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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780553577389
ISBN number: 0553577387
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 560
Printing Date: August 03, 1999
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: August 03, 1999
Sale Popularity Level: 482055
Studio: Spectra
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
It's 2026, and catastrophe has struck from an unexpected source. The Alpha Centauri supernova has risen like a second sun, rushing Earth toward its last summer. Floods, fires, starvation, and disease paralyze the planet. In a blue aurora flash of gamma rays, all microchips worldwide are destroyed, leaving an already devastated Earth without communications, transportation, weaponry, or medicine.
The disaster sets three groups of survivors on separate quests. A militant cult seizes the opportunity to free their leader, known as the Eye of God, from the long-term coma to which a court sentenced her. Three cancer patients also search for a man in judicial sleep: the brilliant scientist--and monstrous criminal--who alone can continue the experimental treatment that keeps them alive. From a far greater distance come the survivors of the very first manned Mars expedition, struggling homeward to a world that has changed far beyond their darkest fears. And standing at the crossroads is one man, U.S. President Saul Steinmetz, who faces a crucial decision that will affect the fate of his own people...and the world.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Amazon.com Review:
In 2026, the Earth faces an unexpected disaster. A supernova in the nearby Alpha Centauri system has apparently wiped out nearly every electronic component on the planet, leaving human civilization paralyzed. Phones don't work, transportation grinds to a halt, and essential services such as medical care are thrown back into the Stone Age. As the world tries to cope with this technological cut-off, a man dying of cancer begins a journey to save his life and that of his fellow patients, a master criminal escapes a sentence of 'judiciary sleep,' a returning Mars expedition faces what looks like certain death, and U.S. president Saul Steinmetz strives to keep his country from falling apart. Author Charles Sheffield has taken a classic hard-SF concept, applied it to the real world, and created a gripping story of survival. --Craig E. Engler
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Science fiction writers often base a plot on changing one variable in a set that readers simply accept as universal givens. In AFTERMATH, Charles Sheffield posits our earth that has been hit by gamma rays bursts from an exploding supernova that renders inoperative every microchip in every computer in the world. Considering that his plot begins in 2026 when every stratum of a collective world technology is thoroughly hardwired by ubiquitous microchips, one would think that he would favor hard technological plot developments over character contrivances. The major problem that I saw was not that he elevated character over hard science, but that he placed stereotypical characters in one dimensional situations that are overly dependent on fortuitous circumstance to make them work. Alas, the grinding of coincidence forces Sheffield to draw back Dorothy's Curtain to reveal a breathtaking lack of motivation and interaction that should have been used to connect the ill-defined dramatic dots.
There are three separate storylines, all of which blend suspiciously too well at the end to point the way toward a sequel, which the back page lists as STARFIRE. Here, after the supernova reduces the world's microchips to cinders, three groups slowly merge: a spacecraft of astronauts returns from Mars to find an earth reduced to a pre-twentieth century level of technology; three patients dying of cancer plot to free a Hannibal Lechter type psycho killer who holds the key to their medical salvation; and a Jewish president who, in addition to the problems involved in running a thoroughly smashed United States, also faces a revolution headed by a religious fanatic who commands an army of armed crazies.
As long as Sheffield sticks to the here and now of world wrecking, the plot moves convincingly from tsunamis, to droughts, and to a crumbling microchip-based infrastructure. When he allows his characters to stumble from one contrivance to another, the plot creaks to a series of staccato-like roadblocks. The ending, which points toward a sequel of similar deux ex machinas, implies that the believability quotient and thus the reader interest of AFTERMATH is low and promises more of the same in STARFIRE.
Rated by buyers 
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Fantastic book, one of the best I ever read. I started reading it, and being is it is so interesting, lost track of time and 5 hours went by, it's THAT good. Best sci-fi book I have ever read. Definetly recommend. Shane Lindsley author of Enemies Among Us
Rated by buyers 
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The problem with this one is that it has LOTS of different lil subplots and doesn't really center on Any of them. Translated, it has so much to say that it really winds up saying nothing.
Most of the characters are not likable and what depth they have is mostly cliche'
End of the world? I had trouble making it to the end of the book!
Rated by buyers -
I have to echo a number of other reviews, this was a decent book. My biggest gripe was that the author skipped over some interesting plotlines to finish the book. Legion of Argos, Art and the cancer survivors, the president and his succubus...just sort of tied up in a bag and thrown in the river. I would really have liked to have seen a more interesting ending to these plotlines.
Rated by buyers -
There is a story here, but the story quickly spins away from what promised to be a fascinating exploration of the effects of a near-by super nova and into a series of tedious and mundane journeys in and around Washington D.C. Perhaps my greatest pet peeve is books that open new series but do not stand alone. "Aftermath" does not stand alone. I would not have expected Charles Sheffield to engage in this kind of writing: 547 paperback pages that could be easily condensed into 100 or so. A couple of characters hold promise, but no character-and no character arc-comes to conclusion in this book. There are also characters (especially the character portraying the President of the United States) whose actions and motivations make no sense whatsoever.
So why didn't I just put the book down and walk away?
Because some of the science was fascinating, and because one always holds out hope that the author will bring everything together by the end of the book. Sheffield does not do this. Instead, there are hints at what could come in the sequel: a technology-crashed planet, a supposedly impossible super nova that may not be a natural phenomenon after all, and a massive project in space to help shield the Earth from the super nova's effects. The mind already races ahead-three, four, five books into the future-to see the possibilities of this series, but what about these characters in the here and now? Will their mundane journeys parlay into something more interesting? It is obvious that some of these run of the mill characters will discover that they have radically extended life spans and so could fit into stories that must leap far into the future, but couldn't Sheffield have show us that in this very first book?
So the real question is: Move on to the sequel-take that chance-or just drop the whole thing here?
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