David Weber

I discovered David Weber through the Assiti Shards series. He cowrote 1633 with Eric Flint. He has also taken part in Keith Laumer's Bolos series, which I have enjoyed. But his participation in these series is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of his writing. His largest body of work is tied up in the books that make up the Honorverse.

Books I've Read by David Weber

USN vs UFOS There he was in his sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, all alone and loving it. Well, there was a US Navy carrier group on his southern horizon, but he was a Navy guy himself, so he didn't mind. Then came the UFOs, hurtling in from the Outer Black to overfly the carriers at Mach 17. Their impossible aerobatics were bad enough—but then they started shooting at each other. And at the Navy. With nukes. Little ones at first, but winding up with a 500 megatonner at 90 miles that fried every piece of electronics within line-of-sight. Richard Aston thought he was just a ringside observer to these now over-the-horizon events. Until the crippled alien lifeboat came drifitng down and homed in on his sailboat; suddenly he has his hands full of an unconscious, critically wounded and impossibly human alien warrior who also happens to be a gorgeous female. That's when things got interesting. (book description)

HE WHO LIVES BY THE SWORD . . . The races which ruled the Galactic Federation knew they were vastly superior to the inferior species restricted to the narrow confines of their own star systems by the crudity of their technology . . . and they had every intention of keeping things that way. It was a neat little scam, a rigged game in which only the House could win, which the Federation had played for over a hundred thousand years, and no one had ever managed to challenge it. Yet all good things come to an end, and the Galactics made one mistake. It didn't seem all that terrible at first, only a single merchant guild which bought itself a Roman legion to use as enslaved sepoys on the primitive worlds where they weren't permitted to use their own weapons to force trading concessions. But the Romans were too good at what they did, and a desperate competing guild decided that the only way it could continue to compete was if it had Romans of its own. Unfortunately, Roman legions were no longer available, so the competing guild had to settle for something else: English longbowmen on their way to the Battle of Crecy. Roman legions make dangerous pets . . . but English longbowmen are even worse. It may take a century or so, but the Galactics are about to discover what happens when the sword finally comes out of the stone. Publisher's Note: This novel is based on a much shorter version published in David Drake's Foreign Legions. (book description)

Unleash the Fury! Zhikotse. Shallingsport. Louvain. Sacred fields of battle on far-flung worlds where warriors of the Imperial Cadre spent blood and lives defending human civilization. Alicia DeVries was there; she led the charge. Her reward? Betrayal by a deceitful empire. Retirement to obscurity. Now Alicia is the only survivor of a brutal attack on her frontier-world family. Not since the mighty Achilles has the ancient spirit of the Fury Tisiphone taken up residence inside a human being. But not since Achilles has a warrior so skilled, so implacable, and possessing so much battle sense sprung up among the mass of humankind. Hero of the Empire. Holder of the Banner of Terra. There is a blood price to be paid. The Fury has awakened. (book description) In Fury Born is an expanded reissue of Path of the Fury: Path of the Fury (Mass Market Paperback) VENGEANCE IS A DISH BEST SERVED HOT Imperial Intelligence couldn’t find them, the Imperial Fleet couldn’t catch them, and local defenses couldn’t stop them. It seemed the planet-wrecking pirates were invincible. But the pirates made a big mistake when they raided ex-commando leader Alicia DeVries’ quiet home world, tortured and murdered her family, and then left her for dead. Since the Imperial forces seem hog-tied, Alicia decides to turn "pirate" herself, and steals a cutting-edge AI ship from the Empire to start her vendetta. Her fellow veterans think she’s crazy, the Imperial Fleet has shoot-on-sight orders. And of course the pirates want her dead, too. But Alicia DeVries has two allies nobody knows about, allies as implacable as she is: a self-aware computer, and a creature from the mists of Old Earth’s most ancient legends. And this trio of furies won’t rest until vengeance is served. (book description)

The Assiti Shards

1. 1632 (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by Eric Flint)

   FREEDOM AND JUSTICE -- AMERICAN STYLE 1632     And in northern Germany things couldn't get much worse. Famine. Disease. Religious war laying waste the cities. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy. 2000     Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia, and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time. THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED . . . . When the dust settles, Mike leads a group of armed miners to find out what happened and finds the road into town is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell: a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter attacked by men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot. At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of the Thirty Years' War. (book description)

2. 1633 (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (by Eric Flint and David Weber)

