Машина - убиец

Berserker #1

by Fred Saberhagen, Фред Саберхаген, Кънчо Кожухаров (translator)

Никой не знаеше откъде идваха берсеркерите, но всеки знаеше за какво бяха дошли.
ТЕ бяха механични убийци; мозъкът им беше компютър, програмиран да затрива всякакви форми и изблици на живот.
Берсеркерите бяха лишени от логика. Произволното разпадане на атоми в блоковете на паметта им би могло да избере каквото и да е безконечно средство за разрушение. Планета подир планета се превръщаха в пара и прах.
Само едно същество можеше да се противопостави на берсеркерите. Само една раса, която през цялото свое съществуване бе произвеждала все по-мощни оръжия. Една раса, предопределена да се пожертва, за да спечели титлата „герой“.
Тази раса наричаше себе си ХОРА.

Съдържание:

Без мисъл [Without a thought] – стр.8
Доброжив [Goodlife] – стр.23
Покровител на изкуствата [Patron of the Arts] – стр.52
Миротворецът [The Peacemaker] – стр.65
Камънаците [Stone Place] – стр.77
Какво направихме Т и аз [What U and I did] – стр.133
Г-н Палячо [Mr. Jester] – стр.146
Маската на червеното отместване [Masque of the Red Shift] – стр.167
Знакът на вълка [Sign of the Wolf] – стр.196
В храма на Марс [In the Temple of Mars] – стр.209
Лицето на дълбините [The Face of the Deep] – стр.236

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Short Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Science Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Fred Saberhagen was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his ''Beserker'' and Dracula stories.

Saberhagen also wrote a series of a series of post-apocalyptic mytho-magical novels beginning with his popular ''Empire of the East'' and continuing through a long series of ''Swords'' and ''Lost Swords'' novels. Saberhagen died of cancer, in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Saberhagen was born in and grew up in the area of Chicago, Illinois. Saberhagen served in the [[U.S. Air Force]] during the Korean War while he was in his early twenties. Back in civilian life, Saberhagen worked as an It was while he was working for Motorola (after his military service) that Saberhagen started writing fiction seriously at the age of about 30. "Fortress Ship", his first "Berserker" short shory, was published in 1963. Then, in 1964, Saberhagen saw the publication of his first novel, ''The Golden People''.

From 1967 to 1973, he worked as an editor for the Chemistry articles in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as well as writing its article on science fiction. He then quit and took up writing full-time. In 1975, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He married fellow writer Joan Spicci in 1968. They had two sons and a daughter.

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chosen foe was no longer a red dot, but a great forbidding castle, tilted crazily, black against the stars.

A somewhat conventional review…

The chronicles of Man’s battle against the merciless Berserker machines starts here, with the first book in Saberhagen’s Berserker series. This is old school all the way!

Berserker actually consists of a number of related short stories strung together to tell the bigger story. Much like Asimov’s Foundation, I suppose. I’m not sure whether the sequels are put together in the same fashion, and whether they are bona fide novels, but I’ll certainly be wanting to find out.

It’s pretty good stuff, this, ranging from space battles to poignant introspective moments in the flip of a few pages. Admittedly, some of it seems a bit dated, but the gothic vibe of the Berserkers themselves is absolutely monumental. These colossal machines (some of them appear to be, quite literally, hundreds of cubic square miles apiece) roam space with one intention, and one intention only, to destroy “life” wherever it’s found.

…for a somewhat unconventional book.

This book is nothing like I expected it to be. It isn’t (really) Military Science Fiction, and some of the sequences are rather bizarre. The Berserkers are apparently not limited to shows of force and mindless destruction in their quest for the extermination of life. Other methods are employed as well, such as counterfeiting and humour. Eh? Yes, eh.

So, these terrifying remnants of some long-forgotten conflict are also slightly… odd.

That said, there are one or two sequences that remind of (dare I say it?)… Terminator… but in Space!!

