Berserker Prime

Master storyteller Fred Saberhagen continues his bestselling Berserker© series, detailing humanity's war with the dreaded juggernaut-like machines programmed to destroy all life in the galaxy. In the Twin World planets, Prairie and Timber, Plenipotentiary Gregor is determined to serve his government. Even if it means executing innocent Huvean hostages, invaders from another planet. And even though Gregor's granddaughter, Luon, is in love with Reggie, a Huvean. But now the Berserkers are threatening the Twin Worlds crashing a scoutship, capturing the planets' president, and reprogramming his brain to suit their violent agenda. And only the Huveans, in a desperate reprieve, can save the Twin Worlds' populace from annihilation.

Long ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, two alien races met—and fought a war of mutual extinction. The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battle craft carved a swath of death through the galaxy—until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man. These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy—and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things. This is Saberhagen’s classic book length collection of the first eleven Berserker stories. Meet Berserker hunter extraordinaire Johann Karlsen, his evil brother Felipe Nogara, The Third Historian of the Carmpan Race, gallant fighters of the killer machines and the deranged killer machine, Mr. Jester.

Independent pilot and sometime berserker hunter Harry Silver is being hounded by the Space Force on suspicion of possession of an illegal, high-powered weapon. To avoid confiscation of his beloved ship the Witch, Harry agrees to a quick evacuation of a trio of refugees from the doomed Hong’s World. Destination – Maracanda, an azlaroc-type body, a curious non-planet where geography seems more like geometry and the soil itself can be a drug. Maracanda’s geography has the attention of berserkers, rogue killer machines programmed to destroy all life, especially human life. With help from ‘goodlife’, the berserkers could turn the strange combination of neutron star, black hole and Maracanda’s extra-ordinary geography into massive galactic destruction. Harry teams with a woman disenchanted with her fanatical husband and an accidentally helpful smuggler acquaintance in an attempt to save the galaxy. A grand military space story with engaging characters and a strikingly original and imaginative setting.

 An ancient berserker, a gigantic space going killer machine programmed to destroy all life, seizes a space laboratory devoted to preserving a vast number of human zygotes. The zygotes are being stored for retrieval and growth in a future colonization project. Captain Dirac Sardou, whose wife and zygote were on the space vehicle, is obsessed with pursuit of the berserker. During the chase, mysteriously the laboratory, Captain Sardou’s ship, and the berserker disappear. Three hundred years after the disappearance, evidence of the missing vehicles and the damaged berserker is found. The would be rescuers are confounded. Why didn’t the berserker destroy the Captain’s ship? Why hasn’t the berserker destroyed the vessel filled with nascent life? A fast paced space adventure.

Berserkers are self-replicating killer machines, programmed by an ancient race to be the ultimate weapon of war. Something went wrong. The weapons now plagued the universe following a single mandate: kill all life, especially earth descended human life. Harry Silver, spaceman extraordinaire, has a well earned reputation as the galaxies most successful Berserker fighter. However, recently during a battle with Berserkers, he lost his beloved starship The Witch of Endor. Mr. Cheng, one of the universes wealthiest businessmen, is offering Harry the ship of his dreams, if Harry will undertake an almost certainly suicidal hostage rescue mission. Harry is reluctant, until he learns his wife and son may be among the hostages. On his mission, Harry encounters a number of humans and machines whose ethical programming has gone astray. Battles of wit and cunning accompany Harry’s struggles.

With the support of the peace loving Carmpan Race, earth descended humanity continues to lead the struggle in the ongoing thousand-year war against the Berserkers, an unliving, self-replicating enemy programmed to destroy all life. Almost all the information earth descended humanity have ever had directly from the Carmpan on any subject—Berserkers, the Builders, the Carmpan themselves, the Elder Races, almost everything—a very great proportion of this information has come to our Solarian worlds through long-distance communications signed by one individual, known only as Third Historian. Here are eleven of THs translated communications along with an explanation of their discovery by Archivist Ingli: Stone Place, The Face Of The Deep, What T and I did?, Mr. Jester, The Winged Helmet, Starsong, Some Events at the Templar Radiant, Wings out of Shadow, The Smile, The Adventure of the Metal Murderer, and Patron of the Arts

 Berserkers are ancient, legendary machines of death that annihilated their makers. They destroy all life wherever they find it. The Empress of the Eight Worlds has been assassinated, and Prince Harivarman, an unwilling exile, knows he will be next. On the Templar Radiant he discovers a deactivated berserker — an operable one and perhaps even the code that controls the berserkers. Dare he unleash berserkers on his political enemy? Berserker Throne is set in the same world as Saberhagen’s shortstory ‘Some Events At The Templar Radiant.’ The story appears in the collection Berserker Wars.

Michel Geulincx is an eleven year old boy living a quiet life on an earth-like colonial planet with his adoptive parents. His life direction suddenly changes when he is offered a scholarship to a prestigious art school. But it isn’t his artistic talent that interests the recruiters. Uniquely talented and strong of character, Michel discovers his biological identity and learns he alone among the human warriors can meld with Lancelot, humanity’s most advanced weapon devised to oppose the life-eradicating berserkers. He will become a living machine dedicated to saving humanity as he takes humanity’s fight to the berserkers and to the heart of the galaxy.