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Berserker (novel series)

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Berserker
File:Beserker Saberhagen Ace 92.jpg
July 1986 Ace 13th printing features cover art by Boris Vallejo.
AuthorFred Saberhagen
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherBallantine '67, Penguin '70/'85 (UK), Ace '78/'79/'80/'84/'92
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
ISBNISBN 0441054951 (Ace '92 edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

The Berserker series is a series of space opera science fiction short stories and novels by Fred Saberhagen, in which robotic self-replicating machines intend to destroy all sentient life. These Berserkers, named after the human berserker warriors of Norse legend, are doomsday weapons left over from an interstellar war between two races of extraterrestrials some 50,000 years ago. They all have machine intelligence, and their sizes range from that of an asteroid, in the case of an automated repair and construction base, down to human size (and shape) or smaller.

The Berserkers' bases are capable of manufacturing more and deadlier Berserkers as their perceived "need" arises. The original Berserkers had been designed and built as an Ultimate Weapon to kill the enemy in the long-ago war. The race which created them somehow forgot how to turn them off, and it was killed off itself. Then Berserkers set about killing all sentient life wherever it could be found. When the Berserkers found out how deadly some forms of life could be to them, some were constructed to wreck entire life-bearing planets and moons, against the possibility that their life might someday evolve into sentient life.

Background

The Berserker stories (published as novels and short stories) describe humanity's fight against the Berserkers. The term "humanity" refers to all sentient life in the Milky Way Galaxy, emphasizing the common threat the Berserkers pose toward all forms of life. Homo sapiens, referred to as "Earth-descended" or "ED" humans, or as "Solarians", are the only sentient species aggressive enough to put up a good fight. (Human beings are called "Earth-descended" because billions of them live on Mars, Venus, and hundreds of other planets across the Galaxy.)

Allies of the Earth-descended humans include the telepathic "Carmpans", a subtle and mysterious species incapable of direct aggression. The first stories in the series are related by an individual Carmpan, the "3rd Historian", who seeks to chronicle life in the Galaxy and the struggle against the Berserkers.

The first story, "Without a Thought" (1963), was basically a puzzle story, in which the protagonist faces a problem of simulating intelligence to fool an enemy trying to determine whether there was any conscious being present on a spaceship.

Saberhagen came up with the Berserker as the rationale for the story on the spur of the moment, but the basic concept was so fruitful, with so many possible ramifications, that he used it as the basis of many stories. A common theme in the stories is of how the apparent weaknesses and inconsistencies of living beings are actually the strengths that bring about the killer machines' eventual defeat.

The second story introduces "goodlife": human traitors or collaborators who cooperate with the Berserker machines to stay alive for a while. Later stories involve the qwib-qwib, an anti-Berserker berserker.