The writing style is brisk and without frills, and there are some dark shades of nasty in the story, that occasionally shine through. Character development? Not really, since nobody hangs around long enough (due to the structure of the book). Is it good? It is, but not in the way I first envisioned. I suspect this kind of thing is an acquired taste and may not appeal to everybody. Except, perhaps, the last sequence, which is sense of wonder overdose. Frankly, the book reads so quickly, you might as well try it out in any case.

[Metodi Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Съвместен прочит с Martin Nedev.

Рядко попадам на сборници, в които почти всички разкази са на еднакво високо ниво. "Машина-убиец" е точно такъв и двамата с Марти му се насладихме. За него бе приятна изненада, за мен - повод да се срещна с герои и ситуации, които са ми били интересни преди над двайсет години. Имаше и какво да обсъдим.

Експанзията на човека във Вселената е почти безпрепятствена и от предпазливата колонизация на първите планети е минало доста време, достатъчно дълго, за да се дърлят и воюват хората отново помежду си. Но може би заложената в нас агресия ще успее да спаси видът ни, в безмилостната схватка с неочакван и безмилостен враг?

От дълбините на Космоса изплуват ужасяващи метални роботизирани бегемоти, чиято единствена задача поставена им някога от създалите ги, е да смажат и унищожат всичко живо. Хората ги нарекоха берсеркери и се заклеха да им дадат отпор до последна капка кръв!

Лични фаворити - "Камънаците", "Знакът на вълка" и "Без мисъл".

Цитат:

"Светът е лош, а хората са глупаци; те никога не са наистина на една и съща страна в която и да е война."

[Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story collection, originally published in 1967, is the first book in the long-running Berserker science-fiction series by American speculative fiction author Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007). I discovered it through a graduate-level Univ. of Iowa correspondence course in science fiction I took (long story!) in 1995-96, in which it was required reading; I'd heard of Saberhagen before, and was vaguely aware of the series as military SF/"space opera," but had never bothered to seek it out since my taste in the SF genre usually runs in other directions. However, this was a definitely a case where a required read of something I'd have passed up on my own proved really felicitous, and demonstrated that my reading prejudices sometimes aren't justified! Note: in writing this review, I don't have the book in front of me (it was an interlibrary loan); but I've supplemented my imperfect memories of the 24-year-old read with reference to the reflection paper I wrote at the time.

The Goodreads description of the premise of the collection, and of the series, is accurate; set in the far future, it focuses on space-faring humanity's generations-long war against the Berserkers, sentient, self-replicating and extremely powerful interstellar war machines created in a long-ago war between two alien civilizations. Having re-interpreted their programming, the Berserkers decided their mission was to wipe out all organic life, starting with the warring races that made them, and are now sweeping through the galaxy on the same crusade. As such, it certainly does deserve the labels military SF and space opera (and I've recommended it to fans of that strand of the genre). The stories here are well-written, gripping good examples of that tradition. But the description doesn't suggest the philosophical depth involved here, and which is what really, for me, lifted the book above the ordinary.

Because they're intelligent, the Berserkers can think; they have a cosmology and guiding ideology which, to them, determines and justifies their actions. That belief system is an uncompromising, totally through-going deterministic physical/chemical materialism, summed up in two sentences: "All life thinks it is, but it is not. There are only particles, energy and space, and the laws of the machines." They deny the existence of anything non-material or intangible, such as Deity, spirit, or free will. In other words (as Saberhagen was of course well aware!), they aggressively embody the real-life ideology that came to dominate the Western world --and the rest of the world, to the extent that the Western world can forcibly or financially dominate it-- in the 20th century. Like many of their real-life human counterparts, they find the existence of other beliefs a dangerous affront, and want to exterminate them; but being machines themselves, they can carry it to the logical next step of wanting to exterminate the "life-disease," whose "units" are capable of the "illusion" of free will, altogether. (It's not difficult to recognize in this the author's statement that this materialistic-determinist ideology itself is, at its core, fundamentally anti-human.)

