Customer Reviews

The Rock Rats (Asteroid Wars)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The second book of The Asteroid Wars is slightly better than the first, primarily because there's more action, but it suffers from the same flaw as the first, namely characters that just aren't that interesting. I'd put Bova in the same general class as Tom Clancy: good when writing about hardware, but unable to write characters with any real depth. If you want to read a good book by Bova, start with Jupiter or Venus which focus much more on science and hardware than this book.

The Rock Rats (2002) is the second SF novel in the Asteroid Wars series, following The Precipice. In the previous volume, Kris Cardenas almost commits suicide over her sabotage of the Starpower 1, but decides to stay alive to ensure that Martin Humphries is convicted for his crimes.

On the Starpower 1, the crew abandon ship temporarily to burrow into the surface of Asteroid 32-114, a porous body like a huge sand pile, but Dan Randolph still receives a fatal dose of radiation. Before he dies, Randolph leaves all his possessions to Pancho Lane, including a huge block of Astro Manufacturing. After returning to Selene, Pancho is voted onto the board of directors of Astro, despite Humphries's opposition.

In this novel, Humphries's lawyers tie up Selene's courts on the exile order, but the courts still divest him of all his shares in Astro Manufacturing and Starpower. He crashes the wedding reception for Amanda Cunningham and Lar Fuchs and presents them with a wedding present: the refurbished Starpower 1. While he hopes that Lars will go to the Belt and leave Amanda behind, the couple foil Humphries by leaving together.

The more Amanda avoids Humphries's attempts to get her into bed, the more he is infatuated with her. His latest ploy is a trading and maintenance center on Ceres, the largest asteroid. Amanda convinces Lars and Pancho to open another trading company, Helvetia Inc., in competition with Humphries Space Systems, with Astro providing the goods at low cost. They now have a larger clientele than HSS.

Humphries's aide suggests a carrot and stick approach to the problem. After consulting with his security chief, Humphries agrees to applying violence to Helvetia customers. A month later, rock rats start dying.

First three ships disappear and later the HSS files claim on asteroids that they have discovered. Then there is a fire in the Helvetia warehouse. When HSS men murder the chief engineer on the habitat project, the body is taken to Kris Cardenas, who determines the cause of death and even the name of the murderer.

Lars tracks down the murderer, goads him into attacking him with the murder weapon, and then kills him thoroughly. Under Lars's insistence, a court is formed to try him for murder. Of course, the court finds him innocent, but a precedence is set for the formation of a government in the Belt.

This novel relates the beginning moves in the Asteroid Wars. HSS has attacked first and the rock rats are far behind. Yet this anarchy of individuals is finally starting to think of the social implications of an HSS monopoly and is appalled at the idea.

Recommended for Bova fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of corporate battles, social conflict and personal frustrations.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This novel is excellent, period. Bova develops a future where the earth's resources have been depleted, and its only hope lies in the mineral rich asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The ores in the Belt are worth countless trillions of dollars, and struggle develops between an industrial tycoon, Martin Humphries, and the unofficial leader of independent asteroid prospectors, Lars Fuchs. Humphries is a cold-blooded, hyper-ambitious industrialist that amkes JR Ewing look like a saint. Fuchs is genuinely concerned about "the little man," but is a slave to his own volcanic temper and violent urges. The two men are the centers around which the war for control of the asteroid belt revolves.

Warning: this book does not end happy. Hence the word "tragedy" in the title of my review. Fuchs own moral and personal failings prove his undoing; yet Humphries does not truly win either. To say more would ruin the book. Just remember that this book is a tragedy, in the classic sense of the word. Think "Moby Dick" as an example of what I mean.

The charge that Bova does not develop the characters enough is superfluous; these same characters have appeared in other books by him and have been fully developed in those, so to do so again in this book would be repetitive and unfair to his loyal readers. It is number two in a trilogy, so the final ending may be happier than the one in this book. Nonetheless, for those who can stand its sober conclusion, this book by itself is an excellent read. It is fast paced, technically accurate, and emphasizes action strongly. All in all a great way to spend a few hours.

