Saberhagen's Berserkers (was Re: Bogey Classes FB)

In message <v01550100b18d21383cf0@[199.240.131.184]>
	  jfoster@kansas.net (Jim 'Jiji' Foster) wrote:

> At 16:45 5/23/98, Samuel Penn wrote:
> >Personally, I prefer the Planet Killers of Greg Bear to Saberhagen's
> >Berserkers. Better written, and much more advanced, but roughly the
> >same idea.
> 
> Hmm... got a title or two in the series I could look up? I'm afraid
> Bezerkers are the only literary 'flying Ogres' I'm familiar with.

_The Forge of God_ introduces them from the point of view of
humanity in the 1980s. It's not giving too much away to say that
we don't fare too well :)

Basic premise is that their is (or was) a race out there which
got paranoid about other civilisations, so built lots of probes
which were sent out to wipe out any other civilisations they
discovered. One of these probes finds Earth...

The followup is _Anvil of Stars_, which deals with a few humans
who (with a bit of help) go off in search of the Planet Killers
home system.

I've only read one of Saberhagen's stories, but from what I
can gather, the two authors deal with the same idea in different
ways. Bear is more into dropping mini black holes into planets and
using neutronium missiles to set off supernova than he is into big
machine controlled warships.

'A Teardrop Falls' is a short story by Larry Niven btw, set in
Saberhagen's universe (or it might be Berserker's meet Known Space,
I can't recall), which is a good Berserker story.

If what you're after is BIG warships, then try Iain M Banks
_Culture_ series. Specifically _Excession_, which involves
lots of BIG machine controlled warships doing what they do
best.

-- 
Be seeing you,	     http://www.bifrost.demon.co.uk/Gaming/Gaming.html
Sam.		     ----------------------- Roleplaying and Wargaming