   American Freedom and Justice vs. The Tyrannies of the Seventeenth Century The new government in central Europe, called the Confederated Principalities of Europe, was formed by an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians led by Mike Stearns who were transplanted into 17th-century Germany by a mysterious cosmic accident. The new regime is shaky. Outside its borders, the Thirty Years War continues to rage. Within, it is beset by financial crisis as well as the political and social tensions between the democratic ideals of the 20th-century Americans and the aristocracy which continues to rule the roost in the CPE as everywhere in Europe. Worst of all, the CPE has aroused the implacable hostility of Cardinal Richelieu, the effective ruler of France. Richelieu has created the League of Ostend in order to strike at the weakest link in the CPE's armor—its dependence on the Baltic as the lifeline between Gustav Adolf's Sweden and the rest of his realm. The greatest naval war in European history is about to erupt. Like it or not, Gustavus Adolphus will have to rely on Mike Stearns and the technical wizardry of his obstreperous Americans to save the King of Sweden from ruin. Caught in the conflagration are two American diplomatic missions abroad: Rebecca Stearns' mission to France and Holland, and the embassy which Mike Stearns sent to King Charles of England headed by his sister Rita and Melissa Mailey. Rebecca finds herself trapped in war-torn Amsterdam; Rita and Melissa, imprisoned in the Tower of London. And much as Mike wants to transport 20th-century values into war-torn 17th-century Europe by Sweet Reason, still he finds comfort in the fact that Julie, who once trained to be an Olympic marksman, still has her rifle . . . (book description)

3. 1634: The Galileo Affair (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis)

   The Epic Struggle of Freedom and Justice Against the Tyrannies of the 17th Century Continues, as European Cunning Meets American Courage! The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the Confederated Principalities of Europe, an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident. The democratic ideals of the CPE have aroused the implacable hostility of Cardinal Richelieu, effective ruler of France, who has moved behind the scenes, making common cause with old enemies to stop this new threat to the privileged and powerful. But the CPE is also working in secret. A group of West Virginians have secretly traveled to Venice where their advanced medical knowledge may prevent the recurrence of the terrible plague which recently killed a third of the city-state’s population. At the same time, the group hopes to establish commercial ties with Turkey’s Ottoman Empire, then at the height of its power. And, most important, they hope to establish private diplomatic ties with the Vatican, exploiting Pope Urban VIII’s misgivings about the actions of Richelieu and the Hapsburgs. But a Venetian artisan involved with the West Virginians may cause all their plans to come to naught. Having read 20th century history books of the period, he has become determined to rescue Galileo from his trial for heresy. The Americans are divided on whether to help him or stop him—and whether he succeeds or fails, the results may be catastrophic for the CPE. (book description)

4. (I haven't read this book, yet) 1634: The Ram Rebellion (Hardcover edition)(by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce)

   The Great Revolt in On! Europe, 1634. With the example of future Grantsville, U.S.A., a small town thrown back in time by a cosmic accident, a peasant revolt becomes a revolutionary movement. You’re from the future. You want the serfs to liberate themselves—but you also know what a bloodbath the French Revolution became. Avoiding that possibility will take all American horse-trading diplomacy you can muster. The stakes: an explosion that could cover half the continent in blood! (book description)

5. 1634: The Baltic War (Hardcover edition) (by Eric Flint and David Weber)

   The Baltic War which began in the novel 1633 is still raging, and the time-lost Americans of Grantville—the West Virginia town hurled back into the seventeenth century by a mysterious cosmic accident—are caught in the middle of it. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and Emperor of the United States of Europe, prepares a counter-attack on the combined forces of France, Spain, England, and Denmark—former enemies which have allied in the League of Ostend to destroy the threat to their power that the Americans represent—which are besieging the German city of Luebeck. Elsewhere in war-torn Europe, several American plans are approaching fruition. Admiral Simpson of Grantville frantically races against time to finish the USE Navy’s ironclad ships—desperately needed to break the Ostender blockade of the Baltic ports. A commando unit sent by Mike Stearns to England prepares the rescue the Americans being held in the Tower of London. In Amsterdam, Rebecca Stearns continues three-way negotiations with the Prince of Orange and the Spanish Cardinal-Infante who has conquered most of the Netherlands. And, in Copenhagen, the captured young USE naval officer Eddie Cantrell tries to persuade the King of Denmark to break with the Ostender alliance, all while pursuing a romantic involvement with one of the Danish princesses. (book description)

6. 1634: The Bavarian Crisis (Hardcover edition) (by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce)

   The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the Confederated Principalities of Europe, an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident. The CPE has the know-how of 20th century technology, but needs iron and steel to make the machines. The iron mines of the upper Palatinate were rendered inoperable by wartime damage, and American know-how is needed on the spot to pump them out and get the metal flowing again—a mission that will prove more complicated than anyone expects. In the maelstrom that is Europe, even a 20th century copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica can precipitate a crisis, when readers learn of the 1640 Portuguese revolt, a crisis that will involve Naples as well. Another factor: Albanian exiles in Naples, inspired by the Americans, are plotting to recover lost Albanian turf, which will precipitate yet another crisis in the Balkans. This troubled century was full of revolutions and plans for more revolutions before the Americans arrived, and gave every would-be revolutionary an example of a revolution that succeeded. Europe is a pot coming to a boil, and Mike Stearns will have his hands full seeing that it doesn’t boil over on to Grantville and the CPE. (book description)

7. 1635: The Cannon Law (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis)

