hide behind a straw man version of various liberal agenda, from social programs to education to environmentalism, all taken to an unrealistic extreme and turned into a stereotype. The welfare mother stereotype is even here, derided in the book as being fat and lazy, having nothing better to do than eat and produce children. I wish I were kidding about this.

The good guys are two-dimensional stereotypes as well. Either you're an intelligent, compassionate rural gun-toting farmer, or you're a stupid, lazy urban welfare worker or criminal. There's no middle ground. The urban poor are universally stupid, lazy and mean, while the rural folk are universally kind, tough, forthright, and practical.

The planet of Jefferson is a thinly-disguised version of the United States. My favorite: The good President who dies early on is named Abe Lendan. Yeah, he's in essence a version of Abe Lincoln. It doesn't get any more original from there, I'm afraid.

Everything is jiggered to make the conservative rural folk look better than the "liberal" city folk look worse. For example, the native environment on the planet is particularly hostile with man-eating wildlife, which is designed to make environmentalism look especially stupid and make gun-toting look like a particularly good idea in rural areas. Unlike real rural conservatives, the "Grangers" are multi-ethnic and religiously tolerant, carefully scrubbing this carefully-tuned propaganda-style SF "thought experiment" of the one realistic bad part of RL white, rural America that they could have shown, making the good guys even more saintly, and making the situation even more unrealistic. That's right, there's no issue of race or religion in this politics at all, unlike real life... Class is even largely a non-issue, as both the urban poor and the rural poor are broke, it's just the urban poor are broke because they're lazy, stupid, and uneducated and the rural poor are broke because of them durn government types interfering with them.

My personal "favorite": Two of the major characters have a child who is "brainwashed" by the evil education programs of the bad guys. How do they wake her out of it? By slapping her and yelling at her. Um, okay.

Unless you're a knee-jerk conservative or oddly uncritical libertarian, I suggest skipping this book. Smart conservatives and liberals of any stripe will be insulted by the simplistic portrayal of BOTH sides of the political aisle, with long-winded diatribes serving instead of plot. If you took out the diatribes, this would be a short story rather than a novel, which should give you an idea of how slow the plot moves with the diatribes in place.
Profile Image for John Gray.
2 reviews
June 4, 2016
Keith Laumer's imagination, John Ringo's planning and Linda Evan's beautiful storytelling let loose a storm of exploding imagery in the depths of my mind. I read the book again the next day, and I've read it half a dozen times since.

This novel stands out among the Bolo stories largely because not only is it an entertaining read with moving drama and tons of dinochrome action, it also explores in great depth the inner workings of a Bolo's mind, over a long period of extended interaction with humans both friendly and not. This is something of a rarity in the Bolo series, which have rarely gone into such detail. A rather large portion of the book is narrated by the Bolo—a Bolo going through changes. What it comes down to is...Lonesome Son is in my opinion the greatest Bolo ever to live in text. That's what this book is about.

If you're filled with rage and enjoy complaining about politics, and particularly if you are those things and from the US, you'll probably have fits—either because you think the book is making fun of you, or alternately because you think that it vindicates your personal beliefs. If either of those fits you, you are the epitome of boring. Boooring. Go away. Everyone else, enjoy the great story.~
Profile Image for Wampuscat.
320 reviews17 followers
March 5, 2017
This is one of those books that you want others to read with you and discuss. I don't want to spoil the book, so I don't think I can say too much about specifics. It is action packed, with Bolos fighting alien invaders, but it is also a treatise on the rise of and depredations caused by socialism overtaking a democratic republic... sort of like present day America! Eerily similar... almost nervous-making similar! It has it's heroes/heroins with their ups and downs, and it has some grey area characters that you will like, even though you maybe ought not to like them. You'll have no doubt where the authors stand on the issues. Be warned, if you pick it up, you won't want to put it down! I highly recommend this book to any and all readers. Exceptional Read!!!
Profile Image for Al "Tank".
370 reviews58 followers
March 7, 2017
I cut my "Bolo teeth" on Kieth Lamar's original creations. It seems that the machines are now being "loaned out" to other authors.

