Saberhagen was born in and grew up in the area of Chicago, Illinois. Saberhagen served as an enlisted man in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War while he was in his early twenties. Back in civilian life, Saberhagen worked as an electronics technician for the Motorola Corporation from 1958 to 1962, when he was around 30 years old.

It was while he was working for Motorola that Saberhagen started writing fiction seriously at the age of about 30. His first sale was to Galaxy Magazine, which published his short story "Volume PAA-PYX" in 1961. "Fortress Ship", his first "Berserker" short shory, was published in 1963. Then, in 1964, Saberhagen saw the publication of his first novel, The Golden People.

From 1967 to 1973, he worked as an editor for the Encyclopedia Britannica, writing its article on science fiction. He then quit and took up writing full time. In 1975, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He married fellow writer Joan Spicci in 1968. They had two sons and a daughter. On June 29, 2007, Saberhagen died of prostate cancer in Albuquerque.

Dracula sequence

Saberhagen's Dracula novels are based on the premise that vampires are morally equal to normal humans: they have the power to do good or evil, it is their choice. The first in the series, The Dracula Tape, is the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula told from Dracula's point of view. (Saberhagen depicts Dracula as the historical figure Vlad ?epe?, who as woiwode of Wallachia was known as Drakulya, who in Saberhagen's stories became a vampire by simply refusing to die, "by a transcendent act of will" as the character describes it in the book.) As the continuation of the series makes obvious, in this version, Dracula survives the best efforts of Harker, Van Helsing and company, who are portrayed largely as bungling fools, Van Helsing in particular as a fraud and heretic, and Dracula while alive as a violent and mean-tempered but nonetheless Orthodox Christian who fought the encroach of the Ottoman Turkish Empire into Europe. ("There is not an ounce of soil here which has not been enriched by the blood of patriots.") In later novels, Dracula interacts with other literary characters including Sherlock Holmes and Merlin. This series was often listed in Ace promotional materials as "The New Dracula". His success with this series was such that he was hired to write the novelization of the movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula.

1. The Dracula Tape (1975)

2. The Holmes-Dracula File (1978) (allegedly not Saberhagen's choice of title, as it gives away what was intended to be a surprise plot point)

3. An Old Friend of the Family (1979)

4. Thorn (1980)

5. Dominion (1982)

• "From the Tree of Time" (1982) (short story)

6. A Matter of Taste (1990)

7. A Question of Time (1992)

8. Seance for a Vampire (1994)

9. A Sharpness on the Neck (1996)

• Vlad Tapes (2000) (omnibus of 2 previous books)

• "Box Number Fifty" (2001) (short story)

10. A Coldness in the Blood (2002)

Ardneh sequence

Empire of the East series

1. The Broken Lands (1968)
2. The Black Mountains (1971)
3. Changeling Earth (1973) also as Ardneh's World
4. Ardneh's Sword (May 2006)

Volumes 1-3 were also published in a heavily-revised omnibus form as Empire of the East in 1979, 1990, and 2005.

Books of Swords

1. The First Book of Swords (1983)
2. The Second Book of Swords (1983)
3. The Third Book of Swords (1984)

Books of Lost Swords

1. Woundhealer's Story (1986)
2. Sightblinder's Story (1987)
3. Stonecutter's Story (1988)
4. Farslayer's Story (1989)
5. Coinspinner's Story (1989)
6. Mindsword's Story (1990)
7. Wayfinder's Story (1992)
8. Shieldbreaker's Story (1994) (actually subtitled The Last Book of Swords)

Short story anthologies

1. An Armory of Swords (1995) (original anthology edited by Saberhagen)
1. Blind Man's Blade by Fred Saberhagen
2. Woundhealer by Walter Jon Williams
3. Fealty by Gene Bostwick
4. Dragon Debt by Robert E. Vardeman
5. The Sword of Aren-Nath by Thomas Saberhagen
6. Glad Yule by Pati Nagle
7. Luck of the Draw by Michael A. Stackpole
8. Stealth and the Lady by Sage Walker

Berserker series

The Berserker stories tell about an ongoing war between humanity and the Berserkers. Saberhagen's Berserkers are self-replicating war machines programmed with one main objective: Destroy all life. After destroying both their creators and the opposing side in a long-ago galactic war, the self-replicating Berserkers have continued to wipe out all forms of life that they encounter in the Milky Way, which leads to the cooperation and coordination of most of the sentient races in major attempts to defeat them. Humankind, although relatively new to the galactic scene, is a major player because of its aggressive nature. The series spans a large range of both time and space, and so has less plot continuity than Saberhagen's other series.

1. Berserker (1967) (short fiction collection)

2. Brother Assassin (1969) a.k.a. Brother Berserker;( available online) as a Baen Free Sample from the Berserker Man omnibus

3. Berserker's Planet (magazine serialization 1974; 1975)

4. Berserker Man (1979)

5. The Ultimate Enemy (1979) (short fiction collection) a.k.a. Berserkers: The Ultimate Enemy

• The Berserker Wars (1981) (short fiction collection; only 2 original/uncollected stories);

( available online) as a Baen Free Sample from Berserker Death omnibus

6. Berserker Base (1985) Anthology with several guest authors, Saberhagen wrote the overarching story in segments between the others.

7. The Berserker Throne (1985); ( available online) from the Baen Free Library

8. Berserker: Blue Death (1985)

• The Berserker Attack (1987) (short fiction collection; no original/uncollected stories)
• Berserker Lies (1991) (short fiction collection; one original story)

9. Berserker Kill (1993)

10. Berserker Fury (1997)

11. Shiva in Steel (1998)

• Berserkers: The Beginning (1998) (omnibus of 2 previous collections)

12. Berserker's Star (2003)

13. Berserker Prime (2003)

• Berserker Man: Mega Book (2004) (omnibus of 4 previous books)

• Berserker Death: Mega Book (2005) (omnibus of 3 previous books)

14. Rogue Berserker (2005)

Books of the Gods

1. The Face of Apollo (1998)
2. Ariadne's Web (1999)
3. The Arms of Hercules (2000)
4. God of the Golden Fleece (2001)
5. Gods of Fire and Thunder (2002)

Boris Brazil series

• "Planeteer" (1961)
• The Golden People (1964, heavily revised 1984)
• The Water of Thought (1965, heavily revised 1981)

Pilgrim, the Flying Dutchman of Time series

1. Pyramids (1987)
2. After the Fact (1988)
3. Pilgrim (1997) (omnibus of both novels)

Non-series novels

• The Veils of Azlaroc (1978)
• Love Conquers All (magazine serialization 1974-1975; 1979)
• The Mask of the Sun (1981)
• The Golden People
• Coils (with Roger Zelazny) (1981)
• Specimens (1981)
• Octagon (1981)
• A Century of Progress (1983)
• The Frankenstein Papers (1986)
• The White Bull (1988) front cover incorrectly suggests that this is third Pilgrim novel
• The Black Throne (with Roger Zelazny) (1990)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (with James V. Hart) (1992) Novelization of the Francis Ford Coppola film.
• Dancing Bears (1995)
• Merlin's Bones (1995)
• The Arrival (Earth Final Conflict) (1999)

Non-series collections

• The Book of Saberhagen (1975)
• Earth Descended (1981)
• Saberhagen: My Best (1987)

Non-series anthologies

• A Spadeful of Spacetime (1981) (reprint anthology)
• Pawn to Infinity (1982) (reprint anthology, with Joan Saberhagen)
• Machines That Kill (1984) (reprint anthology, with Martin H. Greenberg)