   Rome, 1635, and Grantville’s diplomatic team, headed by Sharon Nichols, are making scant headway now it has become politically inexpedient for Pope Urban VIII to talk to them any more. Sharon doesn’t mind, she has a wedding to plan. Frank Stone has moved to Rome and is attempting to bring about the revolution one pizza at a time. Cardinal Borja is gathering votes to bring the Church’s reformers to a halt in their tracks, on the orders of the King of Spain. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing in the streets, shadowy agitators are stirring up trouble and Spain’s armies are massed across the border in the Kingdom of Naples, Cardinal Barberini wants the pamphleteers to stop slandering him and it looks like it’s going to be a long, hot summer. Except that Cardinal Borja has more ambitions than his masters in Madrid know about, and has the assistance of Spain’s most notorious secret agent to bring about his sinister designs. (book description)

• The Grantville Gazette
  1. Grantville Gazette - Volume I (Paperback edition) (edited by Eric Flint)

     Return to Grantville—The American Town Lost in Time Ed Piazza, the Secretary of State of the small United States being forged in war-torn Germany during the Thirty Years War, has a problem on his hands. A religious conference has been called in nearby Rudolstadt which will determine doctrine for all the Lutherans in the nation. The hard-fought principle of religious freedom is at stake, threatened alike by intransigent theologians and students rioting in the streets. As if that weren't bad enough: the up-time American Lutherans are themselves divided; a rambunctious old folk singer is cheerfully pouring gasoline on the flames; and a Calvinist "facilitator" from Geneva is maneuvering to get the U.S. involved with the developing revolutionary movement in Naples. Virginia DeMarce’s The Rudolstadt Colloquy is just one of the stories in the Grantville Gazette. In others: In Loren Jones’ Anna’s Story, a young German girl whose family was ravaged by mercenaries is taken in by an old American curmudgeon living on borrowed time. Curio and Relic, written by Tom Van Natta, tells a story about Eddie Cantrell before he wins glory and loses a leg at the Battle of Wismar. Eddie learns some lessons in life as well as marksmanship from a Vietnam war tunnel rat who is himself making a difficult transition to the new world created by the Ring of Fire. In Gorg Huff’s witty The Sewing Circle, four American teenagers set themselves the goal of launching a new industry, waging an uphill battle against adult skepticism as well as the intrinsic difficulty of the project itself. Just to make their life more complicated, an ambitious seventeenth-century German blacksmith is angling to marry into their budding commercial empire and take it over lock, stock and barrel. In addition to these stories, the Grantville Gazette contains factual articles written by some of the people who developed the technical background for the novels 1632 and 1633. And Eric Flint has assembled a collection of portraits of prominent figures of the seventeenth century who figure in the 1632 series, along with a commentary explaining who they were and why they were important. (book description)

  2. (I haven't read this book, yet) Grantville Gazette - Volume II (Hardcover edition) (edited by Eric Flint)

     The new United States in central Germany launches a one-plane Doolittle Raid on Paris, France. The target: their arch-enemy, Cardinal Richelieu. Meanwhile, an ambassador from the Mughal Empire of northern India is being held captive in Austria by the Habsburg dynasty. Mike Stearns decides to send a mercenary company to rescue him, led by two seventeenth-century mercenary officers: an Englishman and a Irishman, who seem to spend as much time fighting each other as they do the enemy. Mike Spehar’s Collateral Damage and Chris Weber’s The Company Men are just two of the stories contained in this second volume of the Grantville Gazette. In other stories: a prominent Italian musician decides to travel to Grantville to investigate the music of the future; an American archer and a Finnish cavalryman become friends in the middle of a battlefield; a Lutheran pastor begins a theological challenge to the establishment based on his interpretation of the Ring of Fire; American and German detectives become partners to investigate a murder; and, in the first part of Danita Ewing’s serialized short novel, An Invisible War, the new United States founds a medical school in Jena despite resistance from up-timers and down-timers alike. The second volume of Grantville Gazette also contains factual articles which explain some of the technical background for the 1632 series, including articles on practical geology, telecommunications, and seventeenth-century swordsmanship. (book description)

  3. (I haven't read this book, yet) Grantville Gazette - Volume III (EBook) (edited by Eric Flint)

     In Virginia DeMarce’s witty and touching "Pastor Kastenmayer’s Revenge," a Lutheran pastor gets even with the American who eloped with his daughter by scheming to gain new adherents through eight separate arranged marriages between Lutheran down-timers and American up-timers. In other stories: —The same teenagers who launched the sewing machine industry in Volume 1 move on to conquer the financial world, in Gorg Huff’s "Other People’s Money"; —Francis Turner’s "Hobson’s Choice" tells the tale of the personal and theological impact of the Ring of Fire on rambunctious students and barmaids in the university town of Cambridge, England; —in Eva Musch’s "If the Demons Will Sleep," a woman terrorized by the notorious Hungarian countess Bartholdy finds peace and sanctuary in Grantville; —in Wood Hughes’ "Hell Fighters," a Benedictine monk confronts an inferno and finds his order’s new calling; —in David Carrico’s "The Sound of Music" and Enrico Toro’s continuing "Euterpe," Grantville becomes a magnet drawing Europe’s most ambitious young musicians; —and Danita Ewing concludes the short novel An Invisible War, which began in Volume 2. The third volume of the Gazette also contains factual articles exploring such topics as the centrality of iron to the industrial revolution, the prospects for the mechanization of agriculture in the 17th century, and the logic behind the adoption of the Struve-Reardon Gun as the basic weapon of the USE’s infantry. COVER NOTE: The illustration on the cover is Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes (Naples Version), painted circa 1612-1613. Gentileschi was the most prominent female artist of the period, and is referred to in 1634: The Galileo Affair. The Biblical episode involving Judith and her maidservant killing the Assyrian tyrant Holofernes was an immensely popular theme for painters and sculptors of the Renaissance and the early modern era. Different versions were done by Donatello, Tintoretto, Hemessen, Caravaggio, Mantegna and other artists of the time. A famous version was also done in 1901 by Gustav Klimt. (book description)