So the fictional war here is not simply an "Us against Them" conflict of humans who are the "good guys" because they're human vs. aliens who are the "bad guys" just because they're alien; it's a genuine conflict between competing cosmological views on a galactic scale, with ultimately very high stakes, and a very high investment of the reader (at least, this reader) in the outcome. The best factor the humans and other living races have going for them in the struggle is precisely what the Berserkers deny exists: "The behavior of these leading units often resisted analysis, as if some quality of the life-disease in them was forever beyond the reach of machines. These individuals used logic, but sometimes it seemed they were not bound by logic. The most dangerous life-units of all sometimes acted in ways that seemed to contradict the known supremacy of the laws of physics and chance, as if they could be minds possessed of true free will, instead of its illusion." Often these "most dangerous life-units" are (religious) Believers such as Johann Karelsen, my favorite character here, who appears in more than one story. (It's not coincidental in this connection that Saberhagen himself was a practicing Roman Catholic; his faith informs his work.)

Despite my high rating of this book, I never pursued the series much subsequently (though I did read and like the tenth installment, Berserker Fury, which I happened to read because it was a Science Fiction Book Club selection --it can be read out of order as a stand-alone, and my impression is that this is true of all or most of these books). As with many series, I think reading the first book really gives you the full idea of the author's vision and message; the subsequent ones probably add to the author's and publisher's income more than adding anything significant to the experience (though I might be mistaken in that). But I consider this collection a major work in 20th-century American SF, and highly recommend it.

[Reynard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con questa decina di racconti, indipendenti fra loro ma con un chiaro filo conduttore e ben collegati da una voce fuoricampo credibile, Saberhagen inizia a dipingere un affresco spaziale degno della migliore fantascienza classica. I racconti sono molto diversi fra loro: si passa dalle descrizioni di tattica militare al fanatismo religioso, dalle lotte di potere alla sagace presa in giro della società, dalla disillusa analisi di uomini piccoli piccoli alla celebrazione del grande leader carismatico. E con un nemico sì terribile, ma spesso non più dell'uomo contro cui combatte. Un grande inizio per un'epopea spaziale poco conosciuta, eppure degna dei Grandi della fantascienza.
Consiglio questa lettura a tutti, non solo agli appassionati. E non fatevi condizionare dal fatto che l'autore non si chiami Asimov.
Seguono i miei voti per i singoli racconti:
Senza pensiero: 3
La buona sorte: 5
Il patrono delle arti: 4
Il paciere: 5
La regione di pietra: 4
Che cosa facemmo T & io: 5
Mister burlone: 5
La maschera del vortice rosso: 5
Sotto il segno del lupo: 3
Nel tempio di Marte: 3
Il volto nel profondo: 4

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I haven't read this book in decades, I remembered most of the stories pretty well. They were originally published separately & have graced many an anthology over the years. I was curious to see how they'd do as an audio book. Pretty good, although I'd recommend reading them separately for the best impact.

The stories are tied together by a hokey alien reading minds over many years & introducing each story. Since the stories were separate, Saberhagen had to establish who the Berserkers were in each story. As text, that's easy enough to skim over. As an audio book, it got really old.

There are a lot of stories for such a slim volume & they're all quite well done. Saberhagen started writing these stories in the 60's & I was quite impressed by how well the stories held up to the technological changes we've undergone. He concentrated on the human attributes & managed to make much of the technology rather timeless. He had a better grasp of computers than a lot of others, too. Definitely a great book & it was well read.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

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? Nope. Was I curious? 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 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.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 to 3.5 stars. 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. Good, solid SF stories based on an outstanding concept.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take. Wandering doomsday weapons from an older civilization confront man. I read these years ago...they span from the most serious to open comedy.

