NOVEL REVIEW:

"AFTERMATH"
by LeVar Burton.

Author: Vice Adm. Brendan Dillon, Transwarp Magazine.
http://www.transwarp.stwww.com/

Last month, for Christmas, one of the gifts I received was a novel: _Aftermath_, by LeVar Burton. Yes, you read that right. LeVar Burton, ST:TNG's Geordi LaForge, is now an author as well. After acting, directing, producing, and now this, you could say that Burton is good at all the things Shatner isn't.

_Aftermath_ takes place in the 21st century, after the United States has been ravaged by a civil war. In 2012, America elects its first black President, but he is assassinated by extremists before he can take office. Race relations decline as riots ensue, and the army, sent in to settle things, splits apart, and the nation descends into race war.

The story begins several years after this war. There are few extremists left, but the major cities have been all but destroyed, much of the population is homeless, and gangs rule the streets as the police only serve those with money in hand. Dr. Rene Reynolds, one of the few scientists who still have enough funding to continue their research, has developed a possible cure for most ailments, but she is soon captured. A homeless former NASA scientist, a Lakota medicine man, and a small girl whose parents died in an earthquake must find Reynolds -- somehow -- or America may never recover from the aftermath of the war.

_Aftermath_ is a great book on many levels, and I strongly reccommend it. And on the subject of books, I recently heard that Pocket Books (if you don't know, they publish all Trek books) is planning to begin a series called Star Trek: Year One, which would focus on the initial formation of the Federation, rather than one of the TV series. The problem is, they're not publishing this story in its own book or series of books. Rather, they will publish one chapter in the back of each Trek book published in 1999. This smacks of a cheap marketing ploy on Pocket Books' part; you have to buy each and every book that year in order to get the whole story. Still, the story itself sounds like it'll be great, assuming it has a good author. (I'm rooting for Peter David, but he's probably busy with upcoming New Frontiers books. Three new ones are scheduled to come out in 1998. Hooray!)

 

END OF REVIEW