anthology – Page 2 – Made by Mikal

Bolos 6: Cold Steel

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 29, 2009
Post category:Book

This bolo book is different from the previous ones, in that it heavily focuses on the humans side of the story, instead of the bolo's inner monologue. I've seen reviews online that say this makes it a bad bolo book, but I think that's unfair. The bolos are critical to the telling of this story, and you do hear from them. More than that, ultimately a point about the relationship between bolos and humans is being made that would be a lot harder to make if the story was told from the bolo side of the fence. This was a good book and I enjoyed it. [isbn: 0743435494]

Bolos 5: Old Guard

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 15, 2009
Post category:Book

This book is similar to the previous Bolo anthologies in that it is written by a number of different authors, but utilizes Laumer's Concordiat universe. Contrary to another LibraryThing review, all of the stories on this book don't occur on one planet. All but one of them occurs on Delas, and the final one is on another nearby Concordiat planet. However, all of these stories do revolve around engagements with one enemy, and follow on from each other. This is something which hasn't occurred in other Bolo anthologies. I enjoyed this book, although it took longer to read than I would like because of other things happen in my life.

Bolos 2: The Unconquerable

Post author:mikal
Post published:June 6, 2009
Post category:Book

This is another collection of short stories involving Laumer's Bolo artificially intelligent super tanks. None of these stories are written by Laumer, but they are written by some very good SF authors. I enjoyed the collection, although I do think Honor of the Regiment was marginally better.

Nightfall (short stories)

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 28, 2009
Post category:Book

There are four Asimov books called Nightfall. There is a two volume collection of short stories (Nightfall One and Nightfall Two), a single volume version of this collection, and a novel length version of the short story "Nightfall", which headlines the short story collections. I've previously attempted to explain the list of short stories in the various versions of the collection at http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asimov/Nightfall_Short_Stories.html. There is also a correlation with previously published Robot short stories at http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asimov/Robot_Short_Stories.html. I just finished reading the short story collection (in this case in a single volume). I haven't read any Asimov short stories in a few months (since September last year to be exact), and I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. One of the advantages of these short story collections is that you get to cover a lot of ground, and there is a real sense of accomplishment in finishing a short story. I think also that the shorter form keeps the author honest -- there simply isn't room to waste space on long passages which don't progress the plot. This collection is excellent, much like the others I have read from Asimov. I will note that I particularly enjoyed "The Up-to-date Sorcerer",…

Isaac Asimov’s Robot Short Stories

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 28, 2009
Post category:Book

I was getting quite confused about which robot short stories I had already read (many appear in more than one collection), so I built this table to help. Note that ecrosses indicate stories which aren't about robots, and are really stow aways. I, Robot 1950 The Rest of the Robots 1964 The Complete Robot 1982 Robot Dreams 1986 Robot Visions 1990 Nightfall 1971 Robbie Runaround Reason Catch That Rabbit Liar! Little Lost Robot Escape! Evidence The Evitable Conflict Robot AL-76 Goes Astray Victory Unintentional First Law Let's Get Together Satisfaction Guaranteed Risk Lenny Galley Slave A Boy's Best Friend Sally Someday Point of View Think! True Love Stranger in Paradise Light Verse Segregationist Mirror Image …

The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 3

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This book consists of three paperbacks combined into one volume, and follows in from Volume 1 and Volume 2. I'll cover each story separately: The sharp end: this story is a little different from the other Hammer's Slammers stuff. To be honest, its a bit less grim. Normally the stories are about how war is in the end just a bunch of guys trying to not die (for the grunts at least), whereas this story is a little bit more hopeful than that. Then again, there is still plenty of the negative side of war in this story. Paying the piper: I've seen other people complain that this book is disjointed, which is a fair comment. Concepts are reintroduced several times, even though they've already been covered. I wonder if this was originally a set of short stories in a series? Its a good read however. The darkness: a much shorter story, which is a lot more like the ones in Volume 1 and Volume 2. [isbn: 9781892389800]

The Compleat Bolo

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 15, 2009
Post category:Book

I read this book on flights. This book is a collection of several Bolo short stories, as well as two longer stories. This was a pretty common technique it seems with early science fiction, and it works ok here as long as you remember that the chapters are unlinked short stories. In fact, several of them are inconsistent with others in the collection, but I think that's a minor annoyance. Year Title Notes 1963 Night of the Trolls This story appears in Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow as well 1961 Courier This is a Retief (Laumer's other major series) story which includes a Bolo. This is my first encounter with Reteif, and it felt a little like a Stainless Steel Rat story, but where the hero isn't a criminal, and without the requirement to suspend disbelief as much as you need to for the Rat. 1966 The Last Command 1969 A Relic of War 1960 Combat Unit 1986 Rogue Bolo Book 1 1986 Rogue Bolo Book 2 No relation to the Rogue Bolo Book 1, despite Overall I enjoyed this book, and have now read it several times over the years.

Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 13, 2009
Post category:Book

I read this anthology as a child, but when I found a copy on ebay that was cheap I couldn't resist. This is a collection of short stories focusing on what war might be like in the future. It's a good read, although a couple of the stories are out of place compared with the others. Superiority (Arthur C Clarke) Single Combat (Joe Green) Committee of the Whole (Frank Herbert) Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card): a classic, and in some ways I prefer the short story. I've read the extended series of novels a few years ago, but they're probably worth revisiting at some point. Hero (Joe E. Haldeman), later became The Forever War. The Survivor (Walter F. Moudy): I have strong memories of this story from reading this anthology as a child. This is still a good story. The Last Objective (Paul Carter) What Do You Want Me to Do to Prove Im Human Stop (Fred Saberhagen): a Berserker story, also known as "Inhuman Error". Hangman (David Drake): this one is included in Volume 1 of the Complete Hammers Slammers. The Night of the Trolls (Keith Laumer): this was a really good story about Bolos -- good enough to…

Robot Visions

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 4, 2008
Post category:Book

This was a pretty short read -- in fact I read it on the bus into work this morning. That's mainly because there are only three short stories in this book which aren't covered in one of Asimov's other robot short story collections. The three stories were good, but I am not sure they were worth owning the entire book for. [isbn: 0451450647]

Robot Dreams

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 18, 2008
Post category:Book

Robot Dreams is another of the robot short story books from Asimov. It is a bit deceptive though and frankly quite annoying because only one of the stories in the book is a robot story, and its not very long.I am of course ignoring the robot stories that already appear in I, Robot and The Complete Robot. The rest are unrelated short stories by Asimov that aren't about robots, and aren't even consistent with the universe that the Foundation books exist in. That's what makes it so annoying for Asimov to recommend that you read the book as part of the extended Foundation series. Grumble. Don't get me wrong, the other stories are fine, its just that they're not the robot stories that I was led to believe they would be. Wikipedia is a little more clear on the situation than I was: Robot Dreams (1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. All the stories except the title one, written specifically for the volume, can be found in various other Asimov collections. The companion book, which also showcases McQuarrie's drawings (and includes Asimov essays in…