The Swarm

The Second Formic War (Volume 1)

By: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Vikas Adam, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Paul Boehmer

Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston return to their Ender's Game prequel series with this first volume of an all-new trilogy about the Second Formic War in The Swarm.

The first invasion of Earth was beaten back by a coalition of corporate and international military forces and the Chinese army. China has been devastated by the Formic's initial efforts to eradicate Earth life forms and prepare the ground for their own settlement. The Scouring of China struck fear into the other nations of the planet; that fear blossomed into drastic action when scientists determined that the single ship that wreaked such damage was merely a scout ship. There is a mothership out beyond the solar system's Kuiper Belt, and it's heading into the system, unstoppable by any weapons that Earth can muster.

Earth has been reorganized for defense. There is now a Hegemon, a planetary official responsible for keeping all the formerly warring nations in line. There's a Polemarch, responsible for organizing all the military forces of the planet into the new International Fleet. But there is an enemy within, an enemy as old as human warfare: ambition and politics. Greed and self-interest. Will Bingwen, Mazer Rackam, Victor Delgado, and Lem Juke be able to divert those very human enemies in time to create a weapon that can effectively defend humanity in the inexorable Second Formic War?

Full cast of narrators includes Susan Hanfield, Emily Rankin, Orson Scott Card, and Aaron Johnston.

©2016 Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

When is the next prequel coming out?

The Swarm is a seamless, well-crafted yarn in the very best tradition of Ender's Game. Without space battles near Saturn and no Rackham children we trust what we read was a pre-prequel. Mazer promises to be an even more interesting character than Ender, if that's possible. The child heroes are no disappointments either. Bingwen, who we were introduced to in Earth Alive plays a pivotal role in the story and may be saved from an asteroid explosion thanks to high tech armor and nanotechnology co-developed by Mazar and Victor with input from Bingwen himself..

letdown

I was disapointed that the book did not really end the formic war, story did not progress far enough.

Good. not great.

I felt like too little actually happened. looking forward to the next one. hoping they get things moving

I love the Enderverse

What did you love best about The Swarm?

This book brings you the events leading up to the first battles of the second formic war, following the first formic war.

Any additional comments?

I have greatly enjoyed the Enderverse....
However, having enjoyed it, I question some of the story choices here. Primarily, there seems to be more advances in technology, in this book, than was supposed to be in the second formic war, they were supposed to be using nukes (per Ender's Game). It just seems that the proliferation of some of the techs being worked on and deployed exceed what was supposed to be available. There is also more insight into the formics, than was indicated in the rest of the series.
Some of this can be accepted, under the belief that the information would have been top secret, but, there seems to be more made too well known to fully fit the storyline. Some, must simply be accounted to the fact that this story has been evolving for 30-40 years.
I have great respect for Orson Scott Card, but, as to any author, expanding his works, I recommend that before starting, and completing a new book, that the prior works be reread, to ensure full synchronization to the storyline.

great as always

wonderful story with narrator's that suck you in deep and take you on an intense ride till the end leaving you wanting more. great series.

Gripping Story

This was a wonderful story. There are many different subplots, action-packed sequences, touching story lines. It felt a little on the short side, but that might have just been my desire for more. It is also an incomplete story as another novel will cover the rest. Well worth the time and money.

Great audible performance, will get next one

If you could sum up The Swarm in three words, what would they be?

So the Audible performance was the best part of the story, which although a good solid entrant into the Ender Saga prequel collection was a bit stale and predictable at times. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the extra 'star' for both Story and Overall is entirely due to the excellent Audible performance.

Great story from Orson Scott Card

This was an awesome story that tells us the before story. Very well done Love the story and presentation

Another great book in the series

This book kept my attention throughout. I really enjoyed this book. Would recommend it to all who enjoy science fiction. Keep the books coming:)

Just like the other prequels

If you liked the other prequels you'll like this one. I liked them enough to buy it and don't regret it. But I will say that although I love the Ender series, that doesn't so much extend to the prequels, largely for 2 reasons:
1. I love everything involving Mazer Rackham, and care little about anything involving anyone else.
2. Chapters tend to build up to something interesting, then end. And the next chapter switches to another character doing something, or introduces a new character, that I do not care about at all. Then only much later does the story return to the good part. And I don't like that.

Narration was quite good though, with different narrators for each character, so I was eventually able to identify the protagonist of a chapter just by hearing the speaker.