Beserkers!

[NeonKnight]

I love the Beserkers series by Fred Saberhagen and I wanted to see the views of the folks on the forum.

(I have done several searches for Beserkers, but I did not find any other topics)

I recently picked up Fred's newest, Beserker's Star and I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm only about halfway through it and the stars of the show have only made one brief appearance.

Yes, the Beserkers are the clear stars of the series, I root for them every time, even though I know they will lose in the end.

(destroy all badlife!)

If there are any Beserkers reading this thread, please drop me a private message about signing up for the goodlife program, this humble NeonKnight is ready to serve.

I was pissed when I saw that Star Trek blantantly ripped off Fred's Beserkers with the relatively tame Borg.

The Beserkers novels are usually short, not too dense or complex, just a lot of fun to read.

Your comments are most welcome...

 

[Duraccione]

Sorry NeonKnight, you asked for our comments and therefore...well, I think the "Berserkers" are the worst sf books I've ever read. Sincerely.

Many years ago I listened to a friend's suggestion and picked a couple of them from my city's library, "Brother Berserker" and "Berserker man": the idea of life-eradicating machines semt to me very good, but the way Saberhagen develops the stories is unsatisfying. I mean, no huge battles or endless armies clashing (such a confrontation needs epic battles) but instead some kind of time travel based game of chess ("Brother Berserker") or a child's evolution under machines' control, or something alike ("Berserker man"). The only memories of those books I still keep are an iron monster that eats a viking ancient of a future leader (ehi, it sounds like "Terminator" was inspired by this!) and a boy that flies eternally through the space with just a bandage over his body and a small train that holds the living remnants of his father on the Moon... There's no action, it's just narration, and it lacks even in development of story, characters, you don't come to a result: the stories end more or less in the same point they began.

Originally posted by NeonKnight
Yes, the Beserkers are the clear stars of the series, I root for them every time, even though I know they will lose in the end.

I hope you're right!
My impression, mostly after having read "Berserker man", was that they are unbeatable, they just multiply endlessly while the "living forms" are constantly decreasing. Berserkers know the humans better than humans themselves and they (Berserkers) are clearly winning, it is just a matter of time. I think Saberhagen himself sides with them.

A thing I'd liked to know while I read the books and that maybe you can now tell me: who or what made the Berserkers, and why? What is their background? In the couple of novels I read there was nothing but a thin reference to a remote past...

 

[NeonKnight]

Sorry NeonKnight, you asked for our comments and therefore...well, I think the "Berserkers" are the worst sf books I've ever read. Sincerely.

Complaints are just as readily accepted as praise, no problem.

I mean, no huge battles or endless armies clashing (such a confrontation needs epic battles)

I have read a lot of these books over the years, but I don't think I've read the ones you mentioned. I take them out of the library, so I can"t really go back and reference them, but I do remember reading about a few epic battles. The big confrontations are in the series somewhere, perhaps this calls for a search on Amazon.

It does seem like Fred prefers the "lone wolf" type space trader as a protagonist, one who would be likely to encounter Beserker scouts on the fringes of galaxy. On occasion these independent types will team up with the local Templars or Space Force against larger Beserker forces.

By no means is this top flight SF, I consider the series sort of the graphic novels of SF, more of a light, quick read with not too much in depth contemplation required, just a thrill ride in other words.

A thing I'd liked to know while I read the books and that maybe you can now tell me: who or what made the Berserkers, and why? What is their background?

There is talk of a long lost race called the Builders , who built the self-replicating machines in an effort to defeat another alien race, when humanity still lived in caves. Guess what happened? The nefarious machines not only destroyed the Builder's enemies, but they elimanated the creators as well. Ever since, the Beserkers have been on a mission to elimante all life, down to level of microbes.!

 

[lemming]

Guess what happened? The nefarious machines not only destroyed the Builder's enemies, but they elimanated the creators as well.

I so haaaaaate when my creations up and try that sort of thing. Ruins my whole afternoon usually.

 

[raggedyman]

There is an episode in the original Star Trek from the 1960's , where a giant machine is destoying whole planets. This is the same time Fred was publishing his first Berserker stories! Coindence? As for epic battles , in the first collection of Berserker stories theres one called "Stone Place" where admiral Karlson inflicts a sever defeat on the berserkers.

 

[confused]

thrill-rides are the biz !

you might enjoy the Dorai books, or even David Feintuch's stuff, which are along the same lines.
Re. the bersekers, I haven't read them yet, but I remember a short story with a similar idea, only in this case loads of races had created machines to do different things. Thus, you had those who created self-replicating machines to annihilate everything, others who created machines to negotiate, etc etc. The story centred around a single machine which was badly damaged and just waiting in space. I can't remember what the ending of the story was, though. From what I recall, the berseker equivalents seemed to be winning, though.

 

[Duraccione]

Originally posted by NeonKnight
I have read a lot of these books over the years, but I don't think I've read the ones you mentioned.

Did you find them?

Originally posted by NeonKnight
There is talk of a long lost race called the Builders , who built the self-replicating machines in an effort to defeat another alien race, when humanity still lived in caves. Guess what happened? The nefarious machines not only destroyed the Builder's enemies, but they elimanated the creators as well. Ever since, the Beserkers have been on a mission to elimante all life, down to level of microbes.!

This is quite the background I found in the books I read, but I hoped that in the other novels of the series there were more hints about those "Builders" (in the novels I read the Berserkers of the first book seem to have no link with the ones of the other): but maybe Saberhagen doesn't like to give more details about them, he wants them to be quite mysterious, almost like gods themselves...

It seems like that the Necrons in Wh40k universe are modelled around the Berserkers, don't you think?