  4. (I haven't read this book, yet) Grantville Gazette - Volume IV (EBook) (edited by Eric Flint)

     In Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff’s "Poor Little Rich Girls," we follow the continuing adventures of the teenage tycoons begun by Huff in "The Sewing Circle" (Gazette #1) and "Other People’s Money" (Gazette #3). The focus in this story, however, is on the younger siblings—the so-called Barbie Consortium—and their down-timer associates and enemies. Jose Clavell’s "Magdeburg Marines" and Ernest Lutz and John Zeek’s "Elizabeth" depict the early days of two military units after the Ring of Fire: a reborn U.S. Marine Corps trying to adapt to new circumstances, and the First Railway Company, formed to provide logistics using a combination of up-time and down-time methods and technology. David Carrico’s "Heavy Metal Music" continues the story of the interaction between up-time and down-time musicians that he began in last issue’s "The Sound of Music." In other stories: —A German craftsman blackballed by guild masters gets a new start in Karen Bergstralh’s "One Man’s Junk." —Grantville has to deal with the tragic accidental deaths of several high school graduates in Kerryn Offord’s "The Class of ’34." —In Virginia DeMarce’s "’Til We Meet Again," a widowed up-timer responds to her husband’s death by joining the faculty in the newly-established women’s college in Quedlinburg. —Julie Sims’ ex-boyfriend finds a new romance in Russ Rittgers’ "Chip’s Christmas Gift." —in Dan Robinson’s "Dice’s Drawings," an American retiree finds a new life and maybe a new love in seventeenth century Germany. The fourth volume of the Gazette also contains factual articles dealing with the development of an oil industry, advances in textile and garment manufacture, possible uses of biodiesel technology, and differing views on the prospects of creating a machine gun using the resources and technology available after the Ring of Fire. COVER NOTE: The illustration on the cover is "Musicians" by Dirck Hals (1591-1656). It was painted in 1623. (book description)

  5. (I haven't read this book, yet) Grantville Gazette - Volume V (EBook) (edited by Eric Flint)

     Just what is going on around Grantville, these days? Questions are being asked, rumors are flying . . . Tony Adducci is tearing his hair out, wondering if he and his inexperienced staff will be able to track down and bust the perps . . . In Rome, a concerned mother wonders if deciding to send her talented daughter to Grantville didn't get her a bit more than she bargained for . . . Nikki Jo Prickett, who's gone to the Republic of Essen, struggles to make a certain ambassador understand that antibiotics aren't always the right answer . . . What is all that secrecy over in Meiningen about, anyway? Oops! There's a bit of a shortage of laboratory glassware these days. Where are we going to find what we need to make more? Just what did the Ring of Fire look like from the other side? Hermann Decker knows—he was there . . . Then there's the wicked Velma . . . How can she get away with that sort of rottenness? The army needs another gun . . . which one will it be? Will Franz ever play the violin again? And what is so attractive about Grantville, that it should attract so many musicians, anyway? Is Maestro Carissimi's immortal soul in danger because he hangs out with all those Protestants? Will the brick industry ever get off the ground . . . And just how do you get the color red from a bug . . . These and other burning questions will be answered . . . In Grantville Gazette, Volume 5 . . . (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Ring of Fire (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (edited by Eric Flint)

  Return to the Alternate Universe of 1632 and 1633 as the Top Writers of Alternate History and Military SF Join Forces in the Shared-Universe Volume of the Year. The battle between democracy and tyranny is joined, and the American Revolution has begun over a century ahead of schedule. A cosmic accident has shifted a modern West Virginia town back through time and space to land it and its twentieth century technology in Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. History must take a new course as American freedom and democracy battle against the squabbling despots of seventeenth-century Europe. Continuing the story begun in the hit novels 1632 and 1633, the New York Times best-selling creator of Honor Harrington, David Weber, the best-selling fantasy star Mercedes Lackey, space adventure author K. D. Wentworth, Dave Freer, co-author of the hit novels Rats, Bats & Vats and Pyramid Scheme (both Baen), and Eric Flint himself combine their considerable talents in a shared-universe volume that will be a "must-have" for every reader of 1632 and 1633. (book description)

• Ring of Fire II (Hardcover edition) (edited by Eric Flint)

  A mysterious cosmic force—the "Ring of Fire"—has hurled the town of Grantville from 20th century West Virginia back to 17th century Europe, and into the heart of the Thirty Years War. With their seemingly magical technology, and their radical ideas of freedom and justice, the time-lost West Virginians have allied with Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, to form the Confederated Principalities of Europe, changing the course of history—in ways both small and large. (book description)

