P.C. Shannon

Merriam-Webster online defines compleat as meaning 3 of complete: “highly proficient; a complete artist.” It’s use in the title of this anthology suggests meaning 1: “having all the necessary parts.” That’s a minor quibble, I suppose, but from the reviews of Keith Laumer’s The Compleat Bolo on Amazon.com, you’d think it was a masterwork of science fiction. Instead, it’s crappy at best.

Most of the stories in this book were written in the early sixties and clearly reflect a Cold War worldview. Even though they’re ostensibly set in the future, there’s little to suggest high technology other than the Bolos, massive artificially intelligent tanks. In fact, several of the stories are set in run-down towns on distant mining planets that are more reminiscent of, say, the town in To Kill a Mockingbird than Star Wars.

To make things worse, Laumer’s stories are classist and jingoistic. The educated characters speak regular English, but mechanics, night watchmen, and other working class characters speak in an offensive vernacular that includes words like “spearmint” (instead of “experiment”) and “gubment.” In addition, all of the characters are clearly American, even when they’re terrorists who want to liberate Turkey from a united Earth government (which is ruled, in an oddly prescient way, by Emperor George).

I don’t think that either the worldview or the classism are hallmarks of the science fiction of the time. I’ve read Dune and Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, and they’re both as good today as they were when they were written.

The stories themselves can be difficult to read at times. The events preceding the action of the opening piece are difficult to put together and seem very paradoxical as well. That same story is so overflowing with horrible similes that it was painful to finish.

I certainly won’t be reading another of Laumer’s books or stories, but I am looking forward to reading other books in the Bolo series–they’re written by other authors, so there’s hope.