Ringo and Evans have done a great job of adopting Lamar's style, especially in the internal thoughts and dialog of the Bolo of this story, "Sonny". I can see a female slant in some scenes (especially when the heroin and hero get together), almost a "Romance novel" style. But if that might bug you, don't avoid the story, because it's a small part of the book.

Their are two "problems" in the book: 1. An alien invasion 2. A political takeover by some pretty nasty characters. If politics with a conservative slant annoy you, skip this book, you will be upset because the bad guys are socialists with a dictatorial bent.

The internal problems of the Bolo, when stuck with the head "bad guy" and one of his stooges as the guys who give him orders is very well handled and the tension as to how he'll react is palpable.

I enjoyed the entire book. It's fairly large, so if you're not a speed reader, you won't finish it in one day (I'm slow, so it took me quite a while at one hour per day).
Profile Image for Bill Ramsell.
476 reviews1 follower
June 1, 2016
I read this book about the time it was published. I think Keith Laumer would have been proud to see his Bolos in such capable hands.
39 reviews12 followers
April 8, 2009
This is the first Bolo book that I have read, and it was hard to get into. Once I actually got to the action of the book, it was a fun read and I cared about the main characters (including Sonny the Bolo). It has made me wasn to perhaps read more of Laumer's Bolo books to see if others are also good.
Profile Image for Abby Fick.
484 reviews30 followers
June 15, 2012
Love Ringo - been too long since I read one of his and it didn't disappoint. I know everything seems to be a variation on the same theme, but I don't care. His style and POV just really does it for me. Didn't read any of the others in the Bolo series, but found I didn't need to. This stood alone just fine.
Profile Image for Brandon Pratt.
1 review
September 1, 2011
One of my favorite reads, It never gets a chance to get dust on it after i put it on my overstuffed book case.

If you are new to the Bolo series i would recommend this as a good first read in getting into it :)
Profile Image for Art.
404 reviews3 followers
January 7, 2014
Hmm.... Everybody else hated it, and I thought it was fairly good, for a quick read whileI was in and out and around the emergency department in the hospital. It distracted me enough from my abscessed tooth that I'll give it a few thumbs up. That's all I need from escapist fiction.
Profile Image for Christopher.
3 reviews
November 8, 2008
Great read. I enjoyed the tempo of the story. The political commentary isn't all that subtle but doesn't beat you over the head either. Excellent story! Well suited to the Bolo genre.
Profile Image for Alex Shrugged.
2,772 reviews30 followers
October 19, 2021
I love the Bolo series of books. The main character is a mobile gun platform that is greater than a tank, and is controlled by an artificial intelligence. It can act autonomously with general orders, but is limited in what it can do when firing weapons or risking innocent citizens without a direct order from its commander.

The Bolo in this case in a Mark XX named Lonesome Son. His mission as he sees it is to support the planetary government against a rebellion. Yet, when he enters the canyon where the rebels are hold up, a little boy with a pop gun stands in the road and stops him. The Bolo cannot move and cannot fire its weapons. This is a malfunction as he perceives it so the Bolo searches back in his memory in an attempt to find the error. Thus the majority of the book begins with the Bolo's arrival in the planet Jefferson and his commander, Simon.

The story starts out pretty well as the planet fights off an alien invasion, but after the invasion, the same thing happens that often happens with the military... hey... the threat is gone now. Why do we need this expensive military? (You need it for the next invasion, you knucklehead.) So the new administration cuts the military to the bone and spends the money on the economic recovery, only the administration couldn't run a 7-11 and make a profit, so what do they know about fixing a planetary economy?