Keith Laumer's Bolos

1. Honor of the Regiment (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (short stories)

   BOLOS: YOU GOTTA LOVE 'EM (OR ELSE) What is a BOLO? The symbol of brute force, intransigent defiance, and adamantine will. But on a deeper level, the BOLO is the Lancelot of the future: The perfect knight, sans peur et sans reproche. The perfect gentleman. With plated armor, a laser canon, an electronic brain, and wheels. Honor of the Regiment is the amplified history of the BOLO, from the first armored AI on Earth rescuing an American legion stranded in a forgotten part of the glob, to the last peacekeeper among the stars, defending humanity from aliens that threaten the entire species . . . Includes: S.M. Stirling: Lost Legion S.N. Lewitt: Camelot J. Andrew Keith: The Legacy of Leonidas Todd Johnson: Ploughshare Mike Resnick & Barry N. Malzberg: Ghosts Christopher Stasheff: The Ghost of Resartus Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon: Operation Desert Fox David Drake: As Our Strength Lessens (book description)

2. The Unconquerable (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (short stories)

   "DEFEAT" DOES NOT COMPUTE The Unconquerable continues the Amplified History of the Bolo: From the earliest entries in the Bolo saga comes the account of a besieged American platoon and their experimental robot tank facing an enemy who controls a live volcano and inundates his opponents with molten lava. In the more distant future, Bolos must survive alien computer viruses infecting their electronic brains, repel attacks on their assigned planet by space pirates, outmaneuver alien battle machines with firepower and robotic intelligence equal to their own, and challenge their own programming when that programming requires them to slaughter an enemy even though the war has ended. Throughout the galaxy, in the millennia to come, the formidable Bolos stand guard as the faithful and tireless protectors of the human race. Includes: S.M. Stirling: Ancestral Voices S. N. Lewitt: Sir Kendrick's Lady Shirley Meier: You're It Christopher Stasheff: Shared Experience Karen Wehrstein: The Murphosensor Bomb Todd Johnson: Legacy William R. Forstchen: Endings (book description)

3. The Triumphant (Paperback edition) (created by Keith Laumer) (short stories)

   Two new powerhouses of science fiction, David Weber and Linda Evans, continue the amplified history of the Bolo, the nearly indestructible tank/artificial intelligence that changed the shape of the galaxy. David Weber tells the story of a Bolo, the epitome of the knight sans peur et sans reproche, who is driven over the edge by the very humans it is pledged to protect. Linda Evans gives us the tale of the "Little Dogs Gone" in a which a bored young woman on a frontier planet tinkers with a mothballed Bolo and revives it, only to discover that the artificial intelligence that ran it is hopelessly brain-dead . . . . Includes: Linda Evans: The Farmer's Wife Linda Evans & Robert R. Hollingsworth: Little Red Hen Linda Evans Little Dog Gone David Weber: Miles to Go no author listed: Technical Notes (book description)

4. Last Stand (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (short stories)

   LIKE A ROCK (But then, the first Bolos WERE GM products....) Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Almost. Nearly. A sufficiently determined enemy armed with nearly limitless firepower and willing to sustain terrible losses could destroy a Bolo. But even a terminally damaged Bolo is still an opponent to reckon with. And as long as a Bolo's artificial intelligence retains a flicker of conciousness, its indomitable drive to defend the human race against all enemies will propel it forward. Bolos can be destroyed—but they never surrender! Includes: S.M. Stirling: The Sixth Sun David Weber: The Traitor John Mina & William R. Forstchen: Yesterday's Gods Robert Greenberger: Memories of Erin William H. Keith, Jr.: Hold Until Relieved Todd Johnson: A Question of Valor Steve Perry & John DeCamp: In the Flesh Mark Thies: And Don't Come Back David Weber: A Time to Kill Linda Evans: Beyond Concordiat Space (book description)

5. (I haven't read this book, yet) Old Guard (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (short stories)

   GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY The onslaught of the Melconians was not the last conflict that humanity's interstellar Concordiat would have to face. For now the Kezdai—a newly encountered species with war at the center of their philosophy—have taken to arms against the Concordiat and its colony worlds. For war, the Terrans have only one answer: Break out the Bolos! Self-aware robotic tanks, the Bolos have fought bravely and well since the days when humans fought each other. Now they battle across the stars to defend us all . . . and though the times are perilous, we've never been in better hands than those of our old metal guardians: Keith Laumer's greatest creation, the Bolos. Includes: Mark Thies: Incursion John Mina: Rook's Gambit J. Steven York & Dan Wesley Smith: The Sky is Falling William H. Keith, Jr.: Brothers (book description)

6. (I haven't read this book, yet) Cold Steel (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (short stories)

