Showing results by author "Fred Saberhagen" in All Categories

It drove men mad...but each in a different way. In one the effect was total, utter addiction. In another, a compulsion to absolute obedience. In a third, idealistic monomania. In a fourth, unending, all-consuming lust. Of all the enigmas surrounding the planet Kappa, none was more inscrutable than that mysterious liquid central to all the native rites.There was, in fact, only one certainty about it: Now that it threatened to contaminate the worlds of Earth, its source would have to be destroyed.

In a world where zero population growth is strictly enforced and sexual permissiveness is the chief means of control, a young woman's decision to bear her third child makes her the target of concerted oppression.

In a sector of the Galaxy occupied by Earth-descended people, one Berserker computer has suddenly and mysteriously developed a tactical strategy unlike anything the human opposition has seen before. Shiva, like the Hindu god of destruction after which it was named, annihilates entire colonies with the help of its fiendish subordinates. Commander Claire Normandy struggles to prepare for Shiva's attacks, while Pilot Harry Silver realizes that he must deal with his own demons in order to help her.

Long, long ago, two alien races fought a war of extinction. All that is left of either of them are the berserkers: vast, thinking, spacefaring, killer machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all living things. For the first time in all of their history, they have met a life-form that has a chance of stopping them. In the cold reaches of space, the berserkers seize a floating laboratory full of human germ-plasm being stored for retrieval and growth in a future colonization project. The ship contains millions of human lives - but why are they not destroying them?

Harry Silver has already had a lifetime of trouble from ordinary Berserkers, the automated killing machines programmed an age ago to denude the galaxy of life. And now one of these machines has gone rogue - and kidnapped his own family. What worse devilry will a deviant killing machine attempt? How will he stop it? And even if he can, will he ever see his family alive again?

Emiliano Nowell was a world-class genetic engineer. He was also a wealthy and idealistic man with the time and money necessary to follow his dreams. In secret laboratories far from Earth he used his powers to create 100 genetically perfect children...an enlightened cadre Nowell hoped would lead humanity out of that maze of war, famine, torture, and death called history. But the Golden People proved to be more intelligent than even he believed possible.

The immortal Count Dracula - Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia - hunts the murderous art thieves who have stolen the portrait of his lost love. But the thieves are after more than art. From the Master Vampire they would steal the very secrets of life - and death!

Journey with Drakulya into the Grand Canyon where the Earth reveals her story layer by layer, where she hides her secrets in the Great Unconformity, and where eons of time are carved and scrambled in stone. In the unworldly world of Deep Canyon, Drakulya confronts a rogue nosferatu sculptor who would capture in stone the awesome power of time, life energy, and primal consciousness. A nosferatu who would capture in time, anyone to serve his purpose, even a young runaway searching for her father and her remembered childhood home.

Our wars were behind us. Mankind was moving out from the planet of its birth. New worlds were settled, and with the wealth of the galaxy at hand, poverty was eliminated. Then, out of a clear summer sky, came the first berserker attack. This collection of short stories continues the ongoing saga of the berserker wars with “The Machinery of Lies”, “Masque of the Red Shift”, “In the Temple of Mars”, “Brother Berserker”, and “Smasher.”

A classic time-travel story. The settlers and tourists on Azlaroc are trapped in an ageless void during Veilfall, when shimmering rays of pure energy fall on the planet and create a time pocket from which there is no escape.

When two ancient, ruthless beings, locked in a struggle for the ultimate magic weapon, bring their blood feud to New York, Vlad Tepes races to hide the coveted weapon.

He was once called Dracula, but in Chicago in our day he is known as Matthew Maule. John Southerland, like the rest of the Southerland family, calls him Uncle Matthew. After all he's an Old Friend of the Family and he has risked his un-life more than once to protect the Southerlands. But with Matthew rendered comatose by a fiendish plot from beyond time, the Southerlands must rise to his defense - and battle 500 years’ worth of Dracula's enemies.

First, strange odors . . . and nightmares that stretch across Time. Images of a hideous machine dragging Indians, colonials, slaves to an ancient mound . . . then a hellish light pulses from a hidden room . . . and suddenly Dan Post is trapped, his mind sane, but his body possessed by a galactic probe programmed to collect - Specimens. Human specimens. Now, with no hands, no voice, locked in the ultimate prison, Dan must battle an immortal alien machine, even as it forces him to kidnap its final victims....

For centuries two meg-powers from the future have been waging war for control of timelines of history. Alan Norlund, a WWII airman vet, is promised a lifesaving cure for his granddaughter, if he will undertake a mission 50 years back in time to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Hitler with his "angels" from the opposing power would like to take over our timeline and 1933 Chicago may be just the place to start.

Lightening and thunder flashed over Bavaria as, in his private laboratory, Victor Frankenstein struggled to bring to life a creature constructed from pieces of the dead - only to find himself confronted by an inhuman monster beyond his control. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as countless horror movies, has made the legend of Frankenstein and his monster famous throughout the world. But what really happened on that dark and stormy night - and in the terrible months that followed? Now, in his own words, the monster reveals the true story of his strange existence.

In the reign of Minos, King of the Cretans, the gods gave proof of their existence: a bull-headed man accompanied by his bronzen servitor strode forth from Neptune's realm. At last the gods had removed the veils that separated them from their worshippers...or had they? Strangely enough, the Minotaur forswears all claim to divinity - and his metallic servant cannot speak at all. Instead, he comes to the Greeks bearing gifts of alien knowledge. But Daedelus at least will have cause to beware the teachings of...The White Bull.

Prince Murat of Culm possesses Coinspinner, the Sword of Chance which brings untold good fortune to its owner. Can Coinspinner aid Murat in his efforts to acquire Woundhealer, the Sword of healing Murat’s ruler desperately needs? Or through lack of wit and Coinspinner’s propensity to whimsically change owners will Murat find himself caught up in different quest? Prince Adrian, away at a school for magic, is assigned a test of his abilities. More challenges than a school trial await him.

Long, long ago, the Gods forged Twelve Swords of Power, each with a unique and deadly quality. They forged too well, for the swords could kill the Gods themselves. Then the swords were lost, scattered across the land; and many are they, both good and evil, who are desperate to find them again. This story is of Farslayer, the sword that can kill from across an entire world. The game is fierce; the prize is the sword.

Tom Scheffler knew that this great-uncle, Montgomery Chapel, had made his fortune by selling ancient Egyptian artifacts that were finer than those in any museum. Scheffler also knew that -- fifty years later -- Chapel was still afraid of some man, some entity, known only as Pilgrim.

The never-before-told story behind the legend of Count Dracula! The story of the Count’s greatest love, Mina Harker, and the bloodthirsty vampire hunters whose cruel pursuit drove the master of the night to actions ever more ruthless. The Count Dracula sets the record straight.…