Shiva In Steel (Berserker) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Five thousand light-years from old Earth, on an airless planetoid code-named Hyperborea, inside the small Space Force base that was really a sealed fortress, unexpected..." (more)
Key Phrases: berserker hardware, berserker landers, combat chair, Commander Normandy, Harry Silver, Space Force (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is another installment in Fred Saberhagen's ongoing saga of war between humanity and the almost-sentient death machines known as Berserkers. For long years the war has been at a stalemate, with humanity managing to fend off the bulk of Berserker attacks and even strike back from time to time. But on a remote planet called Hyperborea, things are about to change. The Berserkers have developed a new tactical computer that has proven unbeatable, and it could spell the death of all living things in the galaxy. A last-ditch effort to destroy the machine, code-named Shiva, has failed, and now the only thing that stands between Shiva and certain victory is a handful of humans that circumstance has thrown together on Hyperborea. In this Berserker book, Saberhagen returns to all of the things that have made his series such a mainstay in science fiction. His heartless enemy machines are as treacherous as ever, and the fragile humans who most stop them may not be perfect, but they are resourceful. --Craig E. Engler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Super saber-rattler Saberhagen strikes again, with the eighth installment of his popular Berserker series (Berserker Fury, etc.). Solarian humanity is fighting galaxywide for survival against ultimate-weapon machines able to redesign themselves and bent on exterminating all forms of life. With Shiva, a newly developed artificially intelligenced Berserker, heading her way, Commander Claire Normandy musters her slim force of converted courier ships piloted by a motley assortment of pickup crews in order to defend her top-secret code-breaking installation on the planetoid Hyperborea. While Normandy fights off the invading swarm of Berserkers, space-weary combat pilot-turned-smuggler Harry Silver and his lost-found-lost-again love Becky Sharp lead Saberhagen's crisply drawn characters through complicated maneuvers involving an autodog Sniffer, military monomaniac Major Marut, self-anointed Galactic Emperor Julius and an escaped homicidal lunatic. Saberhagen's taut tough-guy dialogue counterpoints the satisfying punch of man-vs.-machine combat, and his settings?especially aboard ship and in the lofty tech areas of Hyperborea?are convincing. When the moondust and starship debris settle, Commander Normandy's good guys have won some breathing room, but odds are Shiva's out there lurking for episode #9?and so is the durable Harry Silver.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812571126
• ISBN-13: 978-0812571127
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,280,246 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm fond of Saberhagen, but what a mess!, November 30, 1999

By	Peter Basch "pbasch" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shiva in Steel (Berserker Series/Fred Saberhagen) (Hardcover)

The editor needs a good talking to. While this book has a number of suspenseful moments, and I don't feel completely cheated, I think Fred needed to do another draft of his outline. Tension is built up on elements that prove to be completely irrelevant, like the mysterious box of contraband. Turns out, it's just a device to get the main character into the book. The McGuffin of the title, Shiva, inexplicably fizzles toward the end, and a whole new Big Ending Battle ensues that is totally unrelated to Shiva's fate. Hints are raised (Berserker's being "lucky" for the sociopath) that end up nowhere. I love the Berserkers, but this one was a disappointing mess. I wish other writers would write Berserker books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A half-finished novel . . . ., March 15, 2005

By	Patrick J. Callahan (La Crosse, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In the last couple of months I reviewed two other Saberhagen novels on Amazon: Berserker Star and Rogue Berserker. Both showed more craftsmanship than Shiva in Steel.

The other reviews printed here carry the main idea. The book seems carelessly or hastily done.

For example-- the first two-thirds of the book are focused toward preparing and arming a sortie against the berserkers. The ships are prepared, the crews are trained, the strategy is planned. Then we find out, there's going to be no expedition. A kind of ad hoc battle flares up as the berserkers somehow locate the Solarian base. A reader has the feeling that Saberhagen started out to write a big novel, say 500 pages, and then for whatever reason needed to bring it to a very rapid close.

As for the characters . . . again, a work half finished. Harry's great love, Becky, shows up in the novel. Given the build-up to her appearance, we are expecting some engagement between Harry and the girl. However, she is little more than a cardboard cutout. There's no characterization, really, and the total exchange between Harry and Becky amounts to just a few paragraphs.

Several times, Harry begins to develop sub-plots. Marut is a commander with whom Harry has lots of conflict. He's a pretty central figure in the first half of the book. Then he just disappears. We finally get a sentence or two at the very end informing us that his ship was lost in the battle. Other characters are brought on stage, given some scenes, and assume some reality in the story, to include the Emperor Julius and Christopher Havot. Both of them peter out. It is as though Saberhagen decided to write them into the story, then loses track of them.

I formerly had given Saberhagen's Rogue Berserker a very strong rating. I thought it was really well done. This novel is really a patched-together mess. I wonder if the publishers were pressuring him and he was over-deadline. He had a rough draft . . . well, "it would just have to do!"

Not for me it didn't. Didn't do, I mean. And one of the other reviewer's comments, that we never find out what happens to the title villain Shiva . . . that's ridiculous. You have a title villain, and you somehow lose track of him?

This is a problem with today's equivalent of the pulp market. Novels are pumped out fast, sometimes one or more a year. Publishers keep badgering their few authors who have something of a name for more and more productivity. If the book is ready it comes out. If it is half-finished and desperately needs work, it comes out anyway. At least some of this criticism should go to the editor at the publishing house.

Saberhagen has other much better novels in print. Buy those.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rather Disappointing, January 13, 2001

By	Jeff Askew (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shiva in Steel (Berserker Series/Fred Saberhagen) (Hardcover)

First, let me say that in general I like the way Fred Saberhagen writes, and his stories and plots are exceptional. I got hooked on the berserker series after reading "Berserker Base", and went to my local half price bookstore and bought every book in the series I could find. This book, Shiva in Steel, has proved to be the worst. The hype over the big bad Shiva is never resolved! Did it die? Is it hiding in our hero's ship as he makes his get away? We never know. Mr. Saberhagen repeats himself a lot, and his prose isn't very smooth in this novel for some odd reason. He's done fine in the past, but this one was sloppy. New editor? No editor? The plot wasn't bad, but the execution was poor. This should have been a draft rather than the final product. If this is your first Berserker book, don't give up on the series. This was the worst of the bunch; the others are pretty good.