Five hundred years have passed since the combined fleets of humanity met and broke the berserker armada at Stone Place. Though the human victory was total, one of the killer machines—weaponless, its star drive a ruin—managed to limp to secret sanctuary on a planet called Hunter’s World. Over the years since then a new cult has arisen there, a cult dedicated to Death as the only and ultimate Good. For Hunter’s World has become Berserker’s Planet. The great Game of elimination is on.

Presents a series of short science-fiction stories that tells of encounters between humans and the intelligent, self-aware death machines known as the Berserkers.

Independent pilot and sometime berserker hunter Harry Silver is being hounded by the Space Force on suspicion of possession of an illegal, high-powered weapon. To avoid confiscation of his beloved ship the Witch, Harry agrees to a quick evacuation of a trio of refugees from the doomed Hong’s World. Destination – Maracanda, an azlaroc-type body, a curious non-planet where geography seems more like geometry and the soil itself can be a drug. Maracanda’s geography has the attention of berserkers, rogue killer machines programmed to destroy all life, especially human life. With help from ‘goodlife’, the berserkers could turn the strange combination of neutron star, black hole and Maracanda’s extra-ordinary geography into massive galactic destruction. Harry teams with a woman disenchanted with her fanatical husband and an accidentally helpful smuggler acquaintance in an attempt to save the galaxy. A grand military space story with engaging characters and a strikingly original and imaginative setting.

A Nebula Award-winning Author Five hundred years have passed since humanity vanquished the Berserker armada. Yet in that struggle a lone Berserker survived. Now single human sacrifices will no longer satisfy this Berserker-god. It is time to offer up the whole human race.

With the support of the peace loving Carmpan Race, earth descended humanity continues to lead the struggle in the ongoing thousand-year war against the Berserkers, an unliving, self-replicating enemy programmed to destroy all life. Almost all the information earth descended humanity have ever had directly from the Carmpan on any subject—Berserkers, the Builders, the Carmpan themselves, the Elder Races, almost everything—a very great proportion of this information has come to our Solarian worlds through long-distance communications signed by one individual, known only as Third Historian. Here are eleven of THs translated communications along with an explanation of their discovery by Archivist Ingli: Stone Place, The Face Of The Deep, What T and I did?, Mr. Jester, The Winged Helmet, Starsong, Some Events at the Templar Radiant, Wings out of Shadow, The Smile, The Adventure of the Metal Murderer, and Patron of the Arts

Best-selling author Fred Saberhagen created three popular series: his Berserker stories and novels telling of the endless war of humans and their alien allies against the Berserkers, gigantic robot battleships programmed by an unknown extinct race to destroy all life in the galaxy; his high fantasy Lost Swords series; and his Dracula series, the first novels to tell a story from the vampire's point of view. In a book that will be irresistible for the thousands of Saberhagen fans, all three series are represented here, as well as gems from his other series, including his first-published story and his last-written story, marking the endpoints of a remarkable writer's remarkable career that spanned more than four decades. As Joan Spicci Saberhagen writes in her foreword, "Even Fred's most ardent fans will have a fresh look at his talents. Whatever the setting, Fred's stories provide fast moving action and a thought provoking theme." At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).