Fred Saberhagen
(1930 – 2007)
Fred Thomas Saberhagen was a SF and fantasy author most famous for his "Berserker" series of science fiction stories. He also wrote a series of vampire novels in which the vampires are the protagonists, and a series of post-apocalyptic mytho-magical novels beginning with his popular Empire of the East and continuing through a long series of "Swords" and "Lost Swords" novels.
He was born in Chicago, and served in the U. S. Air Force during the Korean War. Back in civilian life, he worked as an electronics technician for Motorola from 1958 to 1962.
It was while he was working for Motorola that he started writing fiction seriously. His first sale was to Galaxy, which published his short story "Volume Paa-Pyx" (February, 1961). His first Berserker story, "Fortress Ship," was published in 1963. His first novel, The Golden People, appeared in 1964. He received a nomination for the 1967 Best Short Story Hugo.
He married fellow writer Joan Spicci in 1968. They had two sons and a daughter. On June 29, 2007, Saberhagen died of cancer in Albuquerque.
The Berserker stories of more than 20 books tell about an ongoing war between humanity and the Berserkers, self-replicating war machines with the objective of destroying all life. After destroying both their creators and the opposing side in a long-ago galactic war, the Berserkers have continued to wipe out all forms of life that they encounter in the Milky Way, which leads to the cooperation of most of the sentient races in attempts to defeat them.
Saberhagen sometimes collaborated with fellow SF author Roger Zelazny: Coils (1982) and The Black Throne (1990).
The Book of Saberhagen was published in 1975. A memorial volume, Golden Reflections (2011), consisted of stories set in the world of Saberhagen's novel The Mask of the Sun, originally published in 1979.
Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1982 -- Lunacon 25, AggieCon XIII, CopperCon 2
- 1985 -- Bubonicon 17
- 1991 -- AggieCon XXII
- 1993 -- Transcendental ConFusion, Philcon 1993, Keycon 10
- 1996 -- CONduit 6
- 1997 -- LibertyCon 11
- 1998 -- TusCon 25
- 2000 -- MisCon 14, MidSouthCon 18
- 2001 -- World Fantasy Convention 2001
- 2003 -- Loscon 30
- 2004 -- MileHiCon 36
- 2005 -- CascadiaCon
| Person | 1930—2007 |
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