Aftermath [Mass Market Paperback]

LeVar Burton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

-- "Aftermath" (Aspect, 1/97) had a first hardcover printing of 35,000 copies, and was a Wordstock bestseller.
-- LeVar Burton is extremely well-known, both for his role as Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley's Roots, and for his long-running as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge on the hugely popular Star Trek "RM": The Next Generation television series.
-- Burton toured extensively to promote the hardcover, generating enormous excitement.
-- Also available as a Time warner AudioBook "TM" .

The United States of 2019 is a very different place. Economic depression, an enormous earthquake, and the assassination of a black President-elect have turned the country into a war zone. Four people, each as different and troubled as the next, are the nation's last hope. But can they overcome the devastation and build a new world?

"This tale of people acting as bad as they want to be vs. others who just want to do the right thing marks an entertaining debut". -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Burton's writing is solid and poised". -- Denver Post

"Burton is only in the initial stage of his writing career...but he has already mastered the art of keeping readers turning pages". -- Booklist

"Epic, along the lines of The Stand; spiritual, along the lines of The Seven Arrows. LeVar Burton created a world in which devastation leads to the possibility of redemption. I highly recommend this book!" -- Whoopi Goldberg

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Another Star Trek alumnus gets bitten by the writing bug. Here, it's Burton, who played Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. His fiction debut is a terribly earnest and straightforward novel about the horrors that occur after America is shattered by a breakdown in race relations. Dr. Rene Reynolds is the inventor of the Neuro-Enhancer, a device with almost mystical healing abilities that also creates telepathic powers in its wearers. After Reynolds demonstrates the device to financiers, she is kidnapped?but not before she desperately thrusts the only existing copies of her computer disks into the hands of a homeless man, Leon Cane, whose life was shattered during the race riots. When Reynolds sends out a telepathic call for help, Cane, Amy LaDue, a plucky child living on the streets, and Jacob Fire Cloud, a Lakota medicine man with a vision, head toward Chicago to aid her and to save the world from destruction. Burton's workmanlike prose is sufficient for the task of displaying his characters' virtues, but the world he builds is muddled and less than credible. His name recognition, however, along with the novel's humane and caring moral message, should ensure respectable sales. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

American civilization crumbles after a civil war pitting blacks against whites and a devastating earthquake. Salvation resides in the hands of a black woman scientist, Dr. Rene Reynolds, inventor of a neuroenhancer that cures all diseases. When she is kidnapped, her telepathic cry for help reaches three people who travel across the country to save her. Star TrekR actor Burton's characterizations are shallow, transitions between events betray a TV-like impatience, and the plot was rendered better in Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's Lucifer's Hammer (Fawcett, 1985). Buy only on demand.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446605018
• ISBN-13: 978-0446605014
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best book ever writtten, but OK, March 19, 2002

By 

Julia Walter (Cobleskill, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aftermath (Audio Cassette)

This isn't a great book, for a great book by a Trek author check out _A Stitch in Time_ by Andrew Robinson, but it is one I am glad I read. I hope Burton continues to write, he has some cool ideas in this book. I heard about this book in _Dark Matter_ an anthology of amazing sf by African-Americans.

So, this book is not racist as other reviewers say, though if you are, you may not like the book. It's not a book written only for Black folks as other reviewers also say. It's a quest book in a dystopian near-future. The dystopia Burton presents seems very real to me: there *will be* a major earthquake on the New Madrid fault which would mess up everything from New Orleans to Chicago. It may happen this year or it may happen in 100 years, but it's going to happen. I hope we're going to have an African-American president soon. If he were assassinated, I could imagine cities exploding in racial violence.

While the characters are somewhat flat and one is pretty non-existant, it's worth a few bucks or to borrow from the library. It definately adds to the body of African-Americans writing sf.
(And it's dedicated to his wife, children and mother, not Octavia Butler. Who writes her own near-future dystopias.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A SO_SO BOOK THAT DOESN'T LIVE UP TO IT'S POTENTIAL, June 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aftermath (Mass Market Paperback)

I read AFTERMATH by LEVAR BURTON and although he gives it a good try I found my mind wandering while I was reading the book and here's why. I felt that the charachters were just too uninteresting they didn't grab my attention like they should to make a good story although I was intrigued by some of the book's points such as the earthquake and the civil war I felt that it could'nt compensate for the above. So all in all I can not recommend AFTERMATH.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't like it!, September 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Aftermath (Hardcover)

Let me preface by saying that I really like Levar Burton. His work on Star Trek and Reading Rainbow is great. I love to watch him act.

BUT! Levar should spend some more time practicing before he publishes any more books.

Levar has an *excellent* idea with this book. He is a very creative individual, but his writing is too choppy and plain. I was unable to relate to the characters, and topics were introduced to quickly.

If this book had been several hundred pages longer, I would have been able to read the whole thing, as it would have necessitated more descriptive language and more attention to detail.

Burton should not give up hope. His ideas are fascinating, just presented without enough detail and character development.

I will buy one of Burton's books in a few years, because I believe that writing experience will improve his style. Possibly you will see a rave review from me for a future Levar Burton novel.