The Rock Rats: The Asteroid Wars II

Ben Bova

ISBN 10: 0340769580 / ISBN 13: 9780340769584

Published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2002

About this Item

Near fine book in clean fresh red cloth covers with bright silver gilt titles to a slightly canted spine. Internally fine and free of inscriptions. The dust jacket is fine and not price clipped. Books I and III also available.

Seller Inventory # 022623

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Rock Rats: The Asteroid Wars II
• Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, London
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340769580
• ISBN 13: 9780340769584
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition First Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Modern First Editions

About this title

Synopsis

Martin Humphries - the fabulously wealthy, coldly ruthless owner of the greatest space-based industrial giant - has been checked, but his malice and ambition remain. He still dreams of bankrupting the rival space exploration company Astro Manufacturing and bringing the independent prospectors who are beginning to stake claims on large and small rocks of the Asteroid Belt under his control. And most of all, he wants to capture the love of beautiful Amanda Cunningham, the woman who spurned his money, and take his revenge on Lars Fuchs, the space prospector who both defied Humphries and married Amanda.

His weapons will be piracy, sabotage and murder. The Asteroid Wars have entered a violent new era.

Review

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