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The Swarm A Novel Frank Schatzing 9780060813260 Books

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The Swarm A Novel Frank Schatzing 9780060813260 Books

So, I happened to find this book on my Kindle app after looking for some apocalyptic fiction, and after reading the description I was thoroughly intrigued. I've always enjoyed stories where nature turns on humanity, or some horrific natural force starts wreaking havoc, so it seemed like a good fit.

After FINALLY finishing this table-breaker of a book, I thought I might post my thoughts here.

--THE GOOD--
+I have to congratulate Mr. Schatzing for his amazing dedication to research. It's clear that he spent a lot of time and effort in trying to make this story premise feel grounded in reality, and it shows in his writing. The scientific explanations are quite thorough, and anyone with an interest in chemistry, biology or various Earth sciences will likely find something to be impressed by.

+Some of the characters are well-written and likable, especially, in my opinion, Dr. Sigur Johansen and Leon Anawak, arguably the two primary protagonists of the story. They're nuanced and interesting. Special mention goes to Jack Greywolf, whom I started out despising, but really enjoyed by the end of story.

+Scenery descriptions are nicely done. On a specific note, the destruction of various story-specific areas almost make you feel like you're there to witness them.

+The first half of the book is engaging and definite binge-read material. The build-up to the big reveal is laid out in such a way that you're always left wondering just what is going on, and wanting to know more.

+The yrr are really unique, and even after finishing the book I want to know more about them. I've read a lot of sci-fi, but I've never seen anything quite like them.

--THE BAD--
-While some characters are great, there are some that are *hilariously* bad stereotypes. Whether this is the result of a personal bias on the author's part, or just a lack of research into the non-scientific side of things, it results in some characters that are glaring caricatures. In particular, a CIA Director and the American president. The Director is obsessed with America's stance as the "absolute power" in the world, and what starts as a confident if misguided woman's attempts to do right by her own ideals slowly turns into a Bond villain scheme that had me rolling my eyes so hard I'm pretty sure I saw my own brain.
The President is just as bad, being portrayed as ultra-religious to the point of ridiculousness. Frank Schatzing appears to have the belief that the entirety of the US government, including the military, exists as one branch with no oversight whatsoever. The dedication put into deconstructing the US as some power-mad super villain is absurd. On the other side of the coin, every European character is nearly flawless and cares only for the world as a whole. This comical schism ultimately ruins a fair portion of the book, and was the biggest turn-off for me.

-The length. Good God, the *length* of this story makes it feel like a slog at several points. Honestly, you could have cut away two hundred pages and had the same story unfold. We're 'treated' to overly preachy stanzas about the environment, religion, national interests, and other such topics on a relatively frequent basis, especially in the latter third of the book.
I felt myself starting to nod off a few times after getting through the eighth straight paragraph about the tiniest details behind amoeba DNA. I'm all for hard science, but even I reach the point where I'm sick of reading every little bit of minutiae.
There's also an abundance of back story on every single character. We don't need to know the complete history of everyone we meet! Just give me enough to go by, enough to know who the character is, and I'll be happy with that.
Most glaringly of these segments is a chunk of the book where Leon Anawak travels back to his ancestral home. It adds almost nothing to the story as a whole, except to spoon-feed us yet another pseudo-spiritual couple of moments where a character will *vaguely* recall some mumbo-jumbo later on.

-The ending is too long and mostly uninteresting. It genuinely feels like it's dragging, and it was a chore to finish the last several chapters where a relatively grounded story turns into a Hollywood blockbuster.

Ultimately, The Swarm is worth a read. It's a story that can glue you to your seat during one section, then make you wish you were doing something else in the next section. While it does feel unfocused at times it's a solid story told well, with a lot of research behind the scenes. Not a bad investment.


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The Swarm A Novel Frank Schatzing 9780060813260 Books Reviews

I had high expectations for "The Swarm" but was unfortunately bitterly let down. This is the single worst edited book I have ever read. Filled with punctuation errors, almost every other line of dialogue is missing quotation marks or periods. There are typos all over the place and the translation to English is rather poor and uninspired. Add to it that the formatting is below average with missing page breaks at chapter ends etc, this book is definitely not worth the price the publisher asks for.

In terms of the novel itself, while intriguing in a sense of the overall story, the writing is rambling in many places, going on and on about irrelevant things, adding countless scenes that have no real purpose, and dialogues that go on way too long. "The Swarm" is a massive book that turned out way too long - once again, a good editor would have tighten up the prose considerably, making for a more gripping read. As a result of the lengthy writing you can easily go for hundreds of pages with nothing really happening. Schätzing creates a bit of suspension here and there, only to completely kill it off by tens of pages of "nothing." As a result I constantly struggled with myself whether I should continue reading or just give it up.

This book had great promise and offers a great story at its core. Unfortunately the execution and presentation are so poor that they make a book that is lengthy to read, practically insufferable.
The Swarm is definitely an ambitious book. Perhaps too much so. It is very long, which is not in itself a bad thing. But for long passages, I couldn't help feeling that it really could have done with some serious trimming. The first third of the book kind of drags its feet, and certain other passages are overly long. It is as if all the work that obviously was required to make this book made it difficult for the author to really edit it with enough gusto. We really don't need a full character history on all main characters. Many authors make these, but for personal reference only, but too much of it seeps into the book. And it does read like a militant environmentalist's dream of the oceans striking back, avenging all the crap we've done to it over the years.

