One Berserker computer has suddenly developed a tactical strategy unlike anything the human opposition has ever seen. Shiva, like the Hindu god of destruction after which it was named, annihilates entire colonies with the help of its fiendish subordinates. It's up to Commander Claire Normandy to prepare for Shiva's attacks, with the help of Pilot Harry Silver. When the Berserkers approach, a decision is made to destroy the destroyer, whatever the cost. But will Normandy and Silver be ready to discover that something wholly unexpected yet eerily familiar lies gnarled within the steel?
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
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.
Description:
One Berserker computer has suddenly developed a tactical strategy unlike anything the human opposition has ever seen. Shiva, like the Hindu god of destruction after which it was named, annihilates entire colonies with the help of its fiendish subordinates. It's up to Commander Claire Normandy to prepare for Shiva's attacks, with the help of Pilot Harry Silver. When the Berserkers approach, a decision is made to destroy the destroyer, whatever the cost. But will Normandy and Silver be ready to discover that something wholly unexpected yet eerily familiar lies gnarled within the steel?
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
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.