Berserker Kill

A captivating read for Berserker fans, with plenty of cool stuff revealed, especially at the end. [NO SPOILERS INCLUDED HERE!] However, I noticed redundancies cropping up occasionally in the narrative, which irritated me slightly. Additionally, the pace of the narrative wasn't up to Saberhagen's usually "cracking good" standards. Are Fred's writing abilities slipping only slightly with age? This story would make an excellent adaption to TV or film, but would probably work best as a story arc in part of an ongoing series, since the tale is best appreciated in the overall context of the Berserker saga (as is Saberhagen's short story "The Sign of the Wolf"). The novel is a little draggy, and I was disappointed that Saberhagen killed off one of the supporting characters before he had a chance to really develop, but certainly not as hard to wade through as its immediate sequel, "Berserker Fury" (1997). Definitely worth the effort.

I've gotta admit, I LOVE Saberhagen's Berserkers, and THIS one has gotta be the best. Buy, read, or steal it soon. It's just really cool. Even though it is a bit longer than most of the others(Berserker novels), I ended up wanting more in the end.

The longest and most complex and ambitious of Saberhagen's Berserker stories, this one carries the weight well. He weaves together a larger varied cast of human and non-human characters, using them to investigate the grand theme of the Berserker tales: the boundaries between human and non-human. Intriguing characters include various ordinary folk, a cyborg combat pilot last seen in Berserker Man, an AI personality impinging on the real world, a disembodied human in simulated world, and a serial killer. But the situations dominate: why have Berserkers stolen a biological laboratory ship? The ride is fascinating, the problems, compelling, and the denoument, a treat, rich in the sense of wonder that first attacts fans to the genre

I love Berserker stories, but I felt this novel sort of dragged through the human sub plots. There's a heck of a suprise in the last fifty pages or so that made it worth reading, but when I re-read it I skimmed through a lot of it. Sorry, Fred..