There’s the core of a good tale in this 1970s pulpy SF outing, but boy it didn’t age well. The idea of a gladiatorial combat contest that’s intertwined with a global conspiracy has promise, but non of the on-page actors really develop as individual characters until the last quarter of the book; and the depiction of the few women in the story is horrific in both terms of their fate and the overt sexism in the way they are described. ( )

Definitely a nice, quick read.

Synopsis: Poaching party from earth goes to a remote planet renowned for its hunting season. While they're there, a tournament to the death is begun to identify the most skilled warrior on the planet. The hunting party gets captured by the cult sponsoring the tournament and pandemonium ensues.

I enjoyed the swapping of perspectives between the tournament crew and the hunting party. I also liked the fact that we never knew who the tournament winner would be, partially thanks to the switching between tournament participants.

The violence was certainly present, but it wasn't detailed out in a particularly visceral fashion. The ritual sacrifice late in the book was the most graphically depicted, but the description was given from the perspective of the berzerker - so technically correct and certainly sufficient to provide the appropriate mental imagery, but nothing approaching a squeam-inducing gory description that some folks get into.

In all, I enjoyed it and found it to be a nice way to ease back into reading after spending far too long spending all my free time playing WoW... ( )

Not quite the typical Berserker novel, this one is more of a fantasy story about a planet wide combat tournament. For some reason, this is one of my favorite berserker stories. It is short, to the point and well done. It is a little dated, but not bad. Interweaving the tournament and the backstory is well done. ( )

This book was a good Berserker novel. Nothing stellar, but interesting enough to keep me going and not get tired of it. The planet most of the novel takes place on was different, too. Makes you wonder if there really are places like that out there somewhere. ( )

F/SF