Aftermath

Rating:
Summary: Bad Apocalypse Fiction
Review: I love end-of-the-world stories, from "On the Beach," to "Lucifer's Hammer," I've read most of them. And this is one of the worst I've come across. The characters are not interesting, the disaster scenarios are not believable and quite frankly, I stopped reading it about halfway through. These types of books are supposed to challenge your imagination, not put you to sleep.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Apocalypse Fiction
Review: I love end-of-the-world stories, from "On the Beach," to "Lucifer's Hammer," I've read most of them. And this is one of the worst I've come across. The characters are not interesting, the disaster scenarios are not believable and quite frankly, I stopped reading it about halfway through. These types of books are supposed to challenge your imagination, not put you to sleep.

Rating:
Summary: I was hoping this would be a lot better.
Review: I read a lot of reviews for this book before starting it, so I wasn't expecting it to be great. But a lot of the complaints I read about it dealt with it being part of a series and not resolving much of the story in this book, so I thought if I was prepared for this going in, it wouldn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Unfortunately, not resolving much of the plot isn't the only thing wrong with this book. In fact, about the only good thing that I can say about it was that it was interesting enough to hold my attention long enough to finish it. There were just too many things in it that bothered me as I read.

I really didn't think much of the characters in the book, they weren't terribly likeable, and their actions a lot of the time seemed to go against common sense. Also, there were a lot of silly coincidences in the book that just didn't make much sense except to make the story easier on the writer. I'm sure with such a major catastrophe there are interesting things going on somewhere outside of Washington, let's hear about some of those. And I can buy that Oliver Guest is in judicial sleep in Washington, but then, he just happens to live there too, come on. Finally, there were several minor things that just didn't make any sense, like calling people when the phones only work on old equipment, and then asking where they are, as Art did to Dana. Or , supposedly when Seth go the call, he had "gone to ground", so then how did Dana know where to call him? And finally, the president remembering when the auto teacher machine had broken down 45 years ago. That would have made it about 1981, and I was in school then, and all my teachers were still actual people.

I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, there is just too much wrong with it. Having said that, however, I may read the sequel, just to find out what happens in the story because everything was left completely up in the air in this one.

Rating:
Summary: I was hoping this would be a lot better.
Review: I read a lot of reviews for this book before starting it, so I wasn't expecting it to be great. But a lot of the complaints I read about it dealt with it being part of a series and not resolving much of the story in this book, so I thought if I was prepared for this going in, it wouldn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Unfortunately, not resolving much of the plot isn't the only thing wrong with this book. In fact, about the only good thing that I can say about it was that it was interesting enough to hold my attention long enough to finish it. There were just too many things in it that bothered me as I read.

I really didn't think much of the characters in the book, they weren't terribly likeable, and their actions a lot of the time seemed to go against common sense. Also, there were a lot of silly coincidences in the book that just didn't make much sense except to make the story easier on the writer. I'm sure with such a major catastrophe there are interesting things going on somewhere outside of Washington, let's hear about some of those. And I can buy that Oliver Guest is in judicial sleep in Washington, but then, he just happens to live there too, come on. Finally, there were several minor things that just didn't make any sense, like calling people when the phones only work on old equipment, and then asking where they are, as Art did to Dana. Or , supposedly when Seth go the call, he had "gone to ground", so then how did Dana know where to call him? And finally, the president remembering when the auto teacher machine had broken down 45 years ago. That would have made it about 1981, and I was in school then, and all my teachers were still actual people.

I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, there is just too much wrong with it. Having said that, however, I may read the sequel, just to find out what happens in the story because everything was left completely up in the air in this one.

Rating:
Summary: Once again, Sheffield's storytelling and characters shine.
Review: I throughly enjoyed this book, and the pseudo-ending did not bother me a bit - I have two more books to look forward to.

Not much hard sci-fi, but the characters, as in most of Mr. Sheffield's works, really define this the book.

Rating:
Summary: What a terrible book!!!
Review: I've always tried to avoid trilogies, at least until all three parts are available for purchase at once. While there is no statement anywhere on the book that this is just part I of a 2, 3 or 4 part story, it obviously is just that. Major plot points are just throwaway lines, never dealt with in this dull volume. I kept reading to the end hoping that these points would be developed, and they never were.