Books

  • Berserker (collection, 1967) collects the stories
    • "Without a Thought" (first appeared as "Fortress Ship" in Worlds of If, Jan 1963)
    • "Goodlife" (first appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow, Dec 1963)
    • "Patron of the Arts" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Aug 1965)
    • "The Peacemaker" (first appeared as "The Lifehater" in Worlds of If, Aug 1964)
    • "Stone Place" (first appeared in Worlds of If, March 1965)
    • "What T and I Did" (first appeared in Worlds of If, April 1965)
    • "Mr. Jester" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Jan 1966)
    • "Masque of the Red Shift" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Nov 1965)
    • "Sign of the Wolf" (first appeared in Worlds of If, May 1965)
    • "In the Temple of Mars" (first appeared in Worlds of If, April 1966)
    • "The Face of the Deep" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Sep 1966)
  • Brother Assassin (collection, 1969)
  • Berserker Wars (collection, 1981)
    • "Stone Place" (first appeared in Worlds of If, March 1965)
    • "The Face of the Deep" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Sep 1966)
    • "What T and I Did" (first appeared in Worlds of If, April 1965)
    • "Mr. Jester" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Jan 1966)
    • "The Winged Helmet"
    • "Starsong" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Jan 1968)
    • "Some events at the Templar Radiant" (first appeared in Destinies, May-Aug, 1979)
    • "Wings out of Shadow" (first appeared in Worlds of If, March–April, 1974)
    • "The Smile" (first appeared in Algol, Summer/Fall 1977)
    • "The Adventure of the Metal Murderer"
    • "Patron of the Arts" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Aug 1965)
  • Berserker Throne (1985)
  • Berserker Blue Death (1985)
  • Berserker Base (1985), an anthology with several guest writers; Saberhagen wrote the connecting interludes.
    • "Prisoners' Base" by Fred Saberhagen
    • "What Makes us Human" by Stephen Donaldson
    • "Friends Together" by Fred Saberhagen
    • "With Friends Like These" by Connie Willis
    • "The Founts of Sorrow" by Fred Saberhagen
    • "Itself Surprised" by Roger Zelazny
    • "The Great Secret" by Fred Saberhagen
    • "Deathwomb" by Poul Anderson
    • "Dangerous Dreams" by Fred Saberhagen
    • "Pilots of the Twilight" by Ed Byrant
    • "Crossing the Bar" by Fred Saberhagen
    • "A Teardrop Falls" by Larry Niven
    • "Berserker base" by Fred Saberhagen
  • Ultimate Enemy (collection, 1987)
    • "The Smile" (first appeared in Algol, Summer/Fall 1977)
    • "Pressure" (first appeared as "Beserkers Prey" in Worlds of If, June 1977)
    • "The Annihilation of Angkor Apeiron" (first appeared in Galaxy, Feb 1977)
    • "Inhuman Error" (first appeared in Analog, Oct 1974)
    • "Some events at the Templar Radiant" (first appeared in Destinies, May-Aug, 1979)
    • "Starsong" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Jan 1968)
    • "Smasher" (first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Aug 1978)
    • "The Game" (first appeared in The Flying Buffalo's Favorite Magazine, May–June 1977)
    • "Wings out of Shadow" (first appeared in Worlds of If, March–April, 1974)
  • Berserker Attack (limited edition collection, 1987)
    • "Masque of the Red Shift" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Nov 1965)
    • "In the Temple of Mars" (first appeared in Worlds of If, April 1966)
    • "Brother Berserker"
    • "Smasher" (first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Aug 1978)
  • Berserker's Planet (1991)
  • Berserker Lies (collection, 1991)
    • "The Machinery of Lies"
    • "Masque of the Red Shift" (first appeared in Worlds of If, Nov 1965)
    • "In the Temple of Mars" (first appeared in Worlds of If, April 1966)
    • "Brother Berserker"
    • "Smasher" (first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Aug 1978)
  • Berserker Man (1992)
  • Berserker Kill (1993)
  • Berserker Fury (1997)
  • Shiva in Steel (1998)
  • Berserker Star (2003)
  • Berserker Prime (2003)
  • Rogue Berserker (2005)

Some of the collections have duplicate stories.

Historical and literary analogy

Some of the early Berserker stories constitute a science fiction retelling of the events around the Battle of Lepanto (1571). [citation needed]

In the Berserker stories In history
Berserkers Ottoman Turks
Venus Venice
Esteel Spain (cf. Espania)
Austeel Austria
Stone Place Lepanto
Johann Karlsen Don John of Austria
Felipe Nogara Philip II of Spain
Mitchell Spain Miguel Cervantes
Ships with C-plus cannon Galleasses

In addition, the novel Berserker Fury is a space version of the Battle of Midway. The "island" planet was called 50/50 (halfway or "midway" between two points), spaceships involved were named after the U.S. ships (Stinger for USS Hornet, Venture for USS Enterprise, etc.), and the battle used almost exactly the same tactics, among other similarities. 'Starsong' in Berserker Wars was a fairly obvious adaptation of 'Orpheus and Eurydice'.

Adaptations

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1779
  2. ^ http://bellsouthpwp2.net/h/r/hrfgf1219/berserker.html
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