MADreads

Going berserkers

May 11th, 2009 Gregg - Sequoya

The Berserkers - cold, steel, killing machines.  Their one purpose - to wipe out all of humanity.  Sounds cheerful doesn’t it?  Fred Saberhagen has created the ultimate nightmare of technology gone mad in Berserkers:  The Beginning.

Think of Berserkers as a kind of sentient death star, able to replicate and repair themselves.  This first book in the series is a collection of loosely connected short stories.  I really enjoyed the way that Saberhagen played with this concept.  Some of the stories are grim, as you might expect, and others are light, humorous pieces.

I highly recommend this book, but have this question for all of you Saberhagen fans in blogland. My impression is that later novels in the series turned into straight-up military science fiction, how do they compare to this one?  Are they worth the read?

Entry Filed under: Science Fiction, Short Stories