Anthology: Berserker (2013) Review

 

Berserker is very silly. Which is a good thing, because otherwise it would be very boring. 

WRITTEN BY

RA Henderson. I can find next to no info about him online, so I can only presume he's a fanfiction writer. This certainly feels that way. 

PLOT

The Liberator investigates Station Amber, a pet project of Servalan's that was recently abandoned under mysterious circumstances. Within it, they stumble upon the most perfect killing robot ever devised... and it chooses them as its next target. 

ANALYSIS

The strength of the story is definitely in the action sequences, which seem to be inspired by Iron Man. They're ridiculous and over the top, but in just the right kind of campy way. I had a good giggle imagining Travis flying around with a jetpack to escape a killer robot like some madcap sci-fi Roadrunner. The scenes of him, Blake and Vila facing off with it at a Federation university were also entertaining from just how absurd it all was. Conceptually, the eponymous berserker is a pretty terrifying threat and if it had pursued the heroes, this might have been a really good horror story. There's hints of that here, with Blake and Vila being convinced they might genuinely be killed, but the fact that it goes after Travis instead pushed this more into comedy territory.

Where things get bogged down is in the extended scenes of Blake, Vila and Gan exploring Station Amber. Well, I say 'exploring'. It feels like half of the entire novella is spent just crossing from Liberator over to Amber. This section was so poorly described and padded that it began to resemble some kind of bizarro version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I found it difficult to get a grasp on where the characters were and what they were doing. The descriptions in general are too elaborate and sometimes conflicting with what was established a mere paragraph before. 

CHARACTERS

They're all fairly well handled, apart from Ban Kerralin. He's the inventor of the eponymous berserker, and so damn irritating that even Vila had to shake his head. No actor could've saved that dialogue. 

I thought it was neat to see Servalan's dressmaker, and the process of her clothes being made. They probably could've done more with that subplot than they did, but it was good insight into how her mind works and how she relates to different Federation subjects around her. The dressmaker himself was also a refreshing change from the usual worn-down citizens that we see. It's rare to see someone in the 'upper class' with relative power (people like Morag and Ven Glynd) as opposed to the mindless mules. And to Henderson's credit, I didn't predict the plot twist about the dressmaker's assistant at all. It made for an exciting climax if nothing else. 

NOTES

• We learn that Servalan doesn't like germs, which I think fits nicely with the Federation's austerity. 
• I did not expect a joke about fellatio in Blake's 7. It was very funny though.
• Gan collects the heads of the powerlines twice for Blake. Which is very nice of him, but probably just the writer forgetting about it. 
• The final paragraph of chapter five is incredibly reminiscent of Paul Darrow's writing in Lucifer. I can't help wondering if it was some kind of tribute, or just a coincidence. 
• Why would Avon assume that the people arriving at Station Amber are Travis and mutoids? Just because Travis is assigned to hunt them doesn't mean he's the only officer in the galaxy. 
• It's not impossible, but it's a bit odd that Zen is immediately able to detect Travis's approach when a big fuss was made about the detectors being affected by radiation. 
• Blake being too ADD to relax for even a minute while Vila works was hilarious. 
• I was half-expecting the story to end when Avon warned Blake about the robot ahead of time. It would've been hilarious if he managed to leave there and then. 
• How can Blake and Vila climb an elevator cable without any difficulty? Blake is heavy and Vila is Vila. 

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

• The novella is set at some point between Seek-Locate-Destroy and Deliverance. Travis recalls Servalan giving him the assignment to eliminate Blake.
• Reference is made to the Federation abolishing religion, which was depicted originally in Pressure Point. 
• Vila spacewalks for the first time, which seems to create a continuity error with Warship, where he's clearly never done it before. 
• Blake mentions that nobody uses micro holograph projectors anymore, which is both nicely subtle worldbuilding and nicely subtle Star Wars bashing. 

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

BLAKE: "It seems to be my day for mistakes."
AVON: "It's a shame none of them have been small ones."

CONCLUSION

I've already forgotten it. I'm just glad this review is done.