Writer Fred Saberhagen: biography, family, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Fred Thomas Saberhagen (May 18, 1930 – June 29, 2007) was an American science fiction writer best known for his science fiction stories, particularly the Berserker series.

Saberhagen has also written several vampire novels in which they (including the famous Dracula) are the main characters. He also penned a number of post-apocalyptic mytho-magical novels, from his popular "Empire of the East" to the "Swords" series.

Creative path

Fred Saberhagen was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He served in the US Air Force during the Korean War when he was in his early twenties. Returning to civilian life, Saberhagen worked as an electronics technician for Motorola Corporation from 1958 to 1962, when he was about 30 years old.

Just at the timewhen he was at Motorola, Fred began to write fiction in earnest. His first publication was in Galaxy magazine, in which he published his short story "PAA-PYX Volume" in 1961. The Fortress, his first short novel in the Berserker series, was published in 1963. Then, in 1964, Saberhagen published his first novel, The Golden Men.

From 1967 to 1973 he worked as a chemistry editor for the Encyclopædia Britannica and also wrote science fiction articles. Then Fred devoted himself completely to creative activity. In 1975 he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Family and Religion

In 1968 he married the writer Joan Spicci. They had two sons and a daughter. On June 29, 2007, Fred Saberhagen died of prostate cancer in Albuquerque.

In his adult years, he was a practicing Catholic. Signs of his faith appear from time to time in his books quite obviously to the wary and sympathetic reader.

Dracula series

Fred Saberhagen's books about this character are based on the premise that vampires are the moral equals of normal humans: they have the power to do good or evil, it's their choice.

The first book in the series, The Dracula Tape, is the story of Bram Stoker told from the point of view of a vampire. Saberhagen portrays Dracula as a historical figure - Vlad the Impaler, governor of Wallachia. In the stories, he became a vampire after being killed. The character said that by "a transcendent act of will" he refused to die. But in fact, it is obvious that even he is not sure howreally became like that. Most of the people on the show are reborn when they drink vampire blood.

In this version, Van Helsing (a swindler and heretic) and company are portrayed as mostly incompetent.

Dracula was cruel and short-tempered, but nevertheless bound by his own word of honor and devoted to his loved ones. He fought in his mortal life against the Ottoman Turkish invasion of Europe (“There is not a drop of land here that has not been enriched by the blood of patriots.”) In later novels, Dracula interacts with literary characters, including Sherlock Holmes. The series was often referred to in promotional material as "The New Dracula". Fred's success with the series of novels about the character was such that he was hired to write the screenplay for Bram Stoker's film of the same name in 1992.

Books:

1. "Dracula Tape" (1975)
2. "The Holmes-Dracula File" (1978). Presumably this title was not chosen by Saberhagen as the meeting of the characters was supposed to be a surprise plot.
3. "Old Family Friend" (1979).
4. "Torn" (1980).
5. "Dominion" (June 1982).
6. "From the Tree of Time" (1986).
7. "A Matter of Taste" (1990).
8. "A Matter of Time" (1992).
9. "A Seance for a Vampire" (1994), reissued as The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: A Seance for a Vampire (2010).
10. "Sharpness onneck" (1996).
11. "Box Fifty" (story).
12. "Dracula in London" (2001).
13. "Cold in the Blood" (2002).

Berserker Series

These stories are about the ongoing war between humanity and the war machines. Fred Saberhagen's berserkers are self-replicating, programmed robots with one goal: to destroy all life. After the disappearance of both their creators and the opposing sides in a long-standing galactic war, they continued to destroy all life forms they encountered in the Milky Way, leading to the cooperation and coordination of most sentient races in an attempt to defeat them.

Series:

1. "Berserker" (1967).
2. "Brother Assassin" (1969).
3. "Planet of the Berserker" (1974).
4. "Berserker Man" (1979).
5. "Ultimate Enemy" (1979).

Humanity, although relatively new to the galactic scene, is a major player due to its aggressive nature. The series spans a wide range of time and space and therefore has less story continuity than other editions of Saberhagen.