   THE THIN STEEL LINE Spreading throughout the galaxy, the human race finds that some of its new neighbors are very unfriendly. But when threats arise, the humans know what do do: Break out the Bolos! Gigantic tanks, with enough firepower for an army, controlled by a human-level artificial intelligence, and programmed to defend their creators at all costs, the Bolos have been decisive factors in battle since the time centuries ago when humans still warred with each other. Now they battle on star systems across the galaxy to defend us all. The dangers are great, but the Bolos are faithful and fearless. And though Bolos can sometimes be destroyed, they never surrender! The saga of Keith Laumer's greatest creation, the Bolo continues. And though the Bolos are formed from cold steel, they have warmer hearts than many of the flesh-and-blood creatures they protect. Includes: no author listed: Prologue J. Steven York & Dan Wesley Smith: The Greater Machine Linda Evans: Though Hell Should Bar the Way (book description)

• The Compleat Bolo (Mass Market Paperback) (by Keith Laumer)

  The future of war, from the Creator of Retief! The classic military dilemma: can you trust those who are your servants not to turn on you? In the years of the Terran Empire the servants protecting humankind are machines endowed with artificial intelligence, and the most powerful of them all are the Bolos. they started out as simple tanks—now, the Mark XXX Bolo controls the galaxy. But is the Bolo mankind's worst enemy—or mankind's only hope? When the implacable alien Deng expand into human space the strategic mastermind-machine that is the Bolo leaps to the defensive. But the Bolo seems to have a war plan all its own, one that doesn't take humanity into account . . . Includes: The Night of the Trolls Courier Field Test The Last Command A Relic of War Combat Unit Rogue Bolo, Book I Rogue Bolo, Book II (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Bolo Brigade (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (by William H. Keith, Jr.)

  SEMPER BOLO Freddy and Ferdy were obsolete, which was why they'd been stationed on the planet Muir as part of a defense treaty between the Strathan Cluster and the Condordiat. Even in their obsolescence, however, they possessed incredible and devastating firepower. Possibly that was why the military high command insisted on tying the two Mark XXIV Model FRD Bolos down with rules of engagement designed to cripple their initiative, and guarantee the safety of Muir's human population. It wasn't, after all, as if they would actually have to fight . . . . Unfortunately, the high command hadn't counted on the Malach, a deadly alien race descending on Muir from the uncharted Gulf between the galaxies. A race that looks and acts remarkably like pack-hunting dinosaurs, the Malach destroy everything in their path. All that stands between them and the population of Muir is two obsolete Bolos with their weapons locked down . . . . (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Bolo Rising (Mass Market Paperback) (created by Keith Laumer) (by William H. Keith, Jr.)

  THIS TIME, SPARTACUS IS ARMED WITH HELLBORES... The enemy has struck the human colony of Cloud with merciless precision, an attack so deadly that even the world's sole Bolo, a Mark XXXIII Mod HCT named Hector, was overwhelmed. Within days, the survivors of Cloud's shattered military had been herded into slave camps, while Hector, recognized as kin by the alien machine invaders, was "repaired" his loyalties electronically suborned as he became a slave camp guard in the service of the !*!*! masters . . . One human, however refuses to accept defeat. Major Jaime Graham will free his companions or die trying. All he needs to do is find a way to bring Hector back to the side of humanity, stop the enemy's bombardment from orbit, and defeat an ancient, cold, and highly advanced machine intelligence utterly hostile to organic life . . . all without tools, without weapons, and enemies even among his fellow slaves. It's the story of Spartacus reborn in steel and hellfire, a daring slave revolt against impossible odds. But if Jaime can win Hector over, it will be payback in storm, fire, and blood, as the masters face Bolo Hellbores in a savage . . . BOLO RISING (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Bolo Strike (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (created by Keith Laumer) (by William H. Keith, Jr.)

  TO THE VICTOR GO THE SPOILS . . . . And this Victor is fully capable of raking them in, a Bolo Mark XXXIII of the 4th Regiment, Second Brigade, First Confederation Mobile Army Corps, in the vanguard of an all-out Bolo strike against the planet Caern. The enemy is the Aetryx, shadowy, unknown beings who enslave other species with nothing less than the promise of immortality. As a savage, interstellar war begins, Colonel Jon Streicher prepares to lead Victor and the rest of his regiment in that most difficult of tactical evolutions—a planetary invasion. But D-Day turns into a disaster, and Caern is a deadly trap. Colonel Streicher and his command team find themselves stranded on the target planet, desperately attempting to survive the hellfire chaos of modern warfare, as Bolo faces Bolo-human hybrid in a cataclysmic showdown that will uncover unexpected truths, reveal hidden secrets, and even call into question the loyalty of the Dinochrome Brigade itself. For just what will happen if the Aetryx aren't slavers after all, but literal gods who can make good on their promise of eternal life? The Dinochromes are about to find out. (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) The Road to Damascus (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (created by Keith Laumer) (by John Ringo & Linda Evans)

  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? (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Bolo! (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (created by Keith Laumer) (by David Weber)

