Aftermath

The Grand Tour: Asteroid Wars #4

by Ben Bova

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…

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2007

About the author

Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.

In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".

Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).

Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".

http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Centuries into Ben Bova's future, the patriarchy still rules as if it's 1850. Victor Zacharias's wife Pauline "bore him two children." (None for herself?)

Now Theo is 15, Angela 17. When Dad Victor's space pod separates from the mothership, Pauline explains that the kids must stop their adolescent bickering. "Theo's male and he automatically assumes he's got to take charge," explains Mom.

"That's dumb," says Angela.

"Maybe it is, but you and I will have to deal with it," says Pauline submissively.

The top female priority in space is slimness. Angela "was still carrying more weight than she should," scolds Bova, "still wearing an extra layer of teenage fat," causing Theo to call her hippo. As their spaceship hurtles toward the unknown with a limited supply of oxygen and food, Theo thinks of Angela: "Dieting will do her good."

Their future bleak, the family still makes note of the minor vulgarities the kids use, and chide each other for using "can" instead of "may" and not using the subjunctive.

Hurtling toward nowhere in his pod, Victor thinks about his teens. "Angela's ready for marriage. Theo is a man in every way except experience."

Angela freaks out about their eight-year orbit path. She'll be 26 by the time they get anywhere. "All the guys my age will be married." Theo thinks resentfully about how "their parents had always raised Angie to be a little queen...lording it over him while Mom pampered her." Now, facing possible death, Angie keeps the kitchen appliances working while Theo fixes the ship's orbital systems, but feels like she's not doing anything useful. Nonsense, says Mom. "You're helping me work out our diets." Mom is rationing food. But there's an upside to scarcity: "It will do Angie good to slim down. Me too." (However, we've already been told that Pauline is tall and her figure is "slimly elegant.") If survival is uncertain, what is the benefit of being slim, exactly?

Pausing in her important work of managing diets, Pauline examines her face. She has fine lines, and desperately wants a "rejuve" treatment when they get home.

Is slimness a priority for men? No. Victor is "thickset and bullnecked," his "once-trim midsection had spread." Koop, a crew member on an attack ship, is broader in girth, "a fleshy brick," "blocky." All the men have strong jaws.

Jillian, an astronomer back on Earth, is a "small, slim blonde." Edie has "bountiful blonde hair framing her pretty, smiling, cheerleader's face." A medic is "slim, with long legs like a colt." She is a clone (literally) of ship's captain Cheena, who is "almost as slim as the medic, but her tight coveralls showed ample bosom and hips." Tamara is a "lissome young brunette with sloe eyes" and "slim hips" who studied ballet as a child which now makes her talented at "sexual gymnastics." Elverda is a "regally tall, slim woman." In fact, she is "emaciated." She is old. She seems to be the only elderly person in space.

Three years pass; Angela is 20, Theo 18. They're still orbiting in the mothership. "They're not children anymore," Pauline thinks. "Angela's old enought to start a family of her own." Millions of miles away, Dad is having the exact same thought. Angela "should be here at Ceres finding a husband, starting her own family, starting her own life." After three years of orbiting, "they had all lost weight on their enforced diet, but Angie had slimmed down best of all. She looked fine to Theo, a real beauty now."

But danger is on the horizon, and soon space pirates have boarded the mothership with the intention of selling it for scrap, after they've raped Pauline and Angela. "Push the kid out an airlock and screw the two women until our cocks fall off," muses one pirate dreamily.

Theo can't stop looking at his sis. He "was shocked to see how really good-looking his sister was...she had left the top three buttons of her dress open..." He "noticed how well his sister's body filled the gray jumpsuit."

Temptresses are everywhere ! On a different spaceship, a captain named Yuan "could see Tamara leaning forward temptingly. She had undone several buttons of her bodice." But Tamara betrays Yuan, whom she'd been sleeping with. He finds another subordinate, "young and slightly plump, but with silky dark hair and a willing smile." (Plumpness, no matter how slight, requires compensations.)

Mom Pauline has sex with the horny pirate ship's captain, hoping to keep him and his men away from Angela. "To her surprise, Valker was a gentle lover, even thoughtful." Mom realizes guiltily: "I enjoyed it! I enjoyed having sex after all these years." (Victor has been gone for four years by now.)

Pauline believes Valker's men have just killed her son. Even so, she can't get her mind off Valker. "The memory of his naked body pressing against hers sprang into her mind. Don't be an idiot ! she warned herself. He's not in love with you. He's not even infatuated with you."

