| Berserker | |
|---|---|
July 1986 Ace 13th printing features cover art by Boris Vallejo. |
|
| Author(s) | Fred Saberhagen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Ballantine '67, Penguin '70/'85 (UK), Ace '78/'79/'80/'84/'92 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0441054951 (Ace '92 edition) |
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 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. 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 need arises.
The original Berserkers were designed and built as an Ultimate Weapon, by a race now known only as the Builders, to wipe out their rivals the Red Race, in a war which took place at a time corresponding to Earth's Paleolithic era. The Builders failed to ensure their own immunity from Berserker attack, or they lost those safeguards through an unknown malfunction that changed the Berserker programming, and they were exterminated by their own creation very shortly after the demise of the Red Race. The Berserkers then set out across the galaxy to fulfill their core programmed imperative, which is now, simply, to destroy all life wherever they can find it.
Contents |
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.
Some of the collections have duplicate stories.
Some of the early Berserker stories constitute a science fiction retelling of the events around the Battle of Lepanto (1571).
| 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 the edge of Berserker controlled space and the human base of Port Diamond), 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. For example the fighters stationed at 50/50 are stated to be no match for the Berserker Void fighters. 'Starsong' in Berserker Wars was a fairly obvious adaptation of 'Orpheus and Eurydice'.