Be that as it may, it does make for an interesting read, and the immense amount of scientific research that has gone into it makes it a book that will definitely open your eyes to our dependency on the oceans for our survival, but an above-average interest in marine sciences is probably helpful. If made into a movie, it would be the ultimate disaster movie, with the added chill factor, that all of the destruction could happen, if not quite for the reasons in the book.
Sold overseas as a German anti-Utopian ecological horror story, this book makes fun reading for all who have the travel bug it is full with intricate descriptions of dozens of places around the world, many of which way beyond the horizon of traditional tourists. The plot is far-fetched but again, the scientific details are admirable. Some commentators criticized the stereotyping of some protagonists but I have encountered each and every character depicted here in my personal real life and hence cannot complain. The first 80% of the novel are suspenseful - the end is a little flat, too drawn out (and predictable)
Magnificent! One of the best books I've read in years. The Swarm belongs with unforgettable epics like The Expanse and A Song of Ice and Fire. The science is great, the characters are really complex and interesting and the plot is riveting. Yes it does get a little preachy at times but this doesn't detract at all from what's going on - in fact it enhances it. So glad to hear that The Swarm is going to be made into a TV miniseries produced by one of the people who worked on Game of Thrones. Can't wait to see it! Those of you who enjoyed this book should read Fred Hoyle's 1957 novel "The Black Cloud" as it offers a different perspective on a similar situation.
So, I happened to find this book on my app after looking for some apocalyptic fiction, and after reading the description I was thoroughly intrigued. I've always enjoyed stories where nature turns on humanity, or some horrific natural force starts wreaking havoc, so it seemed like a good fit.

After FINALLY finishing this table-breaker of a book, I thought I might post my thoughts here.

--THE GOOD--
+I have to congratulate Mr. Schatzing for his amazing dedication to research. It's clear that he spent a lot of time and effort in trying to make this story premise feel grounded in reality, and it shows in his writing. The scientific explanations are quite thorough, and anyone with an interest in chemistry, biology or various Earth sciences will likely find something to be impressed by.

+Some of the characters are well-written and likable, especially, in my opinion, Dr. Sigur Johansen and Leon Anawak, arguably the two primary protagonists of the story. They're nuanced and interesting. Special mention goes to Jack Greywolf, whom I started out despising, but really enjoyed by the end of story.

+Scenery descriptions are nicely done. On a specific note, the destruction of various story-specific areas almost make you feel like you're there to witness them.

+The first half of the book is engaging and definite binge-read material. The build-up to the big reveal is laid out in such a way that you're always left wondering just what is going on, and wanting to know more.

+The yrr are really unique, and even after finishing the book I want to know more about them. I've read a lot of sci-fi, but I've never seen anything quite like them.

--THE BAD--
-While some characters are great, there are some that are *hilariously* bad stereotypes. Whether this is the result of a personal bias on the author's part, or just a lack of research into the non-scientific side of things, it results in some characters that are glaring caricatures. In particular, a CIA Director and the American president. The Director is obsessed with America's stance as the "absolute power" in the world, and what starts as a confident if misguided woman's attempts to do right by her own ideals slowly turns into a Bond villain scheme that had me rolling my eyes so hard I'm pretty sure I saw my own brain.
The President is just as bad, being portrayed as ultra-religious to the point of ridiculousness. Frank Schatzing appears to have the belief that the entirety of the US government, including the military, exists as one branch with no oversight whatsoever. The dedication put into deconstructing the US as some power-mad super villain is absurd. On the other side of the coin, every European character is nearly flawless and cares only for the world as a whole. This comical schism ultimately ruins a fair portion of the book, and was the biggest turn-off for me.

-The length. Good God, the *length* of this story makes it feel like a slog at several points. Honestly, you could have cut away two hundred pages and had the same story unfold. We're 'treated' to overly preachy stanzas about the environment, religion, national interests, and other such topics on a relatively frequent basis, especially in the latter third of the book.
I felt myself starting to nod off a few times after getting through the eighth straight paragraph about the tiniest details behind amoeba DNA. I'm all for hard science, but even I reach the point where I'm sick of reading every little bit of minutiae.
There's also an abundance of back story on every single character. We don't need to know the complete history of everyone we meet! Just give me enough to go by, enough to know who the character is, and I'll be happy with that.
Most glaringly of these segments is a chunk of the book where Leon Anawak travels back to his ancestral home. It adds almost nothing to the story as a whole, except to spoon-feed us yet another pseudo-spiritual couple of moments where a character will *vaguely* recall some mumbo-jumbo later on.

-The ending is too long and mostly uninteresting. It genuinely feels like it's dragging, and it was a chore to finish the last several chapters where a relatively grounded story turns into a Hollywood blockbuster.

Ultimately, The Swarm is worth a read. It's a story that can glue you to your seat during one section, then make you wish you were doing something else in the next section. While it does feel unfocused at times it's a solid story told well, with a lot of research behind the scenes. Not a bad investment.