The Aftermath [Paperback]

The Aftermath (2007) is the seventh SF novel in the Asteroid Wars series and the fourth in this sequence, following The Silent War. In the previous volume, an alien Artifact was found and worked its changes upon various humans. It brought out the insanity in Martin, but changed Dorn and Elverda in other ways. The Artifact was moved to hide it from the rest of humanity.

In this novel, Victor Zacharias is a former architect from Earth who has become a belter. He and his family operate the ore ship Syracuse, buying ore from rock rats and transporting it to the smelters.

Pauline Osgood was born on Luna. She met Victor in Selene and then married him on Earth. She has borne two children for him.

Angela is the eldest child of Victor and Pauline. Angie is about eighteen and has a boyfriend on Chrysalis, the habitat at Ceres.

Theo is the second child in the Zacharias family. He is almost sixteen and interested in science and technology. Yet he is a terrible klutz.

Dorik Harbin was born in the Balkans and became a soldier in his teen years. He also became a drug addict to escape his dreams of death and destruction. Eventually he attempted suicide and was rebuilt as a cyborg. Since his exposure to the Artifact, he has changed his name to Dorn.

Elverda Apacheta is a sculptress from an Andean background. She is very well known for carving The Rememberer, a two kilometer long asteroid in Earth orbit. After her exposure to the Artifact, Elverda became Dorn's partner.

In this story, Victor is having problems adjusting to the teenage Theo. He forbids Theo from touching any of the ship controls because of his destructive way with machines. Theo believes that his father doesn't trust him at all.

Pauline points out the problem to her husband and Victor lets Theo watch the controls as long as he doesn't touch them. Theo is standing watch one day and notices a confrontation between an attack ship and Chrysalis station. He summons his father and they watch as the attack ship destroys the station.

Victor tries to change course away from the station like the other ships around Ceres, but somehow attracts the attention of the attacker. It fires on the Syracuse and damages the antennas and releases most of the fuel. Victor drops his cargo to shield the Syracuse from the attacker's weapons.

Then the attack ship moves around the released rocks to approach them. Victor jettisons the control pod from the Syracuse and flees to draw the attack ship away from his family. The attacker follows the pod and leaves Pauline and her children stranded in the Syracuse.

The ore ship is moving toward Jupiter without any communications. Theo cuts thrust and determines their orbital parameters. The Syracuse will return to the vicinity of Ceres in slightly more than eight years. The ship only has sufficient fuel to reduce the orbital delay to about four years.

Theo and Angie cease their juvenile bickering and learn to cooperate during their long voyage. Angie even learns to do technical tasks and to backup Theo in his spacewalks. They become a team.

This tale frustrates Victor for years after his rescue from the control pod. It provides Theo and Angie with an opportunity to mature as they try to keep their family alive in the slowly returning Syracuse. It also takes Dorn and Elverda out to reclaim bodies from the Asteroid Wars.

The story portrays the immediate aftermath of the Asteroid Wars. It brings all these characters -- and a few others -- together in a grand conclusion. Read and enjoy!

Recommended for Bova fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of space misadventures, persevering parents, and the maturation of young folks. If anyone has not yet read this tetralogy, the first volume is The Precipice. See my listmania for other books in the Asteroid Wars Series.

-Arthur W. Jordin

After a fairly slowly paced second volume and a more intense third volume, "The Aftermath" leaves many of the characters of the first three volumes in the background. Gone are Pancho Lane, Lars Fuchs and Martin Humphries, except for some incidental mentions. The main focus is on the Zacharias family and Dorn, (formerly known as Dorik Harbin), a cyborg repaired after an attempted suicide and trying to atone for a life of murder and death.

Essentially, the plot follows different threads as they intertwine with each other and come together with the Artefact on the asteroid forming something of a centre point. Victor Zacharias chases his family across the Belt, trying to find them after being attacked by Harbin. George Ambrose still tries to run the habitat near Ceres, though he is not one of the main characters. Valker and his crew are thrown into the mix as something of the bad guys, and there is the HSS flunkies who are hunting down Dorn and his companions to prevent their speaking out about Martin Humphries little episode with the Artefact.

The book moves with a very good pace, and I have to admit that I enjoyed the simple, no nonsense style that Bova writes with. Unlike some authors, he keeps details to a fair minimum to allow for a heightened pace to the story. It serves the book well, though sometimes I was a bit confused on how to imagine certain things working. An example is the wheel shaped ships and how the command pods fit into it.

Overall, I enjoyed the series a lot and it was a good read. I would recommend Ben Bova to anyone who likes the idea of near-future sci-fi, and enjoys a good action filled yarn. I definitely enjoyed this one and it kept me absorbed until the last page.

Bova once again shines with this book. It is a great read and puts into place many pieces of the puzzle created by the various books of the grand tour of the solar system that Bova has been writing in recent years.

Bova's ability to weave together science fact and science fiction comes across strongly as events set in motion play out over a period of years to bring the key characters together in the conclusion of the novel and the series.

I can't add much to the enthusiastic review by Harriet Klausner except to make a correction - Dorn is not a 'ruthless cyborg' but is in fact reformed in mind and (literally) body. He is trying to atone for the grievous sins committed as his former persona of Dorik Harbin and tries desperately to avoid violence.