In addition to one of the most unrealistic portrayals of life in the White House I have ever read, we see a bizarre world where disaster has struck the world, but the president still has time to whine about his personal life.

It would be nice if someone took this good idea and wrote a good book around it. Sheffield hasn't done that.

Rating:
Summary: part 1 of 3 ?
Review: Interesting start, but clearly the first of three. Way too many loose ends, Sheffield is not sloppy. Most amusing part is the grey panthers showing the youths how to cope with life without microchips (I would be one of them). Stay tuned for resolution of important questions, like what blew up Alpha (Niven's "culthang bronte" ?) and why Althea knew about it.

Rating:
Summary: Weak Book? NO, Weak Reviews.
Review: Many of the reviews posted here berate Sheffield's work for weak characterizations. I think that those readers were spoiled by Tomorrow and Tomorrow, in which Sheffield had the entire book to develop ONE character. Now, in Aftermath, Sheffield has many more characters to develop, and not enough space to do all fully. Overall, I think Aftermath was a strong work. Sheffield effectively presents state of the art scientific ideas such that they can be understood by the average reader. The book isn't as strong on its own as Tomorrow and Tomorrow, but then again it was never meant to be, Starfire is its sequel. This book shouldn't be judged lightly, it does contain breakthrough science, and it's only the beginning of the plot.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Ending
Review: Mr. Sheffield begins with a novel in which the world has just barley survived a disaster comparable to the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. But wait, the good old U.S. of A. manages to muddle through with barely an interruption in cable service, while the rest of the world is all but wiped out. Fortunate for the U.S., but too contrived to be particularly interesting in a novel.

Honestly, the book began well. Unfortunately, within the first 100 pages, the plot had become a morass of sub-plots, characters and ideas that were never destined to be fleshed out. A big problem was that there were far too many sub-plots that went nowhere as the book progressed. (For example, sub-plots involving either White House aid or that involved a former Presidential mistress that just faded into nothing. Rule: If a sub-plot goes nowhere, kill it.)

However, even when a sub-plot was played out to the bitter end, it concluded with a contrived yet feel good device. (The escape of Dr. Death.) Worse yet, the main plotline involved the President of the U.S. and even that ended with a device stolen from any of a hundred 'B' movie made in the fifties.

The problem seems to be that Mr. Sheffield lost track of what he was writing about some half-way through the novel. Perhaps he was thinking series but only got paid for the one book. With so much going on and less than 50 or so pages used to tie it all together, Mr. Sheffield is forced to fall back on some very weak devices to get it done. If the last 70 or so pages were cut from this book and re-written as a sequel, Mr. Sheffield would have produced a much better work. As it is, the ending is far too contrived to be satisfying.

Overall, Mr. Sheffield took on an idea that was far bigger than the book he produced, inevitabley leaving the reader a bit disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: An interersting novel with some suspense.
Review: Mr. Sheffield is one of the premier writers of "hard" SF. The novel begins with one suspension of scientific principles: alpha centari goes supernova. This cannot happen happen by today's known mechanisms of supernova formation, as binaries that go supernova involve a dwarf star. Once this happens, however, Mr. Sheffield follows the consequences of a gamma ray blast from the exploded star that happens to emit in a direction that puts earth in the path. The EMP pulse devastates the computerized world by frying nearly every microchip on the planet. When this is added to the global weather changes, the problem is monumental. The novel focuses on events involving three main groups of people, one of which is the president of the United States.

Overall the novel flows pretty well, and the plot lines are interesting. The novel may have been better served by having one less major line to follow. This is particularly true of the events surrounding the US president. Many of the things that happen (such as a quiet dinner with one of his aides one evening) are hard to imagine in the face of the greatest disaster to strike Earth during recorded history. It is surreal to have the president having a quiet dinner and talking about an old flame when Australia and the whole of southern Africa are apparently gone due to the violent weather patterns in the southern hemisphere. The scene is reminescent of Nero playing the lyre while Rome burned, though this is not the author's intent. Overall, the novel is in the "good" range. More focus and stronger plot development could have made it "excellent."