  KEITH LAUMER'S POPULAR SAGA OF THE BOLOS CONTINUES Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Their artificial intelligences were designed to make them selflessly serve and protect humans throughout the galaxy and made each Bolo the epitome of the knight sans peur et sans reproche, and often far more noble than the humans who gave them their orders. Now, David Weber, New York Times best-selling author of the Honor Harrington series, continues the history of the Bolo, in four short novels, one of them published here for the first time. One Bolo is driven over the edge by the very humans it is pledged to protect. Another Bolo must decide whether or not to disobey when it is given an order that constitutes genocide. A third must hunt one of its own kind whose robot brain is damaged and rescue two children which the deranged Bolo thinks it is protecting from a nonexistent enemy. And more, including as a bonus, David Weber's own authoritative technical history of the Bolo, all in a volume that will be irresistible both for David Weber's huge readership and Bolo fans everywhere. Includes: Miles to Go The Traitor With Your Shield A Time to Kill A Brief Technical History of the Bolo (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Old Soldiers (Hardcover edition) (created by Keith Laumer) (by David Weber)

  Captain Maneka Trevor was the sole human survivor of the Dinochrome Brigade's 39th Battalion . . . but she hadn't wanted to be one. The Bolo known as "Lazarus" — Unit 28/G-179-LAZ — was the 39th's sole surviving Bolo . . . but he hadn't been hers. The doctors and the Bolo techs have put them both back together again, yet there are wounds no doctor or technician can heal. And now Maneka and Lazarus must serve together once again, in a war whose stakes are literally the survival or extermination of the human race. They are all that stand between a desperate, secret colony of humanity and destruction: a Bolo commander torn by survivor's guilt and a Bolo whose very existence reminds her of all she has lost. The odds against them are heavy, the stakes are huge, and surrender is not an option. The Dinochrome Brigade is used to that, but can Maneka and Lazarus survive their own shared past to defend the present? (book description)

Dahak

1. Mutineer’s Moon (Mass Market Paperback)

   MUTINY For Lt. Commander Colin Maclntyre, it began as a routine training flight over the Moon. For Dahak, a self-aware Imperial battleship, it began millennia ago when that powerful artificial intelligence underwent a mutiny in the face of the enemy. The mutiny was never resolved—Dahak was forced to maroon not just the mutineers but the entire crew on prehistoric Earth. Dahak has been helplessly waiting as the descendants of the loyal crew regressed while the mutineers maintained control of technology that kept them alive as the millennia passed. But now Dahak’s sensors indicate that the enemy that devastated the Imperium so long ago has returned—and Earth is in their path. For the sake of the planet, Dahak must mobilize its defenses. And that it cannot do until the mutineers are put down. So Dahak has picked Colin Maclntyre to be its new captain. Now Maclntyre must mobilize humanity to destroy the mutineers once and for all—or Earth will become a cinder in the path of galactic conquest. (book description)

2. The Armageddon Inheritance (Mass Market Paperback)

   JOB PRESSURE Colin MacIntyre’s life as a NASA astronaut might not have been exciting, but at least it was orderly. Unfortunately, he’s been tapped for greater things, and he isn’t too sure he likes it. First he was kidnapped by an ancient, self-aware starship masquerading as Earth’s moon. Then he was drafted as its captain to suppress a five-thousand-year old mutiny. And then he had to mobilize the planet against the attack of an eons-old alien menace dedicated to the eradication of all intelligent life in the galaxy. It’s hard to blame him for feeling a little stressed but there’s something Colin MacIntyre doesn’t know about all the things he’s had to do. They were the easy part. (book description)

3. Heirs of Empire (Mass Market Paperback)

   THE BOSS’S KIDS For really tough jobs, Emperor Colin, the first of that name, is your man. The only person in the galaxy ever to stop the genocidal Achuutani, he went on from there to resurrect an empire that died fourty-five thousand years ago. He’s still got a few problems—like a traitor out to murder him and three-quarters of a billion of his subjects—but if anyone can handle the job, it’s Colin. But the rest of the galaxy better brace itself, because his progeny are on the way. Not that Sean and Harriet aren’t nice kids; it’s just that they’ve had a bad day. They’re a long way from home, marooned with a blown up starship that’s left them stranded on a theocratic world of gun powder and pikes, and Mother Church of that world doesn’t like them very much. In fact, she’s declared them demons, proclaimed Holy War, marshalled the Holy Host, and ordered them exterminated. You might think that things look pretty bleak for the kids, but in reality it’s Mother Church that’s in trouble—because Sean and Harry are chips off the old block—and they’re about to get angry . . . . (book description)

4. (I haven't read this book, yet) Empire from the Ashes (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition)

