Fred Saberhagen was a noteworthy American author, who was famous for writing fantasy and science fiction novels. He was particularly well known for developing the Berserker series. The other popular novel series of author Fred include Book of Swords and Dracula series. Before turning himself into a writer, author Fred used to work for the United States Air Force. He has served at the time of the Korean War. Fred has even worked for the Motorola company as a technician. Author Fred started his writing career by selling his debut short story in 1961 to the Galaxy Magazine. This short story was called Volume PAA PYX. The first full length book written by him is called The Golden People and was released in 1964. The Ardneh sequence is a connected series comprising of 3 different science fiction/fantasy series written by author Fred. These three book series include Book of Swords, Book of Lost Swords, and the Empire of East series. All the books in these series depict Ardneh as an intelligent supercomputer that used to be a system of nuclear response that brought about the physical changes on the planet. Another successful novel series that author Fred wrote in his career is called Dracula. This series features several fantasy novels that describe the vampires as being neither evil nor good by default, and having the ability of making their own decisions, just like the humans. This series was started in 1975 and finally came to an end in 2002, after the publication of 10 books.
Author Fred was born as Fred Thomas Saberhagen on May 18, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was brought up in the Chicago area. Just when Fred completed his studies, he enlisted himself to serve in the Air Force at the time of Korean War. Fred was in his early 20s at that time. When the war was over, he left the air force and started living a civilian life once again. Later, Fred joined the Motorola Corporation worked on the post of an electronics technician for a period of 4 years between 1958 and 1962. During this time, Fred was aged around 30. It was during this job that author Fred started writing fiction. He got so much involved in it that he started taking it seriously. Eventually, Fred was able to sell his first story to the literary magazine called Galaxy Magazine in 1961. In the Berserker series, Fred wrote the 1st short story as Fortress Ship. This story had come out in 1963. It was only after going through the struggles during the initial stages that author Fred was able to publish his first book in 1964 with the title of ‘The Golden People’. Between 1967 and 1973, Fred worked as the editor for Chemistry articles in Encyclopedia Britannica. He even wrote its science article during this period. Later, he quit from this job and started working as a full time author. In 1975, author Fred shifted to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Author Fred was married to a fellow writer named Joan Spicci. The couple had a daughter and 2 sons. Fred suffered from prostate cancer for some time in the later stages of his life and finally died on June 29, 2007 in Albuquerque. In the adult age, author Fred had started practicing Catholicism. The indications of this faith appear in his writings from time to time.
The Dracula series written by Fred Saberhagen is comprised of a total of 10 books, which were released between the years 1975 and 2002. The books in this series describe the vampires as normal humans. They can be good or bad as per their choice. In the books, Fred has depicted a historical figure named Vlad Tepes as the Dracula. He was a Wallachia voviode, known as Drakulya, and becomes a vampire after getting murdered. All the other vampires get created from humans after they drink another vampire’s blood. An initial book of the series is entitled ‘An Old Friend of the Family’. It was released by the Tor Books in the year 2006. The lead characters of this book include Kate Southerland, Johnny Southerland, and Morgan Le Fay. At the start of the book’s story, it is shown that the Southerland family leaves their old world with the intention of starting a new one in America. However, they did not know that a very old blood feud would come after them through many generations. In the family’s latest generation, Kate Southerland is the first one to be born. She gets murdered, but does not die. Kate has a little brother named Johnny Southerland, who also vanishes and is not found even after multiple attempts to locate him. Only a bloody, severed finger serves as a clue to what might have happened to him. Both the Southerlands don’t have any clue as to what they have fallen into. The enemy is not a mortal being, but the en evil enchantment’s undying mistress named Morgan Le Fay. It appears that her real target is not the Southerland family. In fact, she looks to battle against the protector of Southerlands. The Southerlands’ defender seems to be the only person having the capability of saving the mortal family. A war has been waged on the family and they don’t seem to realize it.
Another exciting book written in the series by author Fred is called ‘A Sharpness on the Neck’. The Tor Books released it in 1998. Fred has set the story in 1792 and has introduced the important characters in this book as Philip Radcliffe, Thomas Paine, June Radcliffe, Mr. Graves, Scarlet Pimpernel, Jerry Cruncher, Detective Dupin, etc. At the beginning of the story, it is depicted that Philip Radcliffe is Benjamin Franklin’s bastard son. He arrives in France for delivering Thomas Paine a letter. A simple job turns into a horrific experience for Philip as he gets caught in a horrifying conflict. He foils a vampires fratricide attempt and in the process dooms himself as well as his descendants in suffering from the eternal vengeance of the vampire. While on a honeymoon trip, June and Phili Radcliffe get kidnapped. The kidnapper, a mysterious man named Mr. Graves, tells them that he is just trying to protect them. The thrilling and suspenseful story goes on to unfold with the depiction of other characters like Marquis de Sade, Napoleon, Detective Dupin, Jerry Cruncher, and Scarlet Pimpernel. The Radcliffes do not believe any of the words stated by Mr. Graves and this puts their lives in a great danger. However, Mr. Graves is still adamant in protecting them even though they do not have trust in him. He knows that he is the only man they will turn to when they will realize the truth about the situation that they are in at the moment. Mr. Graves vows not to let the powerful vampire harm them.
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