Master storyteller Fred Saberhagen continues his bestselling Berserker series, detailing humanity's war with the dreaded juggernaut-like machines programmed to destroy all life in the galaxy. Seeking the contraband he and his separated partner Becky Sharp have hidden, Harry Silver and his beloved ship the Witch Of Endor become stranded on a mysterious minor planet of a binary star system. The planet's only inhabitants are a military installation, purportedly maintaining a weather station. An old acquaintance, Claire Normandy commands the base. Claire's base is more than a weather station, as the biggest baddest berserker, Shiva, has discovered. Shiva plans destruction of the base and all life on the planet. Harry, Becky, Claire and others on the side of humanity must defeat Shiva, the god of death, or die. Others oddly on the side of life include a mad leader of a religious cult, a psychotic serial killer, and a pig headed military commander bent on a suicidal plan of attack. Another action filled adventure in the on-going struggle against the life destroying berserkers.