From Publishers Weekly
In this plodding entry in veteran Saberhagen's Berserker series (Berserker's Planet, etc.), Harry Silver, whose main claims to fame are his oversized weaponry and his love of poetry, has a cargo of parts to sell. Unfortunately, the planet he has just landed on, Hong's World, is being evacuated because its sun is going nova. To make some money, Harry agrees to take two businessmen/smugglers and the sweet if somewhat dimwitted Lily Gunnlod (who's seeking her errant husband) on a trip to the planet Maracanda. That world, the novel's real star, is an "azlaroc-type habitable body" where, due to its proximity to a neutron star and a black hole, the normal laws of the universe don't hold. When Harry's ship is confiscated on arrival, an old associate, Kul Bulaboldo, promises Harry that, in exchange for a little unspecified help, Kul will get Harry's ship back. As they travel across the planet's surface, Harry, Kul and Lily contend with such phenomena as rocks that perambulate, extreme gravities and narcotic soil, when not running afoul of the agents of the Berserker machines, AIs that want to exterminate all living creatures, starting with humanity. Readers will enjoy Harry's acts of derring-do, but the lengthy descriptions of Maracanda's bizarre properties grow tiresome. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Space adventurer Harry Silver returns in this latest entry in Saberhagen's immensely, deservedly popular Berserker saga. A woman charters Silver's ship Witch of Endor to rescue her husband from a cult on the planet Macaranda. After foiling two attempts to kidnap him, Silver starts to suspect everything and everybody around him, including Bulaboldo, an old friend with large ambitions and few scruples. For instance, Bulaboldo depends on Macaranda's peculiar physics, gravity, and breakdown zones (areas in which modern technology won't work) for the success of his drug-exporting ring. But besides providing Bulaboldo cover, those conditions may become the means by which so-called "goodlife" humans (i.e., Berserker sympathizers) can get a sufficient supply of antimatter to induce a catastrophic nova in the neutron star in the system that includes Macaranda. The good guys win in the end, but only after much suspense and action that grabs and holds even with Saberhagen's understated prose as their vehicle. Moreover, dark notes and surprises spice the moment of victory. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Saberhagen has given science fiction one of its most powerful images of future war in his Berserker Series."--Publishers Weekly

"The Berserkers, in their single-minded pursuit of their preprogrammed course of destruction, attain a kind of perverse stature that makes them worthy stand-ins for the dark side of human nature."--The New York Times

"The Berserker stories are war stories, but war stories in the tradition of The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front."--The Baltimore Evening Sun

"These homicidal robots manage to make Aliens look like wimps."--Science Fiction Age



Review
Praise for Fred Saberhagen's bestselling Berserker® Series

"Saberhagen has given science fiction one of its most powerful images of future war in his Berserker Series."-Publishers Weekly

"The Berserkers, in their single-minded pursuit of their preprogrammed course of destruction, attain a kind of perverse stature that makes them worthy stand-ins for the dark side of human nature."-The New York Times

"The Berserker stories are war stories, but war stories in the tradition of The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front."-The Baltimore Evening Sun

"These homicidal robots manage to make Aliens look like wimps."-Science Fiction Age



Book Description
Fred Saberhagen continues his Berserker Series®, a chronicle of a war between humanity and the terrifying race of sentient machines bent on death and destruction. Pilot Harry Silver's name is know throughout the galaxy. While he has defeated his share of Berserkers, he has also stolen a powerful weapon from the Space Force, making him a fugitive from the life he once knew. Looking for an adventure Harry agrees to bring a passenger aboard his ship: Lily, a woman who is on a quest to retrieve her husband.

It won't be easy, as Lily's husband has joined a secretive religious cult on Maracanda, an almost-planet lodged between a shifting black hole and a neutron star. While the landscape of Maracanda is treacherous, so too, may be the people around Harry Silver. For as the search for Lily's husband deepens, Harry finds himself investigating a larger mystery and looking for missing persons, almost ending up one himself.

And, as always, there is the threat of death from above, in the path of a machine whose only intent is to kill.



