Fred Thomas Saberhagen (May 18, 1930 – June 29, 2007) was an American Science Fiction and Fantasy writer. His works include the Berserker series, in which the galaxy is threatened by near-unstoppable self-replicating war machines; the fantasy Ardneh series (including the Empire of the East trilogy and the Books of Swords); and a series of vampire novels beginning with The Dracula Tape, in which the world's most infamous vampire sets the record straight about the events of Dracula.
Works by Fred Saberhagen with their own trope pages include:
- Berserker
- Book of Swords
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (He wrote the novelization)
- The Dracula Tape
- Empire of the East
Other works by Fred Saberhagen include examples of:
- The All-Concealing "I": Early chapters of The Holmes-Dracula File obscure the identity of the central character, calling him 'the old man' instead. Not until the fifth chapter does the novel switch from third to first person, revealing that 'the old man' is not only a vampire, Dracula himself, but the narrator as well.
- Fight Dracula: Sherlock Holmes takes on Dracula in The Holmes-Dracula File. Although this turns out to be thanks to mistaken identity, and they team up against the real villain in the end.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: After the Fact has the main character taught to use his natural talent for this in a plan to secretly rescue Abraham Lincoln from his assassination. It comes in handy that, any time things go wrong, he can reset to a few minutes back and try again.
- Magical Homeless Person: In Dominion, the wino known as Feathers has been a skid row bum for over a millennium, due to a curse placed on him by a certain Nimue. In the present-day part of the book, the curse is wearing off, just as Nimue's plot is about to come to fruition.
- Mythology Gag: In Octagon, a stand-alone novel about a play-by-post strategy game, the company that runs the game is called Berserkers Incorporated.
- Novelization: Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, by Fred Saberhagen.
- Population Control: A 20 Minutes into the Future book where stripperific clothing and casual sex are societal norms but couples are limited to two offspring, with severe penalties for violations.
- Public Domain Character: Very many in the vampire series, including the obvious (Dracula), and the not-so-obvious (Sherlock Holmes). In fact his Dracula and Holmes series crossed over, twice, with alternating narrators in the respective styles.
- Recursive Adaptation: His novelization of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula, a literary adaptation of a film adaptation of a novel.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: The Holmes-Dracula File features the famous rodent Noodle Incident of the Sherlock Holmes series, the Giant Rat of Sumatra.
- Sex Is Evil: Love Conquers All suggests that true love sublimates sexual desire through nonsexual romance and nudity, with a helping of religion. It's hard to tell whether this is an actual message or simply part of the reversal of sexual mores.
