Aaron: A Berserkers Tale

The story has a good pace with interesting characters. The fight sequences are well written easily allowing the reader to see the action in slow motion in the mind's eye. Like watching a movie. This book is not my usual genre I read. But the title was so different, I decided to read it. It is about an alternate world of elves and a human crossing into it drawn by a beautiful elf. It is quite an adventure that ends very differently. I have been trying to find out about the author with little success.

This seems to be a lone writing. No publisher is shown so may be self published. He had a better grasp of computers than a lot of others, too. Mar 10, Stephen rated it liked it Shelves: This is the first of the "Berserker" books I have read and I was impressed by the background concept and the world created by Saberhagen.

The book is really a collection of loosely connected short stories describing different groups of humans battling the Berserker war machines.

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Good, solid SF stories based on an outstanding concept. Oct 11, Manuel Alfonseca rated it really liked it. A collection of the first eleven short stories about the berserker, intelligent machines built by an alien civilization to destroy all biological life. The first story "Without a Thought" is very good and describes a way in which the Turing Test could be performed successfully without any actual intelligence.

The fact that this feat is performed by an animal, rather than a computer, makes the situation easier to understand. Another very good story is "Stone Place," a direct transposition of the battle of Lepanto to interstellar war, with the Venusians performing the part of the Venetians: Mar 07, J.

Keely rated it liked it Shelves: Saberhagen's creation of a vast fleet of self-replicating killer robotic ships has proven very influential over the years, different from the small war machines of Dick's 'Second Variety' or the human-controlled weapons of Van Vogt's 'Space Beagle'. The pure alien menace of the Berserkers makes for potent stories, though some of the sketches in this first volume are rather rough. I appreciate the way Saberhagen connects these shorter tales by frame story, which works better here than in many simi Saberhagen's creation of a vast fleet of self-replicating killer robotic ships has proven very influential over the years, different from the small war machines of Dick's 'Second Variety' or the human-controlled weapons of Van Vogt's 'Space Beagle'.

I appreciate the way Saberhagen connects these shorter tales by frame story, which works better here than in many similar collections, since the stories often share characters and events. It's also nice to get the many smaller arcs, moods, and ideas of each story, building a picture of the setting much more effectively than the simple exposition indicative of a continuous, repetitive arc.

There's something to be said for hitting the high points and moving on. That being said, it doesn't always work so well. Some of the connecting stories are weaker and, while we are provided many smaller concluding arcs, the longer arc of the collection never really delivers a solid conclusion, though Saberhagen aims for one. I also often wished he would push more with the ideas and themes of his stories.

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He was able to push the boundaries here and there, but couldn't match conceptually with the likes of Dick, Ellison, or Bradbury. He does gain some verisimilitude by his retelling of the Battle of Leponto as a space conflict, but lacking the vivid characterization of other Speculative Fiction writers, he falls a bit flat. Nov 11, Mike the Paladin rated it liked it Shelves: Wandering doomsday weapons from an older civilization confront man.

I read these years ago Aug 26, Daniel rated it really liked it. During high school, I worked at a used bookstore, where I would often shelve the fantasy and science fiction, since it was a favorite of mine. How many times I filed Saberhagen's books, I cannot say--but the number is way up there. Did I ever once consider reading Saberhagen? Not really--in fact, the opposite is true: I saw the word "Beserker" and read a synopsis or two and dismissed it as dumb. Who wants to read about big, life-snuffing warships? A decade and change later, I During high school, I worked at a used bookstore, where I would often shelve the fantasy and science fiction, since it was a favorite of mine.

A decade and change later, I did, and let me tell you, I am so glad that I picked this book up. I'm tempted to ask, Where has Saberhagen been all my life--but I wrote the answer to that question up above. Saberhagen has been there for decades--long before I picked up my first fiction, and all throughout my teenage years and my early twenties. My loss for taking so long to finally get to his work and a huge thank you to Dan for his review of "Empire of the East," which inspired me to pick up Saberhagen to begin with.

Why the four stars and why all of my lamentations? Because nearly every story in this anthology is a note-perfect piece of space opera nearly, because the first is average. There are big warships and massive space battles, and these are excellent; many times, I was reminded of Iain M. Banks and his own brand of galactic badness.

Another win is Saberhagen's depiction of the war with the Beserkers from different perspectives, including a comic, a painter, and a mercenary. Each main character experiences the war in his yes, most of these protagonists are men own way, and each is subject to a unique spectrum of emotional toil and trauma.

Through this diverse array of characters, coupled with concise passages that touch upon their inner lives, Saberhagen makes the war real and human. I don't often read space opera, but I do crave it from time-to-time. While reading these stories, I felt immensely satisfied. I was also impressed by what Saberhagen accomplished in twenty pages or less.

It takes talent to achieve epic proportions without epic amounts of prose, and Saberhagen's is genuine, rare, and astounding in its own right. View all 3 comments. Sep 03, Tom rated it really liked it. The series of stories is told by a narrator who reads the minds of the pe Fred Saberhagen wrote or co-wrote a series of seventeen books, some of them anthologies of short stories, about the Berserkers.

Molto bello il tono generale della storia di questi pochi umani confinati nei sotterranei e della loro lotta indietro nel tempo contro queste macchine assassine iperintelligenti. Belle le tre storie nel passato e bellissimo il rapporto con la smemorata. Jun 29, Patrick rated it it was amazing Shelves: It has been a long time, since I enjoyed reading scifi.

