OGRE and GEV RELATED LINKS
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
If you would like to read some works pertaining 'towards' OGRE and GEV, I suggest the following: Most are old, out of print, and can only be found at your local used book store but then you needed a modern day adventure / quest. They're all worth a look unless otherwise noted.
TANK WAR- by Larry Steelbaugh. WWIII finds NATO's first supertank on shake down trials. Unfortunately for the Russians, it is fully operational! Several books, I have I, II, and IV. There were probably several past IV, I'm slowly collecting them. Compares somewhat to the operation of a superheavy tank for reference.
DEMON 4, FIRE LANCE- by David Mace. All take part in post-WWIII. Fire Lance finds one of NATO's super warships still operational, as the crew tries to deal with the destruction of the world. All are full of RPVs, robot intelligences, and a very long, but logical reach into the data / robotic intensive warfare of the 21st century. Definitely a worthy read.
BOLOS, ROGUE BOLO, THE COMPLETE BOLO- Keith Laumer (R.I.P.) The ultimate fighting machines, the BOLOS are about as close to an OGRE as you are going to get in fiction, even if an OGRE is somewhat smaller! The BOLOS defend man through his many interspecies wars on Earth and throughout the cosmos. My favorite of all BOLO stories is "Night Of The Trolls". Rest in Peace, Keith Laumer. You will be missed. Back in 1993, several authors rallied together under the BOLO idea and did four collections of short stories by many famous authors. These collections are also worth picking up and reading. They are titled "BOLO- HONOR OF THE REGIMENT".
THE ZONE (#1-#9)- James Rouch. THE ZONE is a non-nuclear version of OGRE and GEV, set in the early 21st century in Europe, WWIII is in full swing, with heavy mechanized engagements. There are no robots or automated tanks, but the team does cruise around in a hovercraft APC that is very much like a GEV. Follow the exploits of Sgt. Hyde, Clarence the Sniper, and several other unforgettable characters through the hell that is WWIII and Europe under siege by Russia. From limited TAC nukes to bio toxins to armed hovercraft (a GEV-PC which the characters travel around in throughout the series), you will get plenty of ideas here. Hard to find, check your local used book store. I bought mine almost 20 years ago when they were in the book store brand new.
HAMMER'S SLAMMERS by David Drake. Who can forget the mercenary tank company of Olias Hammer? Iridium forged hull hovertanks with powerguns, rocket howitzers, and calliope anti-air batteries. Many, many short stories and full length novels, get them if you like a good sci-fi spin on futuristic tank warfare.
WARBOTS by G. Harry Stine. While the cover art was campy and pretty weak, the stories were nicely done, so don't let the cover art lead you away. The stories are about a special US armed forces unit composed of just a few humans, the rest of the unit are various combat robots (none of which even remotely resemble the mannequin-like monstrosities displayed on the cover). Big walkers, fast track layers, etc. armed with everything from anti-tank missiles to anti-personnel flechette guns and giving the technology to back it up. If you want a good look at how warfare could be fought using robots, using a logical leap of modern technology (instead of zapotron rays and force fields), pick up this series. Each is a pretty quick read, and it has everything in it that might pertain to OGRE and GEV, including the evil Chinese empire, a Japanese empire, the Russians, and of course, the good guys in the form of Americans.
BODY ARMOR 2000, MACHINES THAT KILL, SUPERTANKS- edited by Joe Haldeman. These three collections of short stories by different authors is interesting. It gives you some good work on combat body armor, robots, and tanks, in that order. Each is different and follows its title pretty closely, so even if you have seen some of the stories before, its good to have them all in one place again. The story on combat body armor from 1995 to the year 30,000 is pretty interesting, especially since it has artwork! Animorphic alloy armor... very smurfy! Oh, and SUPERTANKS has a story called "The Tank and His Wife" which tells the story of a personality of a dying man transferred to a military tank, and it gets lonely, so it goes looking for his wife who signed him over to the project after his stroke. Having the super cybernetic tank plow into their rich Beverly Hills house, and use the machineguns to write "HI, HONEY, I'M HOME!" on the wall was a side splitter.
CADS- I remember this one but can't remember the author. It was about a squad of power armor soldiers, Americans who, after the bombs fell, used their superior tech suits to help rebuild the US and fight off the invading Russians. It got really weird and when the book "CADS: Tech Satan" came out, I just kind of stopped collecting the series. Good power armor book, but it gets strange and uncomfortably campy after just a few books. Still... it's about power armor and not since Heinlein has this much detail gone into a story about power suits.
STARSHIP TROOPERS- by Robert Heinlein. The originator of the term "MI" and "Mobile Infantry." Possibly the greatest power armor based novel ever with different types of power armor and pee-wee atomic bombs. Starship troopers is a war tale of man against alien bug set in a future coated in fascism. If you haven't read it, get it. The movie of the same name had very little to do with the book and should be shunned at every opportunity (and then some).