Rating: 
Summary: No fury here
Review: As a fan of Fred Saberhagen's works (namely the Book of Swords series), I found this book to be plodding, boring, uninspired, and a completely dull read. I was expecting a fast-paced book with lots of action, interesting characters, strong storyline, etc. I found none of these. I did not care about the characters, the action was uninteresting, the battle scenes had no emotion, and the story (which could have been great) went nowhere. All in all, disappointing from start to finish.
Rating: 
Summary: Battle of Midway in Space
Review: BErserker Fury was a space version of the Battle of Midway, but the real battle was less confusing. Time seems to have no meaning, as your point of view changes in both time and space, like a bad Doctor Who movie. Sometimes I don't know what character I am reading about. I happen to be a great fan and even sent him e-mail once, but this book could of been A LOT better if somebody else had gone over it with a magic marker and helped him cut out parts that were not needed.
Rating:
Summary: Battle of Midway in Space
Review: BErserker Fury was a space version of the Battle of Midway, but the real battle was less confusing. Time seems to have no meaning, as your point of view changes in both time and space, like a bad Doctor Who movie. Sometimes I don't know what character I am reading about. I happen to be a great fan and even sent him e-mail once, but this book could of been A LOT better if somebody else had gone over it with a magic marker and helped him cut out parts that were not needed.
Rating:
Summary: unbelievably turgid, slow, and weak.
Review: Fred Saberhagen holds the distinction of being both the best and the worst author I have ever read. He's either great or terrible on any given piece - with nothing in between. When Saberhagen writes a good story, it's very tight, adventurous, and thought provoking. Good examples are his Berserker short stories, A Century of Progress, and The Dracula Tape. When Saberhagen writes a dog it's plot is shallow or nonexistant has little action, and gives the impression that he and the characters just don't care what's going on. Examples of his dogs are Merlin's Bones, Dancing Bears, The White Bull, many of the novels in his Swords series, A Question of Time, and (of course) Berserker Fury.Saberhagen hasn't written anything realy good since about the mid-80's, and most of his REALLY good work was done in the 60's and 70's. Fred Saberhagen desperately needs an agent and a publisher who will tell him when he's churning out worthless drivel, and then will ride him like a drill sergeant until he starts turning out the gems he's capable of.
Rating:
Summary: Forget Berserker Fury - read the Berserker short stories
Review: Fred Saberhagen holds the distinction of being both the best and the worst author I have ever read. He's either great or terrible on any given piece - with nothing in between. When Saberhagen writes a good story, it's very tight, adventurous, and thought provoking. Good examples are his Berserker short stories, A Century of Progress, and The Dracula Tape. When Saberhagen writes a dog it's plot is shallow or nonexistant has little action, and gives the impression that he and the characters just don't care what's going on. Examples of his dogs are Merlin's Bones, Dancing Bears, The White Bull, many of the novels in his Swords series, A Question of Time, and (of course) Berserker Fury. Saberhagen hasn't written anything realy good since about the mid-80's, and most of his REALLY good work was done in the 60's and 70's. Fred Saberhagen desperately needs an agent and a publisher who will tell him when he's churning out worthless drivel, and then will ride him like a drill sergeant until he starts turning out the gems he's capable of.
Rating: 
Summary: I enjoyed this immensely! Thank you Fred!!!
Review: I devoured this book, and wanted more. His berserkers are relentless. I am looking forward to the next book, Shiva in Steel, which ( I heard from Fred) is due out maybe next fall. Perhaps, one day, we'll learn a little more of the history behind the menace and its journy across the galaxy. Once again, thanks Fred, and keep them coming!!!!
---Vern Townsen
Rating:
Summary: ...could have been so good....
Review: I don't mind the "Battle of Midway" angle. I do think it could have been concealed a little better, but maybe the author wanted us all to see it. I actually got some entertainment out of seeing how he would work in certain historical events. The side-story about our opening-scene protagonist was so-so. I could take it or leave it. Mr. Saberhagen's done better, and I've read worse. Here's my main beef. This book reads like he wrote 10 pages at a time, and then just randomly shuffled the sections together. We haven't even fought the battle yet when we read about the analysts' thoughts on the outcome. Kinda makes it hard to even pretend you don't know what's going to happen at that point. That's just one example. We constantly read about characters referring to things that they won't find out about for another 20 pages. And other nonsense along those lines. It made for very infuriating reading. Mr. Saberhagen needed someone to read through his computer print-out and move a couple pages around.
Rating:
Summary: ...could have been so good....
Review: I don't mind the "Battle of Midway" angle. I do think it could have been concealed a little better, but maybe the author wanted us all to see it. I actually got some entertainment out of seeing how he would work in certain historical events. The side-story about our opening-scene protagonist was so-so. I could take it or leave it. Mr. Saberhagen's done better, and I've read worse. Here's my main beef. This book reads like he wrote 10 pages at a time, and then just randomly shuffled the sections together. We haven't even fought the battle yet when we read about the analysts' thoughts on the outcome. Kinda makes it hard to even pretend you don't know what's going to happen at that point. That's just one example. We constantly read about characters referring to things that they won't find out about for another 20 pages. And other nonsense along those lines. It made for very infuriating reading. Mr. Saberhagen needed someone to read through his computer print-out and move a couple pages around.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable and boring!
Review: I found that paralleling the battle sequence in the book with that of the WWII campaign at Midway made a large part of the story totally predictable and uninteresting. Even though Saberhagen made the excuse of showing how history can repeat itself, he made the battle too similar to Midway, including names, numbers and events. By the end of chapter 5, the parallel was obvious. After that, little remained in doubt as to the outcome of the story. The sub-plot comprising the stories of Nifty Gift and Jory Yokosuka just didn't have enough in it to carry the book on it's own. The only question that the book left me with was "Did Saberhagen use Ernest Hemingway as his model for Jay Nash?"
Rating:
Summary: Sorry I bought this.
Review: I have hear good things about the berserker series and was hoping that the reviews were wrong. How *wrong* I was. This book is terrible. It is written in a detached, all-knowing, third-person perspective, with almost no character development. In fact you don't find out much of anything about the characters till the last 1/4 of the book. Nothing is ever explained, it reads like a bad enclyopedia. This book not even worth the shipping I paid for it.
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