Before George Lucas' Death Star and before Star Trek's Doomsday Machine came the Berserkers, intelligent, space-faring killing machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all life. The Berserkers have developed a new trick: Berserker units that can pass for human-created androids. They're gambling on the advantage this gives them and massing for an all-out attack on human-held space.
But the humans have developed a trick of their own. They've cracked the Berserkers' basic codes and know what their battle plans are. Both sides are betting everything they have. For one of them, it will be the beginning of the end.
Fred Thomas Saberhagen (1930–2007), a native of Chicago, served with the US Air Force then worked as an electronics technician and as a science writer and editor for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He began writing science fiction for Galaxy in 1961. His first novel, The Golden People, was published in 1964. He is most renowned for the Berserker series of stories and novels.
Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. His book, The Overstory, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.