Somewhere in the middle the authors go into a tirade about what is wrong (and frankly, crazy) about socialism. Although the authors are correct, they go into more detail than I cared to read about. I skipped those few pages and missed the lecture. However, I did not miss the general thread of the story.

Any modesty issues? The F-word is used on occasion. Sex happens. It is a little more detailed than I am used to but not terribly so. Rape occurs but is not described as I recall.

I own this book and I'll probably read it again, but it will be a while.
8 reviews
January 7, 2019
They don't get any better than this!

A sweeping tale that truely takes us into the mind of a Bolo like never before. It really brings the series full circle in a !ook into the black soul of humanity that reads like a summation of twentieth century history. If you love the Bolo saga,you .must read this compelling tale. Scifi as it is ment to be written.
Profile Image for Clayton.
15 reviews6 followers
August 20, 2017
A Bolo Redeemed

Keith Laumer's Bolo's live on. Sonny fall's prey to a human weakness - following the letter of his orders, though at some level he know's they are. He find's redemption in the most poignant manner. The honor of the Dinochrome Brigade is upheld.
Profile Image for Russ Tarvin.
44 reviews
October 12, 2018
Liked it. Interesting take on things that I did not expect. The style was a little slow at the beginning, and kind of annoying. More so cause of politics that are currently going on not because of the story itself.
284 reviews9 followers
March 2, 2014
From Publishers Weekly

Readers interested in ethics as well as tactics will welcome this splendid new entry in the late Keith Laumer's Bolo series from military SF masters Ringo (_When the Devil Dances_) and Evans (_Far Edge of Darkness_). When the planet Jefferson faces an interplanetary Volkswanderung every bit as nasty as when the Huns drove the Goths into Roman territory, commander Simon Khrustinov and his Unit SOL-0045, a "Surplus on Loan" Bolo, "but still the finest Bolo any man could claim as partner and friend," defeat the alien menace. (Bear in mind that a Bolo is a self-aware tank roughly the size of the Pentagon that packs more firepower than most combatant powers of WWII.) However, this turns out to be just the start of the trouble. Much of Jefferson's infrastructure has been devastated, and the reconstruction entails unpopular taxes and conscription. When the government falls into the hands of radical utopians, the planet's new rulers eventually attempt to use the Bolo to destroy their class enemies in a blaze of ethnic cleansing. The subsequent conflicts within the sensitive Bolo's core programming cause the machine to question the reason for its existence. Laumer may rest easily knowing that his creation is in good hands. Ringo and Evans have written a strong cautionary tale that entertains as well as instructs, even if at times those lessons can be less than subtle.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

When a ruthless political regime seizes power on a world struggling to recover from alien invasion, a former war hero finds herself leading a desperate band of freedom fighters. Kafari Khrustinova, who fought Deng infantry from farmhouses and barns, finds herself struggling to free her homeworld from an unholy political alliance, headed by the charismatic and ambitious Vittori Santorini, which has seduced her young daughter with its propaganda and subverted the planet's Bolo, using the war machine to crush all political opposition. To free her homeworld, Kafari must somehow cripple or kill the Bolo she once called friend. Unit SOL-0045, "Sonny," is a Mark XX Bolo, self-aware and intelligent. When Sonny's human commander is forced off-world, Sonny tries to navigate his way through ambiguous moral and legal issues, sinking into deep confusion and electronic misery. He eventually faces a dark night of the soul, with no guarantee that he will understand-let alone make-the right decision. And caught in the middle of this volatile battlefield is Yalena Khrustinova, Kafari's young daughter. Will she open her eyes in time to save herself-and millions of innocents-or will Santorini's relentless brainwashing campaign continue to blind her while the tyrant engineers the ultimate destruction of a helpless and enslaved population?

38 reviews1 follower
March 30, 2013
I was going to write my own scathing review, but a guy named Kirt Dankmyer already did, so go look at his comments.

