Aftermath set in 2026

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi SF readers & fans,

I happen to have just finished reading "Aftermath" by
Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026, published in 1998 by
Bantam Books 587 pages part 1 of two. (This is a revision of
a preliminary summary on Usenet and will be posted there as
the spelling mistakes that I inflicted were horrible.)

In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis.
Alpha Centauri has gone supernova and the radiation hit the
Southern Hemisphere and set off some very catastrophic weather
but the wave of hard radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all
computers not in Faraday cages.

The USA is center stage of course along with a group of
aged cancer victims who have been following a course of treatment
involving destroying the telomeres of their cancers.
The President is a sane but single man. He has some interesting
sequences with a former Girl Friend and with at least one
political apprentice.

A Mission is returning from a Mars Landing and no communication
from Ground to Space is available. The stations in low earth orbit
are dead and the higher stations are still working but out of range
for the earthside stations. Will they make it back to Earth and
participate in the suppression of terrorist activity?

The technology is a bit more advanced as the cancer patients have
home genome sequencers which of course have been destroyed by the EMP.
They need help and expertise.
Capital punishment is gone and in its place we have Judicial Sleep
which is medically induced coma with normal aging. Abyssal Sleep slows
aging.

This is a book that uses the now popular technique of switching
between characters or groups of characters.
Now I made an a error.
I wrote that, "This opens with a serial killer undergoing Judicial
Sleep." but it actually opens with a aboriginal shaman attempting to
end the drought caused by the heat and radiation of the Supernova.

Then comes the sequence with multiple killer of beautiful 14 years
olds, Oliver Guest, prominent medical researcher on cloning
and on telemeric treatments. The medical science is good
enough to regrow amputated limbs. The sane president learning of the
Particle Storm on its way in about 50 years which would sterilize the
planet, decides to take control of planetary resources and so
we arrive at the end of the book with a need to read
the next volume, the title of which is "Starfire".

If I had space and money I would buy Aftermath to re-read.
Of course if I ever getting around to re-reading it
i will be so old...
bliss

[Robert Carnegie]

Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Robert Carnegie
Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

They were not in the line of the chip breaking
EMP. The Earth was in line but if properly protected
on Earth the chips suvived too.
The Supernova was induced and directed toward
the Earth as I belive other comments have mentioned.

bliss

[Paul S Person]

On Sat, 28 Sep 2024 08:41:06 -0700, Bobbie Sellers

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by Robert Carnegie
Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

They were not in the line of the chip breaking
EMP. The Earth was in line but if properly protected
on Earth the chips suvived too.
The Supernova was induced and directed toward
the Earth as I belive other comments have mentioned.

At 4.25 LY away, that's pretty good shooting!

And a very focused beam!

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by Paul S Person
On Sat, 28 Sep 2024 08:41:06 -0700, Bobbie Sellers

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by Robert Carnegie
Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

They were not in the line of the chip breaking
EMP. The Earth was in line but if properly protected
on Earth the chips suvived too.
The Supernova was induced and directed toward
the Earth as I belive other comments have mentioned.

At 4.25 LY away, that's pretty good shooting!
And a very focused beam!

Not sure its even physically possible to have a beam that focused over
that distance.

[Robert Woodward]

Post by Dimensional Traveler

Post by Paul S Person
On Sat, 28 Sep 2024 08:41:06 -0700, Bobbie Sellers

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by Robert Carnegie
Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

They were not in the line of the chip breaking
EMP. The Earth was in line but if properly protected
on Earth the chips suvived too.
The Supernova was induced and directed toward
the Earth as I belive other comments have mentioned.

At 4.25 LY away, that's pretty good shooting!
And a very focused beam!

Not sure its even physically possible to have a beam that focused over
that distance.

To paraphrase Archimedes, give me a big enough mirror (or lens) and a
light source, and I can focus anywhere.

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by Robert Woodward

Post by Dimensional Traveler

Post by Paul S Person
On Sat, 28 Sep 2024 08:41:06 -0700, Bobbie Sellers

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by Robert Carnegie
Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

They were not in the line of the chip breaking
EMP. The Earth was in line but if properly protected
on Earth the chips suvived too.
The Supernova was induced and directed toward
the Earth as I belive other comments have mentioned.

At 4.25 LY away, that's pretty good shooting!
And a very focused beam!

Not sure its even physically possible to have a beam that focused over
that distance.

To paraphrase Archimedes, give me a big enough mirror (or lens) and a
light source, and I can focus anywhere.

Only in a perfect vacuum I think, which space ain't.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Paul S Person
On Sat, 28 Sep 2024 08:41:06 -0700, Bobbie Sellers

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by Robert Carnegie
Wouldn't the Mars mission be incapacitated by
the supernova as well?

They were not in the line of the chip breaking
EMP. The Earth was in line but if properly protected
on Earth the chips suvived too.
The Supernova was induced and directed toward
the Earth as I belive other comments have mentioned.

At 4.25 LY away, that's pretty good shooting!
And a very focused beam!

Yes Thrilling Tales of Super Science/Technology leading
to Interstellar Space warfare, no doubt.

Some Suspension of Disbelief required.

Certainly a frequent mode of operation as we read Speculative Fictions
relating tales of super-science or magic. Who belives in Vampires or
Demons outside of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, movie, TV or inside books.
Oh I remember Evangelical Fundamentalists believing in biblical
inerrancy. That is why they are bothered by sympathetic depictions of
Demons or Vampire. Someone of that ilk claims Ms.Harris VP won the
debate through witchcraft.

I have memories of one perfectly delightful short series
about a physician to vampires and other monsters. Her name is
Greta von Helsing. Quite amusing really. Lynsay Sands makes her
immortals with Atlantean Super Science which is nicer than Demonic
possession or Curse. Maybe that is Speculative Friction since every
novels point out how immortal sex is so much better than plain old
human sex.

We of this era perhaps the nearing the end of human history,
if the planet becomes unlivable, do not have any sensible way to
do in reality Faster Than Light travel, suspended animation, time travel
and a host of other ideas explored in SF storie whether rendered in
multiple volumes of text or comic books.

Very few of the SF Genre novels settle for plain ordinary science, but
intrude demonology and thealogy in the story. Sometimes
the vampires/demons/whatever are organised which brings us to
political fictions as well.

But it is all about the story and whether in its world it
coheres and comes to a satisfying or interesting conclusion.

bliss