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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780812579888
ISBN number: 0812579887
Label: Tor Science Fiction
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: June 16, 2003
Publishing house: Tor Science Fiction
Sale Popularity Level: 391079
Studio: Tor Science Fiction
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Product Description:
Visionary space industrialist Dan Randolph is dead-but his protégé, pilot Pancho Barnes, now sits on the board of his conglomerate. She has her work cut out for her. For Randolph's rival Martin Humphries still wants to control Astro and still wants to drive independent asteroid miners like Lars Fuchs out of business. Humphries wants revenge against Pancho-ands, most of all, he wants his old flame Amanda, who has become Lars Fuchs's wife.
In the struggle over the incalculable wealth of the Asteroid Belt, many will die-and many will achieve more than they ever dreamed was possible.
Amazon.com:
Ben Bova's second installment in the Asteroid Wars series continues his trademark style, with caricatured characters in a classic Greek dramatic structure duking it out against a high-tech, Libertarian-influenced, future-history backdrop. Billionaire jerk and womanizer Martin Humphries stirs the pot again, overcoming attempts to oust him from the Selene moon base. His grip on Humphries Space Systems and its economic scheming remains as tight as ever, but he still desires two things: control of the asteroid belt's rich resources and, of course, possession of the ever-elusive Amanda What's-her-name at the expense of likeable alpha male number two, gruff prospector Lars Fuchs. ('One look at Amanda's innocent blue eyes and full-bosomed figure and any man would be wild to have her.' We're left to guess as to whether the 'wide-eyed,' 'lusciously curved' Amanda has any other qualities, desirable or otherwise.)
For Bova fans, Rock Rats has it all--cool technology, whip-fast action, and choreographed intrigue--and this installment certainly ups the ante in the series. As Bova gravely notes, '[T]he Belt became the region where prospectors and miners could make fortunes for themselves, or die in the effort. Many of them died. More than a few were killed.' --Paul Hughes
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Rated by buyers -
Not being a major fan of Ben Bova, I was interested in the comments made by some reviewers who obviously are fans. The harsh criticisms levelled at "The Rock Rats" were quite interesting. While I would not lambast the book as complete rubbish, it certainly lacked something that the previous novel, The Precipice (The Grand Tour; also Asteroid Wars), had.
The plot basically follows on from the very first novel, (with some large jumps in time), and focuses on Martin Humphries' attempts to tighten his grip on control of the asteroid belt and its super-abundant resources and profits. Of course, being a rather morally challenged villain, he uses some nasty methods. Up against this behemoth of industry is Lars Fuchs, protege and beneficiary of Dan Rudolph. With a large number of subplots going on, there is much more to it than this simplistic summary.
One reviewer commented that the story jumps about a bit. While this is true, with jumps of dossiers on characters and so on, I feel this does not detract from the novel itself. The brief episodes add an air of anticipation, I thought, as I wondered how these people would fit in. The only thing that annoyed me a bit was the so-called "dossiers" were in very novel-like language, hardly anything like that of real dossiers. They just didn't seem convincing.
The plot itself takes longer to wind up than the previous novel of the series. For about the very first 100 pages, I found it a bit of a chore, to be honest. Once I got into the second century of pages, things started to move, finally. The adventure was back and the conflict reached a new level.
I would also add this: Lars Fuchs seems an odd sort of main character for this type of role. He just seems a bit more wishy washy than most, and seemed less than adequate. When he finally gets some substance, the novel ends. This might be overly critical, but I thought the character of Dan Randolph had much more substance, as did many of the subsidiary characters.
While not as good as "The Precipice", I still enjoyed this installment of "The Asteroid Wars". The read is simple and does not require lots of brain power. It is a good relaxing jaunt through the solar system neighbourhood that Earth is in.
Rated by buyers 
-
I purchased this book and it's predecessor together based on the author's name. Ben Bova. A fourth of the way through the very first book I felt cheated.
The progression of the story isn't smooth at all. It jerks and jumps and drags. The situations aren't believable and there are large gaps in the rationalization of "WHY". You know, "WHY" this or that happens. "WHY" these people do this or that. The reasons just aren't there. Worst of all, the characters don't behave like actual people, their decisions are obviously made to push along this stubborn mule of a story. And believe me, this mule doesn't wanna go anywhere.
