The Aftermath

June 18, 2007
Hugo-winner Bova’s fourth Asteroid Wars novel (after 2004’s The Silent War
) is a bewildering attempt to exploit loose ends. When crazed assassin Dorik Harbin disables the spaceship Syracuse
, an ore-carrier run by Victor Zacharias, Victor is forced to jettison an escape pod containing his wife and children. Unfortunately, the Zacharias family’s desperate efforts to survive are lost among a host of other stories. While son Theo and daughter Angela battle incredible odds to make their way back to inhabited space, Victor steals another spaceship, Pleiades
, and goes looking for his family and Syracuse
. Various other characters, including Harbin, who becomes a repentant priest named Dorn, go on quests in other spaceships. Chapters are named for the spacecraft in which they take place, which helps orient readers, but Bova doesn’t focus enough on the technical features of these ships or the natures of those in them to bring either to life. The action remains equally muddled.

Ben Bova continues his saga on the future of humanity in space. Multiple narrators, switching points of view, keep the tension high. The Zacharias family, who run a trading vessel as a family business, arrive at a habitat in the Asteroid Belt at the same time that it is being attacked. As this story of the Asteroid War's consequences moves forward, the unlucky family is divided and goes in two different directions. The skilled multiple narrators enhance one's ability to follow the split story, making this another entertaining installment in Bova's science fiction series. S.D.D. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

October 15, 2007
This sequel to Bova's "The Precipice, The Rock Rats", and "The Silent War" occurs after the Asteroid Wars. Victor Zacharias and his ore-carrier "Syracuse" haul whatever cargo he and his wife and two children find in the Asteroid Belt. When they stumble on an attack on the habitat "Chrysalis", Victor and his family are separated, but their story becomes almost lost among all of the many loose ends and quests that populate this tale. Elverda Apacheta, a great sculptor, and cyborg priest Dorn, who prowls the Belt to make amends for his atrocities during his time as the ruthless Dorik Harbin, are each affected by an alien artifact that had earlier had an impact on industrialist Martin Humphries. Victor is rescued by Cheena Madagascar but is at her mercy. And somehow the artifact seems to be at the center of everything. The chapters are named for the spacecraft where they occur, which helps provide listeners with a point of reference. Clearly read by multiple narrators (Janice Card and others), this book provides the listener with a varied atmosphere that counters the sometimes perplexing yet fast-paced turn of events. Fans of Bova will especially appreciate this space thriller. Recommended.Denise A. Garofalo, Astor Home for Children Lib., Rhinebeck, NY

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