The Swarm

A Novel

By: Frank Schatzing

Narrated by: George Weightman

Length: 37 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Now a CW Original Series

The Der Spiegel number #1 blockbuster bestseller about an intelligent life force that takes over the oceans and exacts revenge on mankind!

Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic eyeless crabs poison Long Island’s water supply. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean’s revenge. In this riveting novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals in order to wreak havoc on man for his abuses. The Day After Tomorrow meets The Abyss in his gripping, scientifically realist, utterly imaginative thriller. With the compellingly creepy and vivid skill of this author to evoke story, character, and place, Frank Schatzing’s book are certain to find a home with fans of Michael Crichton.

©2004 Frank Schatzing (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Fascinating ideas

Fascinating ideas, interesting characters, good science. My nit- the narrator can’t pronounce nuclear, which was a word used frequently enough to irritate.

Intruding

Great story with interesting characters. You really get to unteach character outside of the story. The story itself really makes us question our perspective and where we fit in the world. story is also full of action and suspense

Mind blowing perspectives! Worth every minute.

Extensive scientific research and detail about the oceans, organisms, and life in it. New paradigms about the formation of life before mankind. I learned more than I ever imagined about the oceans’ currents and the interactions of the planet’s systems. All wrapped up in a story full of action and character-development with an excellent nail-biter conclusion. The author even included a thoughtful comparison of the world’s religions as they relate to the creation of man.

Thrilling

Loved every minute of this and couldn't get enough. Once you start its hard to put down. Great narration albeit a bit spotty at times and can feel a tad bit preachy in some spots. Loved all of the details and descriptions and very well researched.

Overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone

Good but for some things

I enjoyed the way the story developed however there were a few things that distracted from the telling. Religion and US superiority felt heavy handed though that may actually be accurate to reality. As for the narrator, there were a few words that were pronounced in ways that were annoying. The first was "nuculer" which was said way too much as it stood our because of this. The 2nd is saying SETI spelled out. That is like someone spelling out SCUBA and not saying it as a word. There were others but these were the most frustrating for me.

the reader

excellent job by the reader. his voice further increased the drama of the novel. I enjoyed the tv series but the book was so much better.

Poorly Paced

For a book about intelligent sea life declaring war on humanity, there are far too little passages that focus on the potentially intriguing international economic and religious impacts of this and more time spent on romances between side characters. Some secondary antagonists are so stereotypical I could predict their lines as they were being narrated.

Loooooong book

The narrator was wonderful. The story was good, not great and I don’t like spending so much time on books that are not really great. The point of the book (in my opinion) is that mankind is not the only intelligent life in the universe and that we usually view other intelligence as a threat worthy of destruction… that we are shortsighted and self-destructive, but a few humans are capable of great good. I was not sure if the “queen being” represented God, but the Judeo/ Christian/Islamic God is treated as a myth, and if he does exist, he is capricious, arbitrary, small minded and protective of Homo sapiens and planet earth. Only.

I would not give this book to a friend.

interesting but rambling

I enjoyed the plausible world thr author built but in part 3 it fell into tired tropes and mysticism.

Great hard sci-fi / near term sci-fi book

Really good story and on point with the science. Would definitely recommend for anyone that likes a thriller as well.