From Library Journal
This seventh title in the Berserker series (Beserker Kill, LJ 9/15/93) finds the intelligent, deadly Berserker machines infiltrating human colonies to destroy them. The humans have cracked the Berserkers' codes and plan a battle defense. Although it helps to be familiar with the series, this novel can stand alone. Full of action and intrigue, Saberhagen's fast-paced military sf adventure is recommended for most collections or where the series is popular.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Saberhagen's murderous, robotic Berserkers return for another shot at the human Solarians. Spacer Nifty Gift (a human) deserts comrades on a recon mission; one of the deserted, Spacer Traskeluk, pursues vengeance; and the Berserkers mount an attack on the human outpost known as Fifty-Fifty--a fleet action in which the odds are heavily against the Solarians. Photojournalist Jory Yokusaka interviews Gift, covers the battle, and with Traskeluk defeats a Berserker disguised as a human android. Saberhagen's prose is plain, and the universe he gives us a bit unadorned and, by contemporary standards, too human-dominated. Moreover, the Battle of Fifty-Fifty is the Battle of Midway so meticulously transferred to interstellar space that one wonders whether Saberhagen's tongue isn't somewhere in cheek. Still, the action is nonstop. The Berserker Saga continues to draw and deserve readers, but it hasn't worn as well as it might have. Saberhagen's best stuff now is his Dracula novels and freestanding fantasies like
Dancing Bears.
Roland Green