[J.G. Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 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. 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.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: 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 (:-)

ESPAÑOL: Colección de los once primeros relatos cortos sobre los berserker, máquinas inteligentes construidas por una civilización alienígena para destruir toda vida biológica. La primera historia ("Without a Thought") es muy buena y describe un modo de realizar con éxito la prueba de Turing sin inteligencia. El hecho de que esta hazaña sea realizada por un animal, en vez de una computadora, hace que la situación sea más fácil de entender. Otra historia muy buena es "Stone Place", transposición directa de la batalla de Lepanto a la guerra interestelar, con los venusianos interpretando el papel de los venecianos (:-)

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book entirely for the awesome, Boris Vallejo cover art. I expected it to be a badly written, antiquated space opera and there was definitely lots of that here. That said, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It reminded me of the animated movie Heavy metal because of the framing narration and the martian chronicles because it was a collection of short stories all about the same subject-The Berserkers.
The berserkers are ancient, planet sized killing machines left over from a long forgotten war. their mission is to destroy all life. It sounded to me like the episode of star trek called the doomsday machine but the berserkers are also intelligent A.I.'s that speak to, and study humans. there are lots of cool concepts that I've seen in much later work like cybernetic killing machines disguised as humans to get close to a target. there are recurring characters in some of the stories and it has an epic feel for such a short book. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would though some stories were better than others.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.
Un po' meno i riferimenti alla storia umana, avrei preferito una astrazione più spinta.
Belle le tre storie nel passato e bellissimo il rapporto con la smemorata.

[Estevam (Impish Reviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was okay, very enjoyable the story is broken in many short stories that begin to form the picture of what is a berserker, they are big planet-destroying ships that have in their programming one goal only: To exterminate all life.
The first stories don't have reoccurring characters but that changes later on where we get characters that are more than one-offs, they are written very competently, and for the most part, are very enjoyable, but of course, they don't have very big arcs that they go through they are presented in a way and they stay that way through the story.
This book the beginning is very slow, the middle the story begins to ramp up to a big battle between life (Humans) and unlife (Berserkers) and at the end, it slows down again to offer some closure to some characters and for that, it gains points with me for at least having an ending.
This book is something between 3.5 to 4 stars, it is entertaining and fans of sci-fi and big spaceship battles will probably like, it has some good reflections on human nature and what means to be alive.

[G.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tanti piccoli racconti che hanno come filo conduttore i Berserker. I personaggi principali si ripresentano nella maggior parte delle storie e sono effettivamente quelle migliori. Lo storie brevi sono invece un po' più "leggere" alcune drammatiche, altre divertenti usate più che altro come espediente per spezzare la trama principale. In fin dei conti non male, si lascia leggere.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred Saberhagen wrote or co-wrote a series of seventeen books, some of them anthologies of short stories, about the Berserkers. These robotic killings machines arrive on the doorstep of human occupied space with the sole mission of destroying all intelligent life. Berserker is the first of the novels and encompasses eleven short stories originally published from 1963 to 1966 in Worlds of If and Worlds of Tomorrow magazines.

The series of stories is told by a narrator who reads the minds of the people actually involved in their struggles against the implacable Berserker foe. In the beginning the Berserkers use Deathstar like ships to overwhelm their enemy but as they face defeat after defeat change their tactics.

The real heart of these books is the human element as each protagonist in turn must find their own brand of courage and intelligence in order to defeat the enemy.

I loved these stories as a young teen and I think they hold up well taken at face value. It is certainly not great literature but the stories are exciting and the characters well-developed. I would recommend this book to any lover of hard science fiction and perhaps to modern-day Battlestar Galactica fans.

Saberhagen wrote several other series including the well-known Books of Swords and Books of Lost Swords. He died in 2007.

[Kristian Grønseth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic SF. Crossing the span between "Hard SF" and "Space Opera", Saberhagen postulates how artificial intelligence and the human mind differs in crucial aspects. Also, the series of stories written during the height of the Cold War points out the dangers of cavalier approaches to weapons of mass destruction, as well as being one of the first speculations around von Neumanns theories around self-replicating and self-perpetuating machinery. Although several aspects may seem dated in light of today's technology, Saberhagens biggest strength is the exploration of the human psyche when under pressure. Although seemingly nihilistic, the stories also warn about becoming what you fight. Recommended if you like space opera, as well as horror.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in a series. A good story, about the lethal machines called Berskers, developed by an alien race and now bent on destroying humankind. Kind of a pre-Terminator terminator, although with spaceships. Maybe a bit like the Borg as well. Both of those ideas were probably influenced by this series.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was expecting, this is actually a pulp like tale of humans facing giant killer machines.

