Aftermath set in 2026

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
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