Customer Reviews

Berserker Kill

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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..

I haven't read a lot of Saberhagen, a few Berserker short stories (that I enjoyed)and probably a few novels that escape my memory over the years. This book is really weak. It is long and uninteresting until the final 25%. The book repeats points over & over. Worst, there are more loose ends than a bowl of spagetti. The big event that most of the first third of the book builds up to is skipped over, later referred to in past tense with incomplete descriptions. The last words of a character are significant and referred to many times, but never fully explained. When the big climax comes, it is ***an explanation***, and a predictable one at that!!! Battles just end as if someone turned off a switch. At the end of the book, the fates of two major characters are left hanging.

Finally, boarding and hand-to-hand fighting in space battles? Come on! I thought Niven buried that idea long ago. If I can get a small craft grappled to an enemy's hull, I'd be inclined to fill it with explosizes than little-itty-bitty-fighter machines.

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.

I must disagree with the other reviewers - While I DO like the berserker saga, simple fandom-appeal is no excuse for shoddy quality. The book IS too long, in many parts repeats itself ( you often get the same train of thought in three or four slightly different variations ), the plot confusing ( not complex, confusing ) and the characters come across as stilted. Still, it had enough nice ideas for me to finish it.

I've been meaning to start reading a Berserker Series story for some time, and was trying to determine the best place to start, and I ended up choosing BERSERKER KILL (1993).

The book has a number of good space combat sequences, but bogs down at times with monotonous contemplations about the moral and ethical implications of raising human zygotes into adult humans for the sole purpose of implanting the memories of exiting adult humans... indeed the author must have grown tired of these contemplations, as the book suddenly changes tack halfway thru, and in Part 2 we find ourselves suddenly 300 years further into the future - and at least we get back into a more action-oriented mode.

This story is now available as the third part of the omnibus BERSERKER DEATH, which is probably a better way to choose to start reading the Berserker Series.

Why are the Berserkers suddenly NOT killing people? What are they up to? Sure, the book is a tad long, but when you realize Berserkers are fighting each other, you want to know WHY! The answer is worth the wait.