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 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #594202 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-03
• Released on: 1999-08-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 560 pages

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

From Publishers Weekly
Ho-hum: it's another global disaster. This time, a supernova has caused disastrous climatic effects and, if that's not enough, it has also sent out a massive electromagnetic pulse that has disabled all electrical devices worldwide. Sheffield centers his tale on the personal rather than the global?three people with a very specific problem: their experimental cancer treatment has been disrupted, and the only chance they have for a cure lies with a man who has been sentenced to "judicial sleep"?the humane alternative to imprisonment?for serial murder. In addition, there's the crew of the first manned expedition to Mars, struggling to return to Earth; a powerful cult known as the Eye of God; and one Saul Steinmetz, the anguished president of the United States. Most of the main characters are one-dimensional and seem at least as interested in their love lives and personal relationships as they are in the state of the world. Still, Sheffield (Tomorrow & Tomorrow), who has won Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell awards, has taken an often-used scenario and given it enough of a twist to keep the pages turning.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The unexpected supernova of Alpha Centauri affects Earth with catastrophic climatic events and the total failure of advanced technology, driving the planet to the brink of environmental and societal collapse. Sheffield (Tomorrow and Tomorrow, LJ 12/96) uses the familiar plot device of disaster fiction to tell a fascinating and complex tale of human determination and survival. Using the merged destinies of a small group of cancer patients, a renegade terrorist cult, the survivors of humanity's first expedition to Mars, and U.S. President Saul Steinmetz and escaped psychopath Oliver Guest as his touchstones, Sheffield provides a variety of unique voices that add a distinctive perspective to his story. Most libraries should add this well-written sf thriller to their collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Not Bad For A Potboiler
They (some reviewers, copy on the back of books) always say Sheffield is "the" or "a" top hard-sci-fi writer. Well, that must not be coming from the ones I've read--definitely not this one. This is a good airport novel. That's where I picked it up and read it. It's got a big disaster, plenty of sex, a daring return from a mission to Mars, desperate cancer survivors, a Hannibal Lector type character, a visionary cult leader, and some political intrigue, all thrown together pretty cheesily. It's fun to read but you wont be telling all your friends about it. Most of the characters are one dimensional, and he has a lurid, exagerrated view of politics--the President "runs" the country, and politicians are far more sleazy in interesting ways than in real life, and execute far more bloodthirsty and deft maneuvers than they manage to pull off in real life. Would make a fun trashy cable mini-series.

A Long, Slow Introduction To The Sequel
There is a story here, but the story rapidly 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 first book?

So the real question is: Move on to the sequel-take that chance-or just drop the whole thing here?

Disappointing
Like many others who have posted reviews here, I have been a big reader of 'end of the world' novels for many years, from the excellent and highly recommended "Lucifer's Hammer" and the strong (but a bit dated) "Alas, Babylon" to Frank Herbert's dreadful "The White Plague." "Aftermath" has an appealing premise, an EMP pulse that is generated by a supernova causes problems for all of humanity (on top of the weather impact of the supernova, itself). But we don't get to see much of humanity or the nitty-gritty of what a disruption of all microcircuits would do to food distribution, medical care, etc. These events occur offscreen, as it were, and seem trivialized. The problems of the President, the crew of the Mars exploration ship, a serial killer, and special medical patients take the stage, instead. That could be interesting, I suppose, if there wasn't so much focus on their sex lives and so many plot coincidences, along with some facts/science that don't seem to make much sense (like the southern breezes that bring snow to D.C. and the lack of any appreciable entourage for the President). The slow pace of the book does nothing to help the situation. I won't be reading the sequel. Donald J. Bingle, Author of Forced Conversion.