Like I said earlier, I purchased books I and II together. I forced myself to read the second book as punishment for believing the hype of a big name science fiction writer. Surprise, surprise, it was like trying to slog my way through mud. Mud that's up past your shins. You're forced to go slow, you can see all this mud in front of you and you just want to get to the end.
I do not recommend this book.
Rated by buyers 
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Book one was great, but Rock Rats is missing something. In addition to a few grammatical errors the book is over simplified. I found that I despised the way Bova reintroduced the characters and plot lines from the very first book. There was a tendency to use narrative instead of letting character dialogue and scene description tell the story. But hey, its got space pirates, that's good.
Rated by buyers 
-
Ben Bova has written an exciting follow-up to "The Precipice". Once again, Martin Humphries and Lars Fuchs clash in this fast-paced novel.
At the end of The Precipice, Humphries was exiled from Selene and forced to give up all of his shares in Astro Manufacturing. Despite this, he still crashes Lars' and Amanda's wedding and gives them Starpower I as a wedding present. Martin secretly hopes that Lars will head to the Asteroid Belt alone and leave Amanda on Selene where he can get his hands on her, but she surprises Martin by leaving with Lars.
Martin has also developed a trading center on the asteroid Ceres. Here, Martin's company can supply the "Rock Rats" with all the supplies they need. In response, Amanda convinces Lars and Pancho to develop their own company to compete against Martin. Pancho's Astro company will provide the goods. Thus, Helvetia, Ltd. was born and is now larger than Martin's company.
Understandably upset by Lars' latest move, Martin sends some of his own thugs to raid Helvetia's warehouse. In the ensuing melee, Lars loses all of his inventory and some of his employees are killed. But Matin doesn't stop with the warehouse. Soon, ships are disappearing and Martin's company is laying claim to many different asteroids. Even the chief director of the habitat project is killed.
Lars tracks down the killer and infuses a little frontier justice of his own. A court is convened, but Lars is found innocent. But Humphries is incensed. He sends Dorik Harbin, a hired assassin who's hooked on several different kinds of drugs, into the belt to hunt down Lars and kill him. However, Lars manages to give Harbin the slip, and Harbin is forced to return to Selene empty-handed. However, once there, he meets and begins a torrid affair with Diane Verwoerd, Martin's assistant. Martin has his own plan for Diane; namely, having her impregnated with his clone. But, Martin still has his sights set on Amanda and making her his own. Will he succeed?
This is a very good book. Although I preferred "The Precipice" slightly more, "The Rock Rats" is loaded with action, and the conflict between Martin and Lars explodes with fury. Bova fans won't want to miss this exciting continuation of the Asteroid Wars.
Rated by buyers -
I thought Bova was supposed to be a "hard" science fiction author. I couldn't get past the weaknesses in his ships' physics. They are supposedly simulating gravity by having two sections of the ship separated by a one kilometer and tether spinning around their shared center of gravity. Okay, that works. But, in the battle scenes, how do you maneuver such a contraption in a way to keep a laser mounted in the cargo hold at one end of the tether aimed at anything?
There is a lot of text spent on the dusty conditions in the tunnels of Ceres. Why don't they spray the walls of the tunnel with some sort of polymer and seal them from raising dust? Seems pretty simple to me.
At the end of the book there's a "teaser" for an upcoming release "Saturn", where a group of people are being transported to a large habitat described as being 20km long and 4km in diameter, spinning once every 45 seconds to produce earth normal gravity inside. One of the characters is suffering from the microgravity during the shuttle trip but instantly feels better when it docks and the one gee is restored. The shuttled docked on the outer surface of the habitat where the docking point had to be moving at about a relative 300 meters/second? What kind of energy expenditure does it take to manage that feat?
Also, I got tired of reading what colour cardigan or kind of jewelry each character was wearing every time the scene changed. Actually, I didn't care very much about the characters, either.
Sorry about getting off topic on the Saturn excerpt but it is still about the general poor physics depicted in the book.
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