Buy The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars (Asteroid) by Ben Bova available and for sale on Brightsurf

The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars (Asteroid)

by Ben Bova

List Price:

$7.99

Available:

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Sales Rank:

97438

Studio:

Tor Science Fiction

Binding:

Mass Market Paperback

Number Of Pages:

400

Publication Date:

April 01, 2008

Publisher:

Tor Science Fiction

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description

In the wake of the Asteroid Wars that tore across the solar system, Victor Zacharius makes his living running the ore-carrier Syracuse. With his wife and two children he plies the Asteroid Belt, hauling whatever cargo can be found. When the Syracuse stumbles into the middle of a military attack on the habitat Chrysalis, Victor flees in a control pod to draw the attacker’s attention away from his family. Now, as his wife and children plunge into the far deeps of space, Victor has been rescued by the seductive Cheena Madagascar. He must do her bidding if he’s to have a prayer of ever seeing his family again.

Elverda Apacheta is the solar system’s greatest sculptor. The cyborg Dorn was formerly Dorik Harbin, the ruthless military commander responsible for the attack on Chrysalis. Their lives and destinies have been linked by their joint discovery of the alien artifact that had, earlier, profoundly affected industrialist Martin Humphries. Similarly transformed by the artifact’s mysterious powers, Apacheta and Dorn now prowl the Belt, determined to find the bodies of the many victims of Harbin’s atrocities so that they can be given proper burials.

Kao Yuan is the captain of Viking, owned by Martin Humphries, who’s determined to kill Dorn and Elverda because they know too much about the artifact and its power over him. But Viking's second-in-command, Tamara Vishinsky, appears to have the real power on board ship. When Viking catches up to Apacheta and Dorn, their confrontation begins a series of events involving them, the Zacharius family, and Martin Humphries and his son in the transformation of the human solar system…

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 7 reviews)

Ben Bova at his Best

I've been reading Bova for 30 years (wow). He has his fans for his ability to mix action, characters and politics. Sometimes it comes off as cheeky space opera with cardboard villains and heroes, but sometimes the mix is balanced just right and makes for a fun summertime read. This is story of man in search of his family after being attacked by a villain who then has life changing event. Both of these characters offer depths that Bova can lack while not lacking the normal quality of Bova book: page turning action. While this is last of this series Bova adds enough background to read as a stand alone book, and for anybody who has liked a Bova book or two in the past or wants to check him out for the first time I highly recommend this one. Very well could be his best book since Orion.
May 30, 2008

My favorite Ben Bova book yet

Admittedly I have only read a handful of his books so far (Jupiter and the Asteriod Wars) and listened to Titan on CD, but this was my favorite yet. Precipice was a little slow for me and then the 2nd and 3rd book got going. I was sad when I finished them. Ben Bova's books feel so real. Even the science fiction element seems extremely plausible. What's even more interesting is that there is no guarantee which character will survive to appear in the next one. None of the characters from Precipice appeared in this book (I think) and several protagonists have died or fallen out of the storyline along the way. The only one that has been a major faction throughout is the bad guy, Martin Humphries!

I can't wait for his new Mars book!

- Todd
May 23, 2008

End?

The previous entry commented that this was the end of this series. Does this person really think that? Can it not continue? This whole series was outstanding. From Precipice, Rock Rats, Silent War, and now Aftermath, why can't it continue, this work is outstanding!
May 20, 2008

The Asteroid Wars Come to an End

Ben Bova has written a thrilling conclusion to his Asteroid Wars Series.

Dorik Harbin, a mercenary hired by Martin Humphries to kill Lars Fuchs, has just destroyed the Chrysallis habitat orbiting Ceres. Over 1100 rock rats were killed in Harbin's merciless attack. After the attack, Harbin noticed that another ship, the Syracuse, had witnessed everything. Syracuse is inhabited by Victor Zacharias, his wife Pauline, and two children, Theo and Angela. Victor makes his living hauling ore from the belt back to Ceres. Still in a killing rage, Harbin accuses Victor and his family of hiding Lars Fuchs. Despite their pleas to the contrary, Harbin is convinced and attacks Syracuse. Realizing what is happening, Victor escapes from the ship in the escape pod, trying to draw Harbin away from Syracuse, but leaving his family to fend for themselves. Fortunately, they survive, but at what cost? The ship is badly damaged and Victor has left. Now, Theo, Angela, and Pauline must fend for themselves.

