Bolos Book V - Old Guard

A Baen Books Original

Copyright 2001 by Bill Fawcett and Associates

Created by Keith Laumer

Bolos Book V - Old Guard, an anthology edited by Bill Fawcett, is the fifth book of Keith Laumer's Bolos, sentient self-driven tanks with the ability to defend humanity against their enemies with their multiple weapons. This time the Bolos are in a campaign against the Kezdai instead of the Melconians. While one young officer resents being up against the Kezdai and wants to get into the real war with the Melconians, his commanding officer reminds the young officer of all of the dead. This is as real as it gets.

While reading about the Bolos, it is no wonder that the Bolos are considered to be Keith Laumer's greatest creation as you often relate more to these dependable, dedicated Bolos much more rather than to their fallible human commanders. The Bolos try to understand and get accustomed to their commanders, and sometimes ponder on their human commander's fitness to command, while the Bolos try to perform their ethical duty in defending humanity. Often in these stories, these dedicated Bolos become the only surviving Bolo in the story and are up against rigorous odds. I felt the Bolos pain and frustration as they receive continuous battle damage, and often have to assume a leadership role upon the deaths of their commanders as the Bolos continue to desperately fight on.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Star Wars - Allegiance

Del Rey Books Mass Market Edition

Copyright 2007 by Lucuasfilm Ltd.

Written by Timothy Zahn



In Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, and Han Solo are sent to mediate between Rebel factions. Mara Jade, while serving her master - Emperor Palpatine - searches for treachery in the Empire. Meanwhile, a team of Imperial stormtroopers jump ship - and form an independent justice group.

While I find it is always interesting to follow the exploits of a young Mara Jade, the fugitive Imperial stormtroopers were much more interesting for me to be involved with as the stormtroopers wind up serving the spirit of their ideals - instead of following evil orders. After one of the troopers accidentally kills a brutal Imperial Security Bureau agent, the troopers must flee from their ship. As the troopers struggle for a solution as to where to find a place of where to hide, the troopers still get involved in helping people when those people get in trouble.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Star Trek - The Lost Era - The Art of the Impossible

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Shuster, Inc.

Written by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Copyright 2003 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.



Star Trek's The Art of the Impossible a Lost Era book written by Keith R.A. DeCandido, is set between the Klingons and the Cardassians as they both try to be the aggressive victors in the campaign to develop a planet.

With the initial discovery of a lost Klingon colony fleet ship which crash-landed on a resource rich planet, the Klingons and the Cardassians use the discovery as a means of exploiting their political agendas. Ambassador Curzon Dax uses his influence to have both races use their abilities to develop the planet. Whoever is the most resourceful in developing the planet the most according to the Organian Peace Treaty gets to keep it.

While the Klingons seem like Klingons with their rich culture, I did not get any real feeling of what the Cardassians as a race are really like. Even with the Cardassians' sinister intelligence organization The Obsidian Order, the Cardassians are very ordinary. You do get a glimpse of Worf as a child and an insight into his real family - just before Worf's rescue by his human father at the destroyed Khitomer base, and why Worf was separated from his brother. These were rather touching scenes to me.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Greater Than The Sum

Pocket Books

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Written by Christopher L. Bennett

Copyright 2008 by CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.




In Greater than the Sum the Starship U.S.S. Rhea finds unusual life forms on a planet with the ability to mimic anything, when they are attacked by the Starship U.S.S. Einstein - which is now controlled by the Borg. As she is about to be assimilated by the Borg, Lt. T'Ryssa Chen, a half-Vulcan, is suddenly somehow sent two thousand light-years away.

With the Einstein cut off from the rest of the Borg, instaneous transportation - controlled by the new life forms - must be kept from the deadly Borg. Lt. Chen joins Captain Picard on the Enterprise as they search for a way to stop the Einstein.

Having T'Ryssa Chen being a half-Vulcan who embraces her human half appears a little odd to me. Actually I like the idea that the young Chen rebels against her Vulcan half, but it just makes her seem like another human and nothing really that special - except for the fact that she is half-Vulcan. Captain Picard takes Chen under his wing as a sort of protege. I look forward to Chen growing as a character in future books.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Star Wars - Coruscant Nights II - Street of Shadows

A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original

Writen by Michael Reaves

Copyright 2008 by Lucasfilm Ltd.



In Street of Shadows, is the second book in the Star Wars Coruscant Nights series written by Michael Reaves. Former Jedi Knight Jax Pavan is now a private investigator who is hired by a rich woman, along with Jax's supportive team of misfit associates, to help her search for the one who has killed her artist lover - while Darth Vader hires an aggressive bounty hunter to find Jax.

It seems that Jax is almost too settled into his role as a private investigator, and is not concerned at all about being discovered as a Jedi Knight - until the confrontation by the bounty hunter. The subplot of Senator Padme Amidala's former head of security, Captain Gregar Typho, driven to find out what had really happened to Padme when she was killed almost makes you want Typho to discover that it was really Anakin who had killed Amidala, and it seems a little unethical that Typho is using innocent Jax in order to kill Darth Vader in revenge.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Star Trek - Destiny Book I God of Night

Pocket Books

A Division of Simon & Suster, Inc.

Written by David Mack

Copyright 2008 by CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The first book of the Star Trek - Destiny trilogy, Gods of Night is the story of what happened to the old Earth starship Columbia after the discovery of it's wreckage way out in the Gamma Quadrant after the Columbia has been missing for 200 years.

While the U.S.S. Enterprise deals with the Borg and the U.S.S. Aventine searches for the secret of the Columbia's propulsion, we learn the story of how the Columbia wound up in the hands of the alien race Caeliar - and how and why half of the Columbia's crew mutinied against the leadership of Captain Erika Hernandez in order to return home.

Although it is believable that the MACO's would instigate the mutiny in Columbia, it is also hard to accept that they would go against their captain. It shows that the MACO's were never really a part of the Columbia's crew.


Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Orphan's Journey

Orbit

Hachette Book Group USA

Written by Robert Buettner

Copyright 2008

Orphan's Journey continues the story of soldier Jason Wandar, this time Wander is accidentally sent off on a journey by an alien slug ship to another planet that is controlled by the slugs. Now Jason must lead the humans on that planet against the slugs.

The third in the Orphan's Jason Wander series, Orphan's Journey deals with the guilt Jason has of being responsible for getting his godson into this mess - of first risking his godson of being the pilot for the slug ship, whose engine sends them all out into space, and then having Jason's godson be stranded with them on an alien planet in the middle of an alien civil war. Soon, the natives ask Jason to lead them on their bid for freedom.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.