Written in 1967, the book actually roots for humans, which is certainly different than what we'd get today.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Berserker" (1967) tells the story of humanity's war with Death Star-like automated killing machines called berserkers. 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 rockets? 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. It reminds one of Bradbury's "the Martian Chronicles" or Asimov's "I, Robot." Variations on a theme, a wealth of characters. 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.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

Nothing is more evident than how great works of modern Sci-fi have borrowed heavily from Saberhagen’s series. 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. From Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” to certain elements of Ender’s Game. To the Reapers in Mass Effect or the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica. 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. 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.

*Thumbs up for the Franco Grignani cover art*

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise behind this book was a good one: ancient spaceships guided by computers seek to end all life in the galaxy. 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 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).

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.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review of the audiobook

Narrated by Aaron Lustig and Henry Strozier.
Duration: approximately 6.5 hours

I just stumbled upon Berserker , not realizing that there is an entire series of these books. 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. Why? 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 1960s. The only reason I point this out is that I believe that the 1960s 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?" and "What does it mean to be human?". Saberhagen openly explores these themes and more...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...

[Brick Marlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read, a dark science fiction tale where machines called Berserkers are built by some unknown alien life to kill anything in its path. Saberhagen compiles this tale with different short stories about the Berserker, much like Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, and does a fantastic job delivering the reader throughout space, meeting various characters along the way, as well as other villains. Anyone who loves to read authentic science fiction stories from the long ago should grab this one up!

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, really.

Now, these stories may have been pretty cool in the 60s, but there is something about them I just dont care for. Its not that they are dated (they are, but I read lots of "dated" SF), but they are emotionally hollow. Kind of a disappointment following my inaugural reading of "Bolos", another sentient machine series. Unfortunately, the idea of the Berserkers is too cool to not want to read some more even though I was fairly unimpressed with the stories.

[Tor.com Publishing]

This book has stuck with me long after the details have faded. I read this at a young age & I still think of AIs using decaying isotopes as random number generators randomly; I still think about the guy beating a Berserker by teaching a monkey-dog to beat the Turing test. It's a world that lingers. --MK

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing short of a masterpiece. I admit: I read this a few months ago, and am just now logging and reviewing it in a rush at the end of the year, so I was paging back through it with the idea that I might give it 4 stars since the series only improves and builds from here. Nope, 5 stars is the only honest judgement I can make.

The premise is simple: humanity's interstellar civilization is threatened by artificial life forms known as Berserkers. Perhaps created as war machines in a distant, forgotten past, these ruthless machines are bent on the destruction of all living things. A strong start, but we've all seen similar premises before. What Saberhagen proceeds to do with this, though, is a brilliant display of brainstorming and world building. Across the short stories that make up this collection, we visit all corners of the galaxy to see how humanity battles the machines in traditional conflict, mind games, culture wars, you name it and Saberhagen is there to explore.

Personal favorites include "Mr. Jester" and "Goodlife."

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories from the 1960s 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 still greedy, power-hungry, and traitorous. The first few are interesting as puzzle stories, but overall they do not hold up well today.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book out of the box because it looked like a fun, pulpy sci-fi book. And it was, but it was also a bit more interesting than that.

It helped that it was an anthology of stories from the Berserker universe. I like anthologies, that way I get a broader look at the world(s), and if one story isn't to my taste, the next one could be. And usually, with this book, it was.

[William Ramsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are really good, and it's a shame they're not as well known as, say, the "I, Robot" stories.

Read this if you like solid space opera short stories all set in the same world, some building off each other, other's one offs. Not mind blowing, but solid