Fred Saberhagen?

[AE35Unit]

I have just one book by this author, [The Veils of Azlaroc], and its a decent read. Ive heard about his Berserker. books but have never come across any yet. Im wondering if they would be my cup of tea, seeing as Im quite fussy about my SF , preferring hard SF and space opera, shying away from anything that reads like fantasy ( Le Guin for example) or anything with Swords in the title ( Saberhagen has a few!)

 

[Parson]

Hard to answer this. I liked his Berserker books. If you had not added space opera to hard SF, I might have been tempted to say they were not your cup of tea. They are probably best called Science Fantasy. They have FTL, and assorted other less than likely aspects of SF. But there is nothing of High Fantasy here. It has as its central story a war, but I don't think it would be a perfect fit the category of military SF like Hammer's Slammers or Honor Harrington. Maybe the closest I could come to it in terms of style (not story) would be Dune or Gateway. That's pretty high praise, but I would put the Berserker stories close to them anyway. Some would put Keith Laumer's "Bolo" stories as similar. But I'm not buying that too much.

Hope this helps.

 

[AE35Unit]

Hard to answer this. I liked his Berserker books. If you had not added space opera to hard SF, I might have been tempted to say they were not your cup of tea. They are probably best called Science Fantasy. They have FTL, and assorted other less than likely aspects of SF. But there is nothing of High Fantasy here. It has as its central story a war, but I don't think it would be a perfect fit the category of military SF like Hammer's Slammers or Honor Harrington. Maybe the closest I could come to it in terms of style (not story) would be Dune or Gateway. That's pretty high praise, but I would put the Berserker stories close to them anyway. Some would put Keith Laumer's "Bolo" stories as similar. But I'm not buying that too much.

Hope this helps.

Ah I didnt enjoy Dune at all! The film yes, but the book was too long winded and fantasy-like

 

[Timba]

You can get 3 berserker books here under 1 title for a mere $6.00, can't hardly go wrong. http://www.baenebooks.com/p-28-berserker-death.aspx

 

[J-Sun]

I don't know about qualitatively or in detail but my impression is that the Bolo comparison might be reasonable in the sense of being about autonomous gizmos with something of a milsf flavor - I have it in the TBR because it seems like it might suit me and I wouldn't be surprised if it had a good chance of suiting you.

 

[J-Sun]

You can get 3 berserker books here under 1 title for a mere $6.00, can't hardly go wrong. http://www.baenebooks.com/p-28-berserker-death.aspx

Well, you might go wrong in that I think those are later. While some series stay consistent or even improve, many become, er, mechanical and less good. Those are apparently 6, 9, and 12 in the series so they aren't even consecutive. I've got Berserker, itself, which is a collection of stories which, even so, may not be all the first ones, but it's at least most of them and was the first book, anyway. It's not so much the cost as the idea that maybe #1 is great but #6/9/12 aren't and turn you off before you ever get to the beginning. But you never know - maybe they're great.

-- Actually I take part of that back. #6 is actually a resort of half of Berserker and half of other stories so maybe that would partly be pretty good vintage stuff. The other two are novels from the 80s and 90s, though.

 

[Parson]

Ah I didnt enjoy Dune at all! The film yes, but the book was too long winded and fantasy-like

I loved the book and hated the movie. It did not suit my vision of what went on in the book at all. But one thing that you wouldn't call the original series (I had no idea there were that many!!!) would be long winded. A lot of the stories were short stories.

 

[AE35Unit]

I loved the book and hated the movie. It did not suit my vision of what went on in the book at all. But one thing that you wouldn't call the original series (I had no idea there were that many!!!) would be long winded. A lot of the stories were short stories.

What you mean original serie? The first Dune book was huge, a veritable doorstop! Could get a decent book out of it if edited!

 

[J-Sun]

I think he meant the original Berserker series wasn't long-winded.

I have to go with Parson on the Dune issue, too. I generally hate long SF books and Dune was huge for the time but, these days, my copy at 489 pages of actual story with fairly small type is a mere 5 decihamiltons and is pretty short these days. And I didn't like the movie either - too many details and not a clean enough telling of the essential story and, like I think Parson was saying, the look'n'feel was all wrong compared to what I "saw" in the book.

 

[Parson]

J-Sun I'm going to let you speak for me from now on. You seem to understand exactly what I mean. I was indeed speaking of the Beserker series about not being long-winded and it was the feel of the movie Dune that did not suit me.

 

[Timba]

J-Sun I'm going to let you speak for me from now on. You seem to understand exactly what I mean. I was indeed speaking of the Beserker series about not being long-winded and it was the feel of the movie Dune that did not suit me.

Don't worry Parson, I understood you also but then living in a state next door to you I learned to speak Iowa long ago

 

[J-Sun]

J-Sun I'm going to let you speak for me from now on. You seem to understand exactly what I mean.

Glad we were on the same page. You don't need anyone to speak for you as far as I (and Timba) are concerned.

 

[patricoz23]

The Veils of Azlaroc is very interesting book. I am reading it now. You should satisfacted of ths book

 

[Parson]

An interesting book with an interesting premise. But I would still take Gateway over it 3 times over.

 

[AE35Unit]

The Veils of Azlaroc is very interesting book. I am reading it now. You should satisfacted of ths book

Yes I have read it twice!

 

[BAYLOR]

The Berserker Saga
Empire of the East Trilogy
The Holmes Dracula File

 

[AE35Unit]

Currently reading Veils again

 

[BAYLOR]

Currently reading Veils again

Excellent book.

 

[BAYLOR]

Empire of the East Trilogy . A post apocalyptic fantasy Trilogy . In accent time world war 3 rose out and the United States launch a defensive weapon which when activated became self aware and caused the laws of physics to be replaced by magic. The end result decimated world civilization and reduced the world an almost medieval level of spcotyr one in which impossible magical things walk the earth.

He did write a 4 book which ive never read.

 

[Anthoney]

Empire of the East Trilogy . A post apocalyptic fantasy Trilogy

I really enjoyed these as well. Years later when I was read The Books of Swords and I came across Draffut the beast lord I realized that the Swords books (and then Lost Swords Books) were all a continuation of his Empire books.