Book Review: Aftermath by LeVar Burton

Quick Review:

Aftermath by Levar Burton
Published in 1997
Genre: Science Fiction
Bob's Thought: A fast paced science fiction actioner dealing with a changed America after the breadown of society and a racially motivated war. Entertaining, yet at times forced and clichéd.
Grade: B-
Availability: Currently Out of Print: Find a Used Copy at : Abebooks.com.



Full Review:

Let’s deal with the obvious issue first, yes, this is a book by LeVar Burton. Yes, the same LeVar Burton that played Kunta Kinte in roots, Geordi LaForge in Star Trek: TNG and hosted Reading Rainbow on PBS. Yes, like most Star Trek alums this book is classified as Sci-Fi, yet there are no Klingons, nor warp driven space cruisers and while people are going places quite boldly at times, they are not places in which no man has gone before.

There were two reasons I wanted to read this book. Firstly, one of my favorite genre’s of books in Post Apocalyptic novels, and while this book doesn’t fit neatly into this category, it offers some of the same themes. In reality this book has more of a dystrophic theme to it. Societal breakdown, not to to a cataclysmic event, like plague or nuclear war, but in a more gradual breakdown of civility due to economic, environmental and socio-political influences. Oh, and there was an earthquake.

The second reason I wanted to read the book was that came packed with a bit of controversy. Many reviews have basically called this a racist novel. That all African American character were heroic and all the white characters evil. Many reviewers have accused Mr. Burton of vilifying whites while excusing riotous and murderous behavior of African Americans within the book.

The novel takes place in the near future. After the assassination of Lawrence Everette, the first African American elected president, riots brake out in many major cities. Adding to this situation, a huge earthquake along the New Madrid fault leaves the Mid West devastated and millions homeless. In response to the riots and increasing unrest the Army is dispatched in an attempt to restore order. Many African America soldiers refused to fire upon the rioters and desert. Eventually, an African American General attempts to seize control of the army. After his attempt fails a full fledge race war breaks out.

All this is info dumped to the reader in the first four pages of the novel.

Within this setting a brilliant scientist has discovered a way to tap into the human brain, and use it to cure various diseases, specifically Parkinson’s and all forms of cancer. A certain unscrupulous scientist sees this as a bad thing, which will drastically cut into his bottom line. He attempts to steal this device, and kidnap the scientist who invented it. During the attempt, the scientist. Rene Reynolds, manages to slip a vital piece to a homeless man named Leon Crane, a disgraced former physicist who lost his family. Rene, now being held hostage by the evil Dr. Sinclair, is able to tap into another byproduct of her new device, an increased psychic ability. She sends out a telepathic call for help that is picked up by Leon, as well as three other characters, who now attempt to cross a dangerous country to rescue a women they never met, and quite possibly the world.

Now, onto the controversy. Some reviewers claim that all the white characters are evil and all the minorities characters are heros. This is an extreme stretch at best. Of the named characters in the book, there is only truly one evil character who happened to be white. There were also two positive white male characters that assist the main characters on the way. While the nameless evil characters are also for the most part white, these are all men who work for the evil Dr. Sinclair. Dr. Sinclair is more portrayed as evil rich guy, than evil white guy.

The second complaint is that Burton explains away the bad behavior of the rioters in this novel. This is also a stretch, for the most part, the narration of this novel is values neutral. The few times when value judgments are made, they are through the filter of a characters perspective. Burton describes riots and war time acts by the rebels (the Black Army) including an incident where a ship containing American soldiers are firebombed. It’s pretty simplistic to except a writer to talk about riots and acts of war, then require him to tell you these things are bad. I think it’s pretty easy to figure out on your own.

Objections have also been made to the “skinners” in the novel. Due to a depletion of the ozone layer, incidents of skin cancer in whites have greatly increased. The evil Dr. Sinclair discovered a method of grafting skin from African Americans onto whites to increase tolerance to the sun. This discovery lead to black market skinners who would enslave and slaughter African Americans for their skins. This plot point, is simply that, a story device. It didn’t seem, to me at least, that this was an attempt to show what whites are truly like, as some suggested, but display the dark side of human nature who will exploit anything for a profit, and do anything to survive. You see a similarly dark theme in Niven and Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer with the cannibal armies, many of whom where African American.

All in all, it is obvious what Burton is trying to do. He is creating a piece of fiction with positive African American characters. He is attempting to show that the world is better if people work together. The final scenes contain a multiethnic group, a white girl, an African American male, an elder Native American and a Philipino attempting to rescue Dr. Reynolds. This book is rife with racial overtones, but for the most part handled well. If I had any complaint about his racial themes, it is mostly a stylistic one. Burton felt the need to tell you each characters race in simple terms as soon as you met them. There are other ways to let the reader know a character is white, black, Asian or Native American without simply telling us straight out.

The book itself was entertaining and a quick read. In a back cover blurb Whoopi Goldberg compared to the Stand, and called epic. This is a bit of a stretch. I have trouble considering any book that is less than 300 pages epic. Books like The Stand or Swan Song and other post apocalyptic epics create a world which then defines the story, this story didn’t need to the world that Burton created to exist. The plot could have taken place within a modern, non dystrophic setting and still ring true. At points, Burton’s characters are a bit clichéd especially the old Native American Medicine man Jacob Fire Cloud. The action scenes seemed a bit as the plot races towards it conclusion. Yet, in the end, the book left me with a positive feeling. While I won’t call this an instant classic, it was an enjoyable read and raised a lot of intriguing issues. For someone who is not a writer by trade, Burton does a decent job with this tale.