From the Back Cover
"The Berserkers, in their single-minded pursuit of their preprogrammed course of destruction, attain a kind of perverse stature that makes them worthy stand-ins for the dark side of human nature."--The New York Times

Fred Saberhagen continues his Berserker Series®, a chronicle of a war between humanity and the terrifying race of sentient machines bent on death and destruction. Pilot Harry Silver's name is know throughout the galaxy. While he has defeated his share of Berserkers, he has also stolen a powerful weapon from the Space Force, making him a fugitive from the life he once knew. Looking for an adventure Harry agrees to bring a passenger aboard his ship: Lily, a woman who is on a quest to retrieve her husband.

It won't be easy, as Lily's husband has joined a secretive religious cult on Maracanda, an almost-planet lodged between a shifting black hole and a neutron star. While the landscape of Maracanda is treacherous, so too, may be the people around Harry Silver. For as the search for Lily's husband deepens, Harry finds himself investigating a larger mystery and looking for missing persons, almost ending up one himself.

And, as always, there is the threat of death from above, in the path of a machine whose only intent is to kill.

"The Berserker stories are war stories, but war stories in the tradition of The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front." --The Baltimore Evening Sun

"These homicidal robots manage to make Aliens look like wimps." --Science Fiction Age



About the Author
In addition to the popular Dracula Series, Fred Saberhagen is the author of the popular Berserker (tm) Series and the bestselling Lost Swords and Book of Lost Swords. Fred Saberhagen lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Pilot Harry Silver's name is known throughout the galaxy - and that notoriety does not always work in his favor. While he has defeated his share of Berserkers, he has also stolen a powerful weapon from the Space Force, making him a fugitive from the life he once knew. Looking for an adventure, and not one to turn down a lot of cash, Harry agrees to bring a passenger aboard his ship, Lily, a woman who is on a quest to retrieve her husband." "It won't be easy, as Lily's husband has joined a secretive religious cult on Maracanda, an almost-planet lodged between a shifting black hole and a neutron star. While the landscape of Maracanda is treacherous, so, too, may be the people around Harry Silver." As the search for Lily's husband deepens, Harry finds himself investigating a larger mystery and looking for missing persons, almost ending up one himself. And as always, there is the threat of death from above, in the path of a machine whose only intent is to kill.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this plodding entry in veteran Saberhagen's Berserker series (Berserker's Planet, etc.), Harry Silver, whose main claims to fame are his oversized weaponry and his love of poetry, has a cargo of parts to sell. Unfortunately, the planet he has just landed on, Hong's World, is being evacuated because its sun is going nova. To make some money, Harry agrees to take two businessmen/smugglers and the sweet if somewhat dimwitted Lily Gunnlod (who's seeking her errant husband) on a trip to the planet Maracanda. That world, the novel's real star, is an "azlaroc-type habitable body" where, due to its proximity to a neutron star and a black hole, the normal laws of the universe don't hold. When Harry's ship is confiscated on arrival, an old associate, Kul Bulaboldo, promises Harry that, in exchange for a little unspecified help, Kul will get Harry's ship back. As they travel across the planet's surface, Harry, Kul and Lily contend with such phenomena as rocks that perambulate, extreme gravities and narcotic soil, when not running afoul of the agents of the Berserker machines, AIs that want to exterminate all living creatures, starting with humanity. Readers will enjoy Harry's acts of derring-do, but the lengthy descriptions of Maracanda's bizarre properties grow tiresome. (June 2) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Wanted in parts of the galaxy for his theft of a powerful space cannon, pilot Harry Silver accepts a business proposition from a mysterious woman who claims she wants to rescue her husband from cultists on Maracanda, a pseudo-planet wedged between a black hole and a neutron star. En route, Silver discovers that his passenger's agenda is not quite what it seems and, after making planetfall, he finds that Maracanda holds secrets and terrors beyond his worst fears. The prolific Saberhagen adds another fast-paced, sf action adventure to his substantial "Berserker" series. Witty dialog, clever plot twists, and a likeably roguish protagonist make this a good selection for most sf collections, particularly where the Berserker novels have a following. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews