The uniting of two novels: Berserkers and The Ultimate Enemy produced this very slow read. The format of a series of short stories, with some crossing over was very confusing but probably necessary to keep up with the time scope given in the book. The stories revolve around humanities attempts (often successfully) to defeat a series of machines built and programmed by a long since extinct alien race to destroy their enemies in a long forgotten war - the Berserkers of the title. However, they programmed them too well and they set about destroying all live in the universe. Once again a book pitches human ingenuity in a struggle to the death with a great evil. Two of my favourites from this series are when a man dying of cancer 'tricks' the Berserker into building a deadly virus versus his cancer rather than against the human race - it was particularly cleverly written. The other was when a human tricks a 'good-life' human - those who serve the machines - into using the created personality downloads of WWI fighter aces in the automated fighters of the carrier and destroying a Berserker fleet - another clever idea.
Campaign notes:
A mechanical /AI enemy and its relentless pursuit would be a terrifying nemesis but may have limited scope. Some little story-lets here might be used as scenarios.
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