After drifting through space for several months, Victor is rescued by a very seductive woman named Cheena Madagascar. Victor is taken back to Ceres aboard Cheena's ship, where he gets a job working on building the new habitat, but he longs to find his family. Soon, he comes up with a plan.

In the intervening time, Harbin and sculptress Elverda Apacheta have jointly discovered an artifact with mythical powers to change and transform people. Harbin, who tried unsuccessfully to kill himself, has now become a half-human, half-machine cyborg. When he sees the artifact, he is transformed from the murderer he once was into a sympathetic priest. He calls himself Dorn, and has vowed to find every body floating in the solar system left for dead after battles and give them proper burials. Elverda has decided to accompany him.

However, Martin Humphries wants to make sure no one finds out about how his encounter with the artifact affected him, so he's sent out Kao Yuan, another mercinary, to find and eliminate Dorn and Elverda. Also aboard Kao's ship is Tamara Vishinsky and in the end, it is her that seems to wield the real power.

Back aboard Syracuse, after many long months alone, it appears Theo has devised a plan to get him and his family back to Ceres before their supplies run out. But, they are visited by Valker and his crew. They are scavengers who overtake supposedly deserted ships and sell them for profit at Ceres. Unfortunately for Pauline and Angie, it appears that Valker and his men have more on their mind than salvage. Will Victor somehow manage to find his family before its too late? What will become of Dorn and Elverda?

I've read each book in the Asteroid Wars series, and I rate this one as the best. The last 75-100 pages fly by as the action is fast-paced and exciting. Bova has done his best work with this book.

I give this book my highest recommendation. The Asteroid Wars series is loaded with action and characters that the reader grows to like (or hate). Read this exciting book and series and experience science fiction at its very best.
March 06, 2008

Thoughtful near-future SF--the best in the series

In a vicious attack, mercenary Dorik Harbin destroys a major human habitat, then turns his weapons on an ore hauler, sending its captain in one direction and his family on a long elliptical orbit through space. Captain Victor Zacharias is soon rescued, but his efforts to track his family down are stopped--no one believes they could have survived. Meanwhile, his wife and two children attempt to survive a multiyear journey through the asteroid belt and even into Jupiter's orbit.

An alien artifact wakes mercenary Harbin to what he's done and he attempts a form of restitution, becoming a priest and scouring the asteroid belt for the bodies of mercenaries killed in the war. Accompanying him is sculptor Elverda Apacheta, who's also been transformed by the artifact. Unfortunately for the two of them, space tycoon Martin Humphries has decided that all evidence of the alien artifact, most especially Harbin (who now goes as Dorn) and Elverda must be eliminated. Which brings in mercenary Kao Yuan--in charge of a small fleet tracking Dorn and Elverda. Finally, the end of the asteroid wars has created a business salvaging the many ships destroyed during the conflict. Some of the ships conducting salvage operations aren't too concerned about whether the ships they find really are unoccupied--they're happy to take care of that, by force if necessary.

Author Ben Bova weaves together these plot elements into a story that spans the asteroid belt and multiple years, as well as tying up story lines created in the earlier novels in this series. By picking Theo Zacharias (teenage son of Victor) as one of his protagonists, Bova creates a story line that will remind SF fans of some of the early Heinlein space opera novels, although Bova also links in more adult issues (including rape and murder).

Bova's near-future apocalyptic view of human life on earth serves as a warning to readers who'll heed it, but in this novel, he appropriately relegates social issues to the background. Bova's strong point has never been his characterization, but in THE AFTERMATH, he does develop several interesting characters--characters with a bit of complexity to them. I especially liked Dorn/Harbin.

THE AFTERMATH is the fourth book in THE ASTEROID WARS series but the earlier novels really aren't necessary for an appreciation of this superior work. For me, this is the best book in the series.

March 01, 2008

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