In separate scenes and on separate ships, Dad and Theo watch porn. Then Theo falls in love with the slim medic, the clone of Cheena, the woman Dad was committing adultery with earlier in the book. Even though Mom and Dad have decided Angela is "old enough to start a family," they chide Theo for not keeping a patriarchal eye on her. "Since when do you encourage your sister to drink wine? In the company of strangers, no less."

Some of Bova's characters speak a slangy patois that grates. "Why'd it hafta go blooey." "The women musta gone." "We can recharge off the ship's current if we hafta." "As a comm officer she hasta make daily reports." Well, maybe, but I don't hafta keep reading.

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of an odd one. It's supposed to be book 4 of the Asteroid Wars sub series, but it's more like a stand alone fill in. The background fit's in with the main story in the series, but it's just an incidental incident with all new characters.

It was okay overall, but some of the answers I was hoping to find here were missing. As I'm reading them in chronological order (according to the author) this is pretty strange. Perhaps my questions will be explained in another book but as it stands it looks like a lot of events have been glossed over and remain unexplained.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a standalone story, The Aftermath would have been pretty good. It's an interesting story from a sci-fi take: a family on a space ship out in the belt, hauling ore. They're attacked. One member escapes back to the belt and the rest are sent out on a long orbit with a broken ship, years before they'll return to civilization.

It's an interesting story, showing just how big space is and how dangerous a frontier it can be in a science fiction story can be in the near future solar system, where they don't have magical engines that can go through the system in days (well, they do, but not on a cargo ship like this). And if you don't have an antenna and can't aim a laser, then you can't very well talk to anyone.

Structurally though, it's weird to be placed as the 4th and final book in the Asteroid Wars, since the War ends with The Silent War. With parallel events in the beginning of The Aftermath and The Silent War, it stands fairly well as a companion piece, but I'm not sure #4 is the best place to read it. Perhaps intermixed with The Silent War? So it goes.

One interesting thing you do so is the continuing story of Dorik Harbin, now a cyborg named Dorn. The first and really only cyborg character (where most others are healed with nano machines instead) is an interesting space to explore, both in how Dorn is growing and changing as he searches for absolution and in how others react to both a mass murderer and a cyborg (and which of the two is worse).

The alien subplot that first bookended The Silent War is explored a bit more in The Aftermath, but no where nearly as much as I was hoping. We could have used more of that.

One major problem I had with several of the characters in The Aftermath was just how badly
Victor Zacharius was treated when looking for his family. I get that he has no money and basically no options--and so far as anyone knows his family couldn't possibly have survived--but they still basically hold him a slave. Especially from Big George, this just seems weird.

So it goes. Certainly among the weakest of the series this far. Skippable, unless you're the completionist sort.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Bova was a long-time science fiction writer and editor, who died of covid in 2020. The Aftermath is the final novel of four, in his Asteroid Wars series, which is in turn a part of Bova’s larger Grand Tour series. The plot is stand-alone, although several of the characters are continued from earlier novels. I have not read any of the other books in these series.

The plot centers on a traditional nuclear family of asteroid miners, who witness the brutal destruction of the Chrysalis habitat at Ceres. Victor Zacharias, the father of the family, jettisons himself in a control pod, attempting to lure the attackers away from his wife Pauline and two teenaged children (Theo and Angela) on board the family ore ship. His family is left on a four-year orbital trajectory that they do not have the fuel to reverse. This family is well established as the primary concern of the reader, even as the narrative transfers to a cast of other characters in several other ships throughout the Asteroid Belt. But eventually, all the players converge in a peril-filled conclusion. All I will say about it is that timing is everything.

In the earlier novels there has been a war between rival corporate powers in the Asteroid Belt, but this story takes place mostly in the solar system afterwards. For me, there was some conceptual background missing. For example, there is some sort of alien artifact that transforms characters that view it, by showing them a destiny in the future, or perhaps just reflecting their desires. I’m just not sure if it was previously explained or is intended to remain mysterious. There is also a principal character, once a very bad guy, supposedly shaped by his experience in some future Balkan War. Unfortunately, Dorik Harbin’s name is not from any Balkan language I know – but rather just a typical made-up science-fiction-type name. I suspect Bova doesn’t actually know anything about the Balkans, but just grabbed onto it as an explanation for Harbin’s inhumanity, because the area was in the news when he wrote these books. At any rate, Harbin has changed into Dorn, now a priest on a mission of atonement.

