SABERHAGEN, Fred (Thomas)

(1930-)

   US writer and editor, in the latter capacity with the Encyclopedia Britannica 1967-73, for which he wrote the original entry on sf. He began publishing sf with "Volume PAA-PYX" for Gal in 1961, and was active from that date, soon releasing the first of his many novels, The Golden People (1964 dos; exp 1984), a SPACE OPERA involving PSI POWERS. Asan sf author, he became known - and remains most famous - for the Berserker series of stories and novels: Berserker (coll of linked stories1967); Brother Assassin (1969; vt Brother Berserker 1969 UK); Berserker's Planet (1975); Berserker Man (1979); The Ultimate Enemy (coll 1979; vt Berserkers: The Ultimate Enemy 1988); The Berserker Wars (coll 1981), which repeats some stories from the 1967 collection; Berserker Base * (anth 1985), a SHARED-WORLD anthology; The Berserker Throne (1985);Berserker: Blue Death (1985),Berserker Lies (coll 1991) and Berserker Kill (1993). Berserkers are interstellar killing machines, programmed to eliminate all forms of life; the sequence was devoted to increasingly sophisticated examinations of the Man- MACHINE conflict so often addressed by sf writers since the first days of space opera, but in FS's deft modernization of the hoary but useful ALIEN-monster theme the unrelenting Berserkers seem almost tangibly chill with the unlivingness of theUniverse. They soon became a significant icon of GENRE SF; for instance, the machines that attack Earth in Greg BEAR's The Forge of God (1987) are clearly descended from FS's marauders.A 2nd series, the Empire of the East sequence - The Broken Lands (1968), The Black Mountains (1971) and Changeling Earth (1973; vt Ardneh's World 1988), all 3 assembled, muchrev, as Empire of the East (omni 1979) - somewhat less interestingly exploited another sf/fantasy model: the post- HOLOCAUST world in which TECHNOLOGY is banned, MAGIC is reintroduced as a learnable technique (SWORD AND SORCERY), and a vision of science is slowly renascent. The later Book of Swords sequence, set in the same Universe and using some of the same characters, similarly hovers between its sf backdrop and a fantasy foreground: The First Book of Swords (1983), The Second Book of Swords (1983) and The Third Book of Swords (1984), all assembled as The CompleteBook of Swords (omni 1985). Its direct sequel, the Book of Lost Swords sequence, comprises The First Book of Lost Swords: Woundhealer's Story (1986), The Second Book of Lost Swords: Sightblinder's Story (1987) andThe Third Book of Lost Swords: Stonecutter's Story (1988) - all 3 assembled as The Lost Swords: The First Triad (omni 1988) - and The Fourth Book of Lost Swords: Farslayer's Story (1989), The Fifth Book of LostSwords: Coinspinner's Story (1989) and The Sixth Book of Lost Swords: Mindsword's Story (1990) - all 3 assembled as The Lost Swords: The Second Triad (omni 1991); and The Seventh Book of Lost Swords: Wayfinder's Story (1992) and The Last Book of Swords: Shieldbreaker's Story (1994), both assembled as The Lost Swords: Endgame (omni 1994); all of this being followed by a SHARED-WORLD anthology, An Armory of Swords *(anth 1995).FS's 3rd series of (some) sf interest, the Dracula sequence - TheDracula Tape (1975), The Holmes-Dracula File (1978), An Old Friend of the Family (1979), Thorn (1980), Dominion (1982) and A Matter of Taste (1990), A Question of Time (1992) and the RECURSIVE Seance for a Vampire (1994), which introduces Sherlock Holmes - begins as a rewrite of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) from the viewpoint of the maligned count, who generallyabjures human blood and represents a strain of good vampires (or nosferatus) whose origins are rationalized in sf terms. In the first volume, which is constructed as an extended refutation of Bram Stoker's 1897 portrait of Count Dracula, the eponymous immortal demonstrates hisvirtue, and tells us that vampires feed on solar energy, avoiding the sun to avoid overload; in later volumes in the series, set in the present day, he becomes a kind of SUPERHERO, increasingly well armed with powers and devices. A kind of pendant to the sequence is Bram Stoker's Dracula * (1992) with James V. Hart, a film tie. A 4th series, the Pilgrim books -Pyramids (1987) and After the Fact (1988) - features the adventures of an immortal time traveller who visits first ancient Egypt and then Lincoln's USA to interfere with - or preserve - the appropriate time tracks (ALTERNATE WORLDS).Although most of FS's energies were devoted to the composition of series, some singletons are of interest, including: the complexly moody The Veils of Azlaroc (1978); Octagon (1981), one of the first of his books in which VIRTUAL-REALITY themes begin to dominate, in this case a computer-run war game; A Century of Progress (1983), a TIME-TRAVEL tale whose complexities are, as usual in FS's work, controlledby a clear-headed style and a sure way with sf devices; The Frankenstein Papers (1986), a tale with RECURSIVE elements which repeats in shortcompass the same redemptive strategy earlier applied to Dracula, in this case presenting the MONSTER as a genuine alien; The White Bull (1976 Fantastic; exp 1988), in which Daedalus consorts with yet another alien,the minotaur, who is on a miscegenation mission; and The Black Throne (1990), with Roger ZELAZNY, a fantasy involving Edgar Allan POE. Game-liketextures have increasingly dominated FS's work, as has a growing tendency - reminiscent of Philip Jose FARMER's Wold Newton Family books - torewrite figures of popular mythology into heroes whose rationalized backgrounds have a certain family resemblance; the result is a sense that, perhaps rather glibly, his entire oeuvre is becoming something of a super-series game. At the heart of FS's enterprises, however, lies a professionalism and an intelligence which have produced book after book that satisfies the anticipations it arouses.

   JC

   Other works: The Water of Thought (1965 dos; exp 1981); The Book of Saberhagen (coll 1975); Specimens (1976); The Mask of the Sun (1979); Love Conquers All (1974-5 Gal; 1979; rev 1985); Coils (1980) with Zelazny; Earth Descended (coll 1981), containing a Berserker tale; Saberhagen: My Best (coll 1987).

   As Editor: A Spadeful of Spacetime (anth 1981); Pawn to Infinity (anth 1982) with Joan Saberhagen; Machines that Kill (anth 1984) with Martin H. GREENBERG.

   About the author: Fred Saberhagen, Berserker Man: A WorkingBibliography (1991 chap) by Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.

   See also: AUTOMATION; CYBERNETICS; GAMES AND SPORTS; GOTHIC SF; VIRTUAL REALITY; WAR.