This is a very interesting concept. The characters are realistic. I really can't understand, how can some people not like this book. Aug 13, Samuel Lubell rated it it was ok Shelves: This is a collection of short stories from the s about humans fighting alien robotic killing machines. The first few stories dealt with clever ways humans outwitted the machines, including one where a space pilot had to come up with a way to beat a berserker in a checkers-like game while under the influence of a ray that prevents his brain from functioning.

The later stories have more of a continuing plot showing how even while fighting an enemy determined to wipe out all life, humans are st This is a collection of short stories from the s about humans fighting alien robotic killing machines. The later stories have more of a continuing plot showing how even while fighting an enemy determined to wipe out all life, humans are still greedy, power-hungry, and traitorous. The first few are interesting as puzzle stories, but overall they do not hold up well today. Sometimes regardless how a story may age, or may read face value, respect is due.

If only in part to fully appreciate the strides and risks taken by the author to ram a wrecking ball to a staling genre, Saberhagen and Heinlein exemplify such. Whether second or third degree influences or blind coincidence, the tale of intelligent artificial life going rogue and taking out their mimicry of Sometimes regardless how a story may age, or may read face value, respect is due. Whether second or third degree influences or blind coincidence, the tale of intelligent artificial life going rogue and taking out their mimicry of emotional agony on to human kind is a premise popular culture is never afraid of repeating.

The technology, the starship flights, the epic battles above the sky; the singular reason for the concept alone has influenced the genre to tell a better version of essentially the same story makes Berserker an underrated mark in storytelling history. Many ignore it and yet, unbeknownst to them, witness the story being told over and over in all its various forms.

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Video games, comic books; in movies everywhere, explaining that maybe the influence that residues is more palatable for people than the content actually inside. Berserker, even with all its flaws, has earned the honor. Jan 14, Roddy Williams rated it liked it Shelves: The basic premise is that millions of years ago two elder races were at war within the galaxy, and conceived a fleet of self-replicating city-sized destroying machines, each inhabited by a ruthless artificial intelligence.

The war did not end well, and the Berserker machines, following their directive to destroy intelligent life, turned on their makers and annihilated them. Since then they have wandered, annihilating sentient life until now, when humanity has emerged and spread into the galaxy. These stories, published over a period of four years, form a loose narrative, in which characters from one story appear in another, sometime years later, changed by their experience.

The rest of it works very well, helped by the device of carrying characters from one story to another. The machines themselves are a fascinating concept which Saberhagen crafts well but his depiction of a future human society at least within these stories has not stood the test of time.

The Berserker series however, remains as his enduring legacy. Sadly, the success of this one idea has eclipsed his other writing, which surely deserves a second look. Scientifically it has dated somewhat and the gender roles are firmly stuck in a pre-equality Nineteen Sixties. Having said that, the stories are character driven and still work with the possible exception of The Jester which, as I have said, is a semi-comic attempt at satire which never really achieves its objective and stylistically is at odds with the rest of the collection. Feb 21, Morgan rated it really liked it.

They are remnants of a war long forgotten between races long dead. All that survives are the berserkers and their desire to eliminate all life. Their methods are unique. The berserkers were built to be unpredictable machines. Essentially all of their planning and tactics and strategy rests on a random number generator buried deep in their cores. Will they bombard a planet with "Berserker" tells the story of humanity's war with Death Star-like automated killing machines called berserkers.

Will they bombard a planet with rockets?

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Will they abduct people and brainwash them? Will they secretly contact the mob and flood the black markets of a sector with enough currency to cause a civil war? They are odd monsters. But they are not the most interesting thing in this book. Formally Saberhagen has structured "Berserker" as a series of short stories exploring man's war with the berserkers from a variety of viewpoints and circumstances. While some of the stories left me cold--a painter encounters a berserker but he is so broken already in spirit and full of self-loathing the berserker refuses to kill him, as the man himself is an advertisement for the futility of life--others are outstanding bits of space opera and hard sci-fi.

Saberhagen is a gifted author. I regret having waited this long to read this series. Feb 10, Matt rated it did not like it Shelves: The premise behind this book was a good one: Mankind fights these machines and so the story begins. The reality is that this story is a non-cohesive collection of short stories.

I'm pretty sure a lot of time passes between the first story in the book and the last, but really there isn't any way to tell. There are only a few stories that have the same characters in them so you mostly get to meet new characters in each and e The premise behind this book was a good one: There are only a few stories that have the same characters in them so you mostly get to meet new characters in each and every new story very annoying.

What characters you did meet were very one dimensional and really did not seem real at all. There were some good parts. Some of the stories were well written most were not. Unfortunately for me, one of the best parts was right at the beginning so that made me hopeful for the whole novel. Some of the characters were almost well written almost but not quite.

Black Berserkers

Overall, I found this novel to not be a very good read. For those of you reading this I suggest you read the first paragraph again and write your own scifi novel based upon the same premise. You couldn't do any worse. For those of you who still want to read this novel, I hope you find it more enjoyable that I did. Mar 23, Dale rated it really liked it.

Black Ice Berserkers (Earth-616)

I'm not terribly surprised, the structure of the first book lends itself to sequel after sequel. The premise of the book is that giant intelligent killing space machines are out to destroy all of the life they discover. We are never told, but we assume that they are by-products of a long-ended war A review of the audiobook Narrated by Aaron Lustig and Henry Strozier.

We are never told, but we assume that they are by-products of a long-ended war by a long-forgotten people. This first volume was written in the late s. The only reason I point this out is that I believe that the s was an especially fertile time for science fiction, especially sci-fi that wanted to discuss big issues and themes. For example, TV's "Star Trek" and "Twilight Zone" are often more than a creepy story or a space alien story - they explore deep themes, such as "What is beauty? The Early Stories of Philip K. Gardens of the Moon. Empire of the East. How to write a great review.

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