Threat of rape is quite extensively relied upon by Bova. It is both a threat to the women characters, and also a threat to Victor’s protective instincts as father of the family. Again, perhaps inspired by events of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. I found the plot in the final third of the book quite gripping, but the story to be not particularly innovative. Mediocre recommendation, perhaps not intended to be read without the rest of the series.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fourth book in the Asteroid Wars picks up after the third, where the Zacharias family ends up fighting for their lives after their ship, the Syracuse, is attacked by Dorn, who has changed after his exposure to an artifact found in the third book. The mother and her two kids are left stranded on the ship and drifting basically in orbit for many months while the father, who narrowly escaped in an attempt to lure Dorn away from his family, must deal with first the knowledge that his family is lost and possibly gone, then the realization that they may be alive as he discovers Dorn's plan to claim all the bodies from the previous conflicts, and an eventual rendezvous with the Zacharias family again. This one is not as good as the previous Asteroid War books, but still an enjoyable read in Bova's Grand Tour stage.

[Durval Menezes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting continuation for the Asteroid Wars 'mini arch', it basically jumps off the at-the-time apparently non-sensical first/last chapters of the previous book ("The Silent War",The Asteroid Wars #3) in an entirely new direction. It does that by basically discarding almost every character from the previous books (and the ones it didn't discard outright, almost all of them only show up in a very limited role) and instead focus on what's happening with a single family, in "the aftermath" (therefore the title) of the last book.

That said, it's a good, entertaining, fast read, and it was good to see some sense being put at the aforementioned first/last chapters of the previous book. If Goodreads allowed fractional ratings, I'd give this one a 3.5; as it doesn't, I'm rounding it up to 4.

[Tommi Mannila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Asteroid wars-nelikko on kummallinen sotku muuten Ben Bovan varsin pätevässä Grand Tour-sarjassa. Asteroid Warsissa Bovan heikkoudet juonen kehityksessä ja yksiulotteisissa henkilöhahmoissa korostuvat syystä tai toisesta. Vaikka muuten voin Grand Touria suositella, suosittelen myös samalla jättämään tämän nelikon väliin.

[Diana]

Read Ben Bova back in the 80s and nothing since; so it was really good to pick this up and still enjoy his genre and style of writing, all these years later. I haven't read the other books in this series but was able to read it as a 'one-off' anyway.

[Joe Seliske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Ben Bova. A medium gaggle of characters that one gets to know quickly as the story progresses. Major space technology is treated like the items found in your house. The plot twists and turns keeping things more than interesting. Another one that I could not put down.

[Kevin Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy knows how to write a climax, ... _and_ a denouement.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. Boba tied up loose ends and have a nice ending to the astroid/rock rats story line.

[Tom Getzinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable continuation of the events from the asteroid wars.

[Rowan Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, rather unexpected side story to the series.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book a 3 because it's very well written. EXTREMELY well-written. The structure is beautiful, with the different plot lines braiding themselves together into the whole.

However.

Hey, he has female characters in sci-fi, actual female characters, that's good, right? Well. Let's see... we have the mother who inexplicably only exists to help her children put on their spacesuits and run the microwave in the ship galley. For the WHOLE BOOK. Despite being half of the only adult crew, she doesn't know how to press a single bleeping button that isn't in the galley. Oh wait, I forgot, apparently at some point she learned how to change the air filters. Ooo. Her teenage daughter, who, despite growing up on said ship since she was a toddler, doesn't seem to able to do anything other than tease her brother and whine -- at least later in the book her brother lets her help with some math and then lets her sit at the controls and watch the pretty blinking lights while he's EVA. Ooooooooo. Just before they get siezed by pirates, and of COURSE mama and daughter get all pretty dressed up and even put on lipgloss and take the time to unbutton a few bodice buttons before meeting the oh-so-handsome devil of a captain they think is there to rescue them. (cue eyeroll.)

We have a ship captain who is nothing but a sex-starved cardboard cutout - basically a teenage boy dressed up with boobs. We have the mother-figure elderly woman who has seen a mysterious alien artifact and has had this amazing life-changing experience ... so now her whole purpose in life is to play mama and nursemaid to a mass-murdering psychopath seeking atonement. (Oh, she used to be a famous artist, and we see her kind of try to make some art, but she doesn't get far with it.) And lastly we have the cold-hearted b**ch who uses her body to get what she wants, which is to run the entire known universe, have power over everyone, and get rich.

So, basically, females are either A) b**ches, or B) bad-conduct prizes/non-entities/helpless little ladies.

I would actively discourage reading this book to any impressionable person under the age of 20 or so (way to reinforce all those soul-crushing stereotypes, yeehaw!!) and would never recommend it to any person at all. If you read it anyway, please try to remember -- women are NOT LIKE THAT. We are people, we are not props.

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deals with the aftermath of events happening before. An independent ore hauler gets attacked by a terrorist and spent spinning for years with the captain's family aboard. As years pass, the terrorist repents and tries to atone for his deeds, and the captain grows desperate to find his family. Tie in a mysterious alien artifact, and you have by-the-numbers SF.

