As a standalone story, [b:The Aftermath|768917|The Aftermath (The Grand Tour, #12; The Asteroid Wars, #4)|Ben Bova|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442426245l/768917._SY75_.jpg|754977] 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 [b:The Silent War|267285|The Silent War (The Grand Tour #11; The Asteroid Wars #3)|Ben Bova|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386919740l/267285._SY75_.jpg|2393499]. 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. ( )

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. ( )

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 forward to the next one. ( )

Continued from: http://www.librarything.com/review/51360180

The Aftermath: A family of four Rock Rats out prospecting for valuable ores to bring back to their habitat for processing is attacked by a maniac. Their space ship disabled and rendered both deaf and blind when the main fuel tank is punctured, the radar and antennas destroyed. One family member, in an effort to distract the attacker, separates himself from the others using the control pod to abandon ship. Predictably, the remainder of the story becomes one of searching and survival, with some surprising twists. Mr. Bova manages to bring the interest level almost back up there with The Precipice, yet his slow-paced beginning to the concluding novel of this sequence earns a one-star drop in the rating for this part of the over-all story.

Conclusion: If you're a Ben Bova fan, the series is a must-read. If you like space-opera type stories, with compelling characters, you'd probably like The Precipice, which does well as a stand-alone, and perhaps The Aftermath too. The middle novels don't stand too well on their own so I can't recommend them unless you're into the entire series as I am. Not recommended for readers under age 15 due to sensitive subjects being addressed. If you like these and still want more, this epic is just part of a larger epic known as The Grand Tour.

This review was previously published on Dragonviews ( )