I enjoyed this one. It's a series of interconnected short stories about mankind's fight against supremely powerful ancient machines with only one purpose: to destroy all life in the universe. Despite the relatively cliche premise, the stories are interesting and decidedly different from many war-in-space tales. I doubt I'll search out the rest of the series, but I would recommend this one to fans of hard SF. ( )

Read 3/4 of the book until lost it. Generally good, though not too memorable. Probably need to be in an extended reading mood, i.e., no distractions. ( )

A mercifully quick read. I liked the vignette style of storytelling which interspersed the main storyline with more fanciful stories in between. The Peacemaker was my favorite story of the lot. ( )

http://home.comcast.net/~ktoonen/summ... ( )

The Berserker groups function as Von Neumann machines. They are leftovers from a war between some aliens many years and the past, and are now on a quest to get rid of all that nasty smelly organic life stuff.

This is a bit of a problem for humanity, being humans are nasty smelly organic life stuff. War ensues between machines, humans and allies.

A classic collection of man vs machine space war, as the intelligent Berserker machines decide that organics are 'badlife' and want to exterminate or at least change some they keep into 'goodlife' to be more like them.

Some stories of the overall commanders of parts of this conflict, and some that are just isolated incidents.

Berserker : Without a Thought [Fortress Ship] - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : Goodlife - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : Patron of the Arts - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : The Peacemaker [The Life Hater] - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : Stone Place - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : What T and I Did - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : Mr. Jester - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : Masque of the Red Shift - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : Sign of the Wolf - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : In the Temple of Mars - Fred Saberhagen
Berserker : The Face of the Deep - Fred Saberhagen

Berserker fancies a game.

3 out of 5

Life is evil, need to experiment on it a bit.

4 out of 5

Berserker no critic, more of a collector.

3.5 out of 5

Love cancer removal machine.

3.5 out of 5

High Command faction Berserker fleet action decision.

4 out of 5

Facing prison brain surgery.

3 out of 5

Levity defense exile return politics.

4 out of 5

Big star leadership freeze out massacre revival.

3.5 out of 5

Planetary defense shepherd.

4 out of 5

Big new ships and Berserker cults.

3.5 out of 5

Hypermass falling engagement rescue.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/12/berserker-fred-saberhagen.html ( )