It's odd in that the artifact is almost a side story, and the bulk of the book is dealing with essentially space pirates. It's not all that interesting-Bova really doesn't add that much to the aftermath world, but it's servicable. Add one star if you read the past three books.

[Vijai · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second try at Mr. Ben Bova's style of sci-fi after a much hated experience of reading voyagers. I liked this book.

Realistic depiction of a refugee's fear - safety of their women. I liked that sensitive touch to the story.

Dorn got a little irritating in the end with his anti-violence sermon in the face of imminent death but I guess that's the deliberate handiwork of the author. 'The artifact' was a little loose sub-plot but brilliant character development saved any further trouble with that minor setback.

Not a good book, definitely not a bad one and not mediocre either. It lingers in the deep black space like the story is set in.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like Angels and Demons, this book's only redeeming featues was its quickness in reading it. Unlike Angels and Demons, however, I know for certain that Bova is capable of much better than this. The plot meanders, many parts seem pointless, characters do not always act or react realistically and much doesn't really make sense. A sub-par effort from Bova.

Keep in mind that a book I give 2 stars is about the worst book I'll actually read to completion. The only times I've finished a one-star book were for the AIS Book Club or just to say I've read a stupid James Joyce novel.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bova space-opera of the imaginative kind. Kept my interest, even if it started off like" Leave it to Beaver" in space. Then, it got interesting as all the story lines came together in the last hour of the listen. The male macho was somewhat distracting but balanced by some aggressive female characters. Number 4 of 4 in the Asteroid Wars series and #9 of 21 in the Grand Tour series, this book would have been really annoying if read alone because the characters and the context would be unknown. Overall, a good read and I'm looking for the next one.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any given page of this book is well written, but the book as a whole is not well crafted. New major characters are introduced about every 50 pages or so. The different groups of characters are united by chance meetings but don't share any deeper theme. Coincidence is a major player in the plot (though this is probably a necessity in any drama set in the asteroid belt, and Bova works to minimize reliance upon it). And neither the characters nor the action seemed all that great to me -- not that they were bad, just that there was plenty of room for improvement.

[Cesar Matamoros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a technical novel. The short chapters helped with all the interruptions I entertained during reading this book. The storyline kept me interested. I was never sure how the book was to end. The only critical comment was the roles that the females played. They seemed more one-dimensional that any other characters. It was really the only reason to keep me from giving it a higher rating. The book was well written.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to be entertained but is not looking for anything truly technical.

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth and final book in Ben Bova's Asteroid Wars series, and I think the best. This volume focuses on the aftermath, hence the title, of the wars, and on one family in particular. In truth, this is a science fiction version of the Odyssey. The biggest difference is that the son is not the wimp that Telemachus was, but rather an enterprising and resourceful individual forced to grow up faster than normal. Do read the first three, then sit back and enjoy the conclusion.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical Ben Bova work, solid science fiction, some ethical issues being raised but not real deep consideration. It has a lot of plot lines interconnected in this book and with other books in the series. What I would call bubble gum for the mind science fiction, not pushing the limits in any area but with a complex plot. Your brain won't have to work hard reading this one other than tracking all the players. I liked it for what it is.

[Mim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really put off by the seemingly out of date patriarchical language in this book. Also, the conversations between the siblings was really lame and out of touch. It didn't seem like the future, it seemed like the 1950s. I finished reading it because I usually finish a book whether I think it's very good or not. Oh well.

[Crusader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. Doesn't really continue the main storyline from the original trilogy, but rather shows the events from a different perspective. Some of the characters from the main storyline return, but the focus is on new characters, the Zacharias family and their struggle to survive and be reunited.

[Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coda to the Asteroid Wars trilogy, Bova explores the impacts the battles between the big corporations had on some of the humbler Rock Rats, while moving the story of the Artifact forward. A rousing read, but I was disappointed that the characters seemed to fall into very gender stereotypical roles. He does, however, maintain his insistence on hard, plausible science fiction.

[Dolphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fourth installment of "The Asteroid Wars" offers enough entertainment and interesting characters to make it worthwhile. Bova does tend to get a bit preachy here about the evils of greed and the emptiness of revenge but certainly there are far worse lessons to have drilled into us.

[M.E. Syler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio Book: I read this book first and it gave the desire to obtain the first book in the series. The plot is interesting with good characters. Good SF with believable future events and technology.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading. Read it 3 years ago. Still enjoyed it.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book in a great series.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

a fun book for lovers of the genre, not especially memorable.