   WE HAVE A JOB FOR YOU . . . Just a routine day in lunar orbit. That's all Lieutenant Commander Colin Maclntyre, USN, expected. Only a simple training mission to test a new survey instrument intended for the first manned American-Russian interstellar flight. What he got was just a bit different. First, there was the fact that Earth didn't actually have a Moon. Then there was the three thousand-kilometer diameter alien starship pretending it was the Moon. And the millennia-old cybernetic intelligence that shanghaied him to serve as its crew. Colin might have been forgiven for thinking that those were enough surprises for any one man, but there were a few other small problems. Like the deadly mutiny which had been raging longer than the human race had existed on Earth . . . and still wasn't over. Or like the millions of other starships, crewed by genocidal aliens dedicated to the extermination of all possible competing life forms, which just happened to be headed straight towards Earth. Or like the interstellar empire whose aid offered humanity's only hope for survival . . . except for the minor fact that its last emperor and all of his subjects had died forty-five thousand years ago. Add in the occasional homicidal terrorist, religious fanatics convinced that the only good Maclntyre was a dead Maclntyre, a bic-weapon capable of killing every living thing on any planet, a super-bomb which could take out whole worlds, a starship drive which could destroy complete solar systems, and the need to organize the entire planet Earth and all of its warring, mutually murderous factions—for a probably hopeless last-ditch defense, and Colin was convinced that things were just about as bad as they could possibly get. Until he found out whose job it had just become to fix all those problems, of course . . . . (book description)

The Honorverse

March Upcountry

1. (I haven't read this book, yet) March Upcountry (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by John Ringo and David Weber)

   THE ROYAL BRAT IS IN TROUBLE Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock didn't understand. He was young, handsome, athletic, an excellent dresser, and third in line for the Throne of Man . . . so why wouldn't anyone at Court trust him? Why wouldn't even his own mother, the Empress, explain why they didn't trust him? Or why the very mention of his father's name was forbidden at Court? Or why his mother had decided to pack him off to a backwater planet aboard what was little more than a tramp freighter to represent her at a local political event better suited to a third assistant undersecretary of state? It probably wasn't too surprising that someone in his position should react by becoming spoiled, self-centered, and petulant. After all, what else did he have to do with his life? But that was before a saboteur tried to blow up his transport. Then warships of the Empire of Man’s worst rivals shot the crippled vessel out of space. Then Roger found himself shipwrecked on the planet Marduk, whose jungles were full of damnbeasts, killerpillars, carnivorous plants, torrential rain, and barbarian hordes with really bad dispositions. Now all Roger has to do is hike halfway around the entire planet, then capture a spaceport from the Bad Guys, somehow commandeer a starship, and then go home to Mother for explanations. Fortunately, Roger has an ace in the hole: Bravo Company of Bronze Battalion of The Empress' Own Regiment. If anyone can get him off Marduk alive, it's the Bronze Barbarians. Assuming that Prince Roger manages to grow up before he gets all of them killed. (book description)

2. (I haven't read this book, yet) March to the Sea (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by John Ringo and David Weber)

   SOME DAYS IT JUST DOESN'T PAY TO GET OUT OF YOUR SLEEPING BAG. The successor to March Upcountry It wasn't so much that Prince Roger and his surviving remnant of elite bodyguards are marooned on a barbarian planet. Or that they have been on continuous operations for so long they are getting shocky. Or that they still have half a planet to cross. Or that they are basically out of ammunition for their plasma and bead rifles and just about out of cash. Sure, those are all problems, but they're not the real problem. No, the problem is Roger is in love. With one of his bodyguards. And the romance is not going well. Damnbeast? Sure. Vampiric moths? Okay. Screaming waves of barbarians? No problem. But when you have Nimashet Despreaux and Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock at sword's point, that's real danger. And it's just the beginning. To get to the distant port that is their only way off the planet, they'll be forced to battle enraged monsters, displaced mercenaries, religious fanatics and a barbarian horde to shame the Huns. Along the way they'll have to recreate the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. And do it all in a context their four-armed, horned, grizzly-bear sized native allies can handle. It will strain all their experience and knowledge, as the most elite, the most multitalented and above all the toughest bodyguards in human space. But the really hard part will be keeping Roger and Nimashet from killing each other. (book description)

3. (I haven't read this book, yet) March to the Stars (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (by John Ringo and David Weber)

   Another Sunny Day on Marduk Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock has had a really bad year. Bad enough to be the spoiled rotten fop of a prince no one wanted or trusted. Worse to be sent off on a meaningless diplomatic mission, simply to get you out from underfoot, with a bodyguard of Marines who loathe and despise you. Worse yet to be assumed dead and marooned for almost a year on a hell-hole planet while you and those same Marines fight your way through carnivorous beasts, murderous natives, and perpetual rain to the only starport . . . which is controlled by the Empire's worst enemies. Worst of all to have discovered that you were born to be a warrior prince. One whose bodyguards have learned the same lesson. And one haunted by the deaths of almost a hundred of your Marines . . . for what you know now was an unnecessary exercise in political expediency. A warrior prince who wants to have a few choice words with your Lady Mother, the Empress of Man. But to have them, you, your surviving Marines, and your Mardukan allies must cross a demon-haunted ocean, face a civilization that is "civilized" in name alone and "barbarians" who may not be exactly what they seem, and once again battle against impossible odds. All so that you can attempt to somehow seize a heavily defended spaceport and hijack a starship to take you home. Yet what neither Roger, nor the Marines, nor his allies know is that the battle to leave Marduk is only the beginning. And that words with Roger's mother will be hard to come by. But that's all right. Because what the Galaxy doesn't know is that it's about to receive a fresh proof of an old truism: You don't mess with a MacClintock. (book description)

4. (I haven't read this book, yet) We Few (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by John Ringo and David Weber)