Berserker Man

I bought Berserker Man on a whim, without any idea it was part of a larger series and having never heard of Saberhagen, and I came away so enamoured with the story that I hope I can pick up some others in the series. From the setup in the prologue to the arc of discovery for Michel, it's a beautiful......more

A surprisingly sophisticated entry in the Berserker series. This novel centers on a boy that has extraordinary powers. These powers allow the boy to meld with a superweapon created to destroy the Berserkers. However, the Berserkers also realize the potential of the boy and want to convert him to goo......more

The first Berserker book is strong, followed by a couple duds; this one returns to what makes the premise so compelling, human response to the threat of machine annihilation. Taking a page from Slan, the author here gives us a child-superman rather than the full grown version in AE van Vogt's semina......more

What is the link between man and machine? What responsibilities do the creators of a technology, machine, or device have to future generations? These are two questions that millions, even billions, of people have chewed on for decades. Honestly, I don't believe anyone else has done a better job of pr......more

The ever-adventurous Saberhagen takes the Berserker series in a mecha/transhumanistic direction. Some of the standard tropes are here: the semi-reluctant child pilot, the ascension to godhood and subsequent apathy, etc, but 1979 is pretty early in the game for these subgenres (the same year as the o......more