Book Review: BOLO! by David Weber

Bolo! by David Weber is kind of an anthology and kind of a series of related novels, I cannot decide which.  Regardless, it is a solid offering from Weber, of Honorverse fame.  The book is 388 pages and consists of 4 chronologically arranged BOLO stories with an annex on the technical characteristics of the evolution of the BOLO.

If you are not familiar with the super tanks known as BOLOs from the books of Keith Laumer this is a good introductory book that will make you want to go read more from Laumer, the guy that invented the concept.  Weber does a solid job of telling these stories as he does a solid job of telling any stories he puts his fingers to keyboard for.  I just think Laumer does a better job of telling BOLO stories.

This is not a bad book, but it is not a great one.  Weber excels when he is in the Honorverse but his stories outside that comfort zone seem to lack a little something.  The best books by Weber that do not include Honor Harrington are the Starfire books he wrote with Steve White.

This is a good book that is sure to entertain but it leaves this fan of David Weber wanting something undefinable that is just not there.  Perhaps it the nature of the anthology and the shorter stories that don’t have as much space for character development.  This is still worth reading though.