Earth is self-destructing into global warming, new morality, desertification, and starvation. The moon is independent but civilized. Now, the real frontier is the asteroid belt--an area where a man can dream about the big find that will make him rich--and where most of the money is collected by the merchants, the companies that transport ore back to Seline and Earth, and by the barmen and entertainers. When Amanda Cunningham marries Lars Fuchs, Martin Humphries conceives of a clever plan--give the couple a spaceship as a wedding present and send Lars out on a wild goose chase. While he's gone, Humphries is certain that he can persuade Amanda to join him in his bed--and as his wife. When Amanda decides to join Lars on the ship, Humphries has to scheme more deeply, setting off piracy and violence in the anarchic asteroid belt. With his resources, this isn't difficult for Humphries--and he knows that Lars will react just fine.

THE ROCK RATS continues author Ben Bova's near future saga with a number of recurring characters. Bova's science--from asteroid hunting to nanotechnology to global warming to using the gravity of an asteroid to conserve fuel--seems sound and provides an intriguing backdrop to the story. Similarly, his new morality movement on Earth as well as occasional references to terrorism are interesting extrapolations from today into the near future.

Where Bova falls short is in his characters. Amanda spends much of THE ROCK RATS whining about wanting to return to Earth--apparently unconcerned that she and Lars provide the only competitive supply source for the thousands of explorers and miners who are their friends--and the hope of humanity's survival. Lars lets hatred and jealosy motivate his behavior and drive him into simply unforgiveable acts. Pancho Lane, a major character in THE PRECIPICE (see our review) is a cameo character without a lot of depth. Even Humphries' beautiful and deadly assistant Diane Verwoerd becomes terminally stupid toward the end of the novel. Frankly, although Humphries is the badguy, he's the only sympathetic character in the novel.

Some people aren't going to like it!
I found it to be the defining book of the series so far.. Lars IS a wretch.. Amanda IS a whiny thing in some ways but oh... the setup for what looks like to come.
Those that read Venus will recognize the 'jump or be damned' Lars that is to come years later.. not a fun read but a good Bova!

This novel did not hold my interest. I found myself skimming forward. The plot skips forward in time from chapter to chapter, and skips between people in various sub-plots. It does seem to have a main character, more or less, but often is dealing with someone else. It seems to be left unfinished to lead into a sequel. The writing seems to be soap opera style.

The story is about competition to control the mineral wealth in the asteroids, a lawless frontier where competition can get deadly. Everyone has their own agenda. Like in real life, most prospectors die broke. The money is made by companies selling them supplies.

It is hard to find white hats in the story, as everyone involved seems willing to kill to achieve their goals.

I've been a fan of Ben Bova for years, but Rock Rats doesn't measure up to his other novels. Rats was very disappointing, indeed. None of the characters are well-devoloped. Most of the asteroid miners are so dumb that they shouldn't be allowed to pilot spacecraft. And the chief badguy, the would-be monopolist Martin Humphries, wouldn't have lasted a day at Enron or Worldcom. The characters just blunder along from one silly encounter to the next. And the dialog is only one step above "Plan Nine From Outer Space".

Seriously, did Ben Bova really write this novel? Or is he ill and the publishers hired a ghost writer?

Tossed across the room, that is. As an avid Ben Bova reader, I usually sit down and chew through one of his books in a couple days. I've read all of his fiction and love his "grand Tour" series. Excellent book written by an excellent writer. As usual, a wonderful tossed salad of politics, science fact, fiction and emotions.

*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS*
Anyway, back to my tossing... When I finished Rock Rats last one night, my first reaction was to throw it across the room and scream. The bad guys won and it irritated the heck out of me. First book I've ever thrown across the room in anger and irritation.

I'll tell you, as I've told anyone that will listen, read this series. It's great! But be ready for the typical trilogy thing...the bad guys win in the second book. *sigh*

Bova paints an imaginative picture of the new frontier out in the asteroid belt. He throws in cliches such as shoddy law makers, grubby prospectors, powerful bad guys, powerless good guy and of course love triangles. This book focuses on Lars & Mandy vs our favourite Humpy the bad dude. It would have been nicer to develop more the impact of the fusion drive, the asteriod mining on the world. He tries to throw in tantalizing bits of information in the way David Brin's Earth was written but does a woeful job. I wonder why I thought his previous book was good...

I am a Ban Nova fan from way back but I was disappoint with this book. The characters are shallow (and I agree with another reviewer: the miners are so dumb they'd be flat out in charge of a bicycle let alone a space ship) and the plot is under developed.
What irked me the most was the poor formatting in the Kindle eBook version I bought. Continual hyphenation of words and names was annoying. The publisher or post scan proof reader obviously fell asleep on the job.