Reviews

Saberhagen has given SF one of its most powerful images of future war in his Berserker series. Created for a long-forgotten conflict, the berserkers are implacable, inimical killing machines that have been programmed to rebuild and redesign themselves. Their computer cunning and mechanical evolution present ever-greater challenges to humanity's scattered colonies. In this latest novel, Saberhagen draws on such epics of vengeance as The Searchers and Moby Dick. The loss of his family and of his left leg drive Niles Domingo to pursue the immense berserker known as Old Blue or Leviathan. Although he succeeds, his fanaticism transforms him into an inhuman acolyte of the godlike machine, a role that comes to define Domingo's purpose and existence. One of the best entries in the series. November