The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars

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.

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!

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 gro

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.

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.