The TL:DR version is that it is a poorly written conservative screed where the evil future liberals are oppressing the heroic future-conservatives. For example, one hero repeatedly things "sure this health and child care for the poor seems like a good idea, but how are they going to pay for it?" They did not actually follow up with a sarcastic "Thanks Obama," but it was implied.

I was especially disappointed because I'd read John Ringo's Troy Rising series, which had its own similar thinly veiled conservative propaganda, but it was presented as the opinion of one character (rather than the obvious truth) and left the rest of the story somewhat believable and multi-dimensional. And was also much better written. Now I'll probably never risk reading another Ringo book again, since there are plenty of other pump sci-fi authors out there where I don't have to risk a boring Ayn Rand novel.
Profile Image for Marshall Clowers.
268 reviews2 followers
March 11, 2016
If you are a fan of John Ringo, you probably wouldn't want to read this during an election year. Seriously, it'd probably just make you mad.

Lonesome Son is a Mk XX that finds himself without a commander, tasked to defend a planet far from the Deng and Malconian fronts. The Concordiat can't send him a new commander (as they are all busy fighting a two-front war, as are those few qualified on the older platform). So now Sonny must take orders from a corrupt political regime that isn't worthy of such a defender.

This could be read as a treatise on how a democratic system is only one election cycle away from tyranny. And how skillful masters of media can manipulate a populace and find themselves in power. When the one that's caught in the middle is a multi-ton killing machine charged with enforcing the law, there's trouble.
3 reviews
December 22, 2010
I have read one of John Ringo's series before this and so was wondering what to expect. I found the reading enjoyable but a bit slow at first but then e action picked up and moved along much more quickly. The main characters are well developed and have human depths that make them interesting and maybe a little intriguing. Some of the storyline takes some leaps forward that require allowing Ringo some literary license in moving from point A to point B - particularly with the 180 turn that one of the characters makes in her self-realization related to the delusional beliefs she adhered to for most of her life. This said, I enjoyed the plot and the main characters and liked the way that Ringo brought the tale to a close.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Geoffrey Reesor.
33 reviews3 followers
January 11, 2013
I was incredibly disappointed in the book. Not due to the political opinions or the character development or anything regarding the storyline per se. I am a HUGE fan of John Ringo and have read most of the novels that are available that have been written by him. That is possibly why I was capable of discerning the climax of the book after reading the first three chapters.
10 reviews2 followers
November 1, 2013
Kirt's right...this book's pretty bad. When I read it, I tried to ignore the story and concentrate on the battle scenes, which were ok.

In any case, don't let thus book discourage you from reading the Bolo books. There are some really good ones out there. I'll get the titles for the ones I've read and come back and list them here.
Profile Image for Steven.
16 reviews1 follower
August 21, 2012
Could of been written better, starts great then the 400 or so page flashback then 5 more pages of back in regular time that was interesting. Subtract the flashback and this would of been a decent add in to the bolo min series books, keep it and it turns out to be a waste which it is.
Profile Image for Elizabeth Mcnally.
34 reviews3 followers
June 5, 2016
Great conversion stories told by writers, so they're clearly and movingly described. God's search for a soul is the most gripping of love stories, and these writers tell their stories with candor and beautiful prose. One of my favorites in this series by Fr. O'Brien.
7 reviews1 follower
September 27, 2008
Just the kind of book I like. Fun military sci-fi pitting freedom fighters again a dystopian government. And in the middle of it all is the Bolo, the most fearsome machine of war ever built.
Profile Image for Scott.
15 reviews1 follower
June 9, 2009
The propaganda was inconsistent and poorly presented, but the writing was a pretty good escape.
Profile Image for Sandy.
1,118 reviews13 followers
couldn-t-read
November 14, 2009
The writing wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was looking for when I picked it up, so I didn't finish it.
Profile Image for Elana.
119 reviews8 followers
Read
August 7, 2011
A bit hard to get into towards the beginning but otherwise amazing. Why even machines should know not to "just follow orders".
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

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