Swarm

Star Force, Book 1

By: B. V. Larson

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

Earth arms marines with alien technology and builds its first battle fleet! Kyle Riggs is snatched by an alien spacecraft sometime after midnight. The ship is testing everyone it catches and murdering the weak. The good news is that Kyle keeps passing tests and staying alive. The bad news is the aliens who sent this ship are the nicest ones out there.

A novel of military science fiction by best-selling author B. V. Larson, Swarm is the story of Earth's annexation by an alien empire. Long considered a primitive people on a backwater planet, humanity finds itself in the middle of a war - and faced with extinction.

Battle stations! Listen to another Star Force novel.

©2010 B.V. Larson (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Read the 2nd book and...

I was going to give this a better review. However, after reading the second book in this series, I feel some fair warning is needed due to issues with the writing. I have seen this described as a school boy's fantasy and I would tend to agree with that assessment. I have to wonder if Larson is as paranoid about aliens, as callous towards loss of life, and holds as much dissent towards government as many of our characters in Star Force book 1 because often the rational of the characters seem to presented in such fashion.

My main issues with this book starts with the romance. It is almost agonizing in this one and gets worse in the next. I don't think the voice given to Rigg's girl friend helped either. Kyle Rigg's is supposed to be some sort of leader to Earth, but that doesn't stop him from having sex whenever possible with her catty girl friend making him look like the pirate he is called. By the way, who really buys he is a grieving father when right after his children are butchered he becomes a love sick puppy with no impulse control for sex amongst his followers? I am not a prude, but the romance does become excessive and unnecessary.

The other thing I disliked was admiral, emperor, or whatever you want to call him, Crow. The man is plainly power hungry, shady, with no obvious qualifications for leadership and only serves to hound Rigg's about his decisions. For some reason Riggs puts up with his crap and calls him a superior despite the dangers this can bring (yet he still maintains that he is smarter than the "pro's" because the government just will mess things up). So we establish they are pirates yet they don't seem to understand why the US government would want to be running the show. Instead our professor Riggs blunders along making wild assumptions that of course tend to be correct and if they are wrong, well, many people just die. He is overly confident and really isn't the hero you care to believe in when he goes around killing with no regard to life (you will see this especially in the next book). In the end I found it very hard sympathize with him.

There is more I could add to the list but these are the major details from the first book that carry on and get worse. This isn't a masterpiece by far, but I did enjoy this one enough to buy the second because it had a campy feel to it and plenty of action by the end.

Fantastic, "down to earth" sci-fi with no deadtime

I mostly read fantasy because most of the sci-fi I have read have been dissapointing. Often the humans are totally out of luck and doomed.
This series is something else. The story took me totally by suprise. Nothing what I expected.
The enemy was interesting, powerfull but not omnipotend. The friends of the earth was not what you expected either.
I found not a single deadpoint in the book. Nor a borring moment.

The narrator is doing a great job. Love his Alamo computer-voice.

Pretty Darn Good

Picked this up spur of the moment. My Sci-Fi library consists mostly of Star Wars Novels, but I wanted a change in scenery. I chose this book solely based on the reviews and description which I have been burned on many times, But I was pleasantly surprised. This book was nothing like I was expecting which turned out to be a good thing. The story is very original and I would have given it a 5/5 but I felt it slowed down towards the middle. The ending did exactly what the author intended it to do, it sucked me in and I cant wait for the next installment. The narration tone was a bit monotonous but overall it was well done. Definitely pick this up if you are looking for great action and a very original story.

WOW! What A thrilling sci- fi adventure.

Just picked up the first book in the series so I can't speak to the story as a whole but the first instalment realy grabbed my attention. The main character loses his family and finds himself in command of an enimy spacecraft after going on a rampage and killing everyone onboard (for slaughtering his family). This auther is very good at describing what is going on in a clear and interesting way which makes this book very fun to listen to. Looking forward to the next book in the series!

Alien Abductions

This book was recommended by a person I follow on Audible. The book hero is Kyle Riggs a professor of computer science. He and his family live in a rural area and first his children are abducted and killed then he is taken up in a spacecraft. He passes the tests and finds a civilization of computers. The alien fleet invades earth and Kyle helps the earth armies to use the alien technology to fight them. The book ends in a set up for a series. The book has lots of space and land battles and human interaction to keep it interesting. This is a bit different than the other military sci-fi books I have been reading therefore adds a bit of adventure to the reading.

Well worth the credit/cash.

Any additional comments?

One of the best Sci-Fi books I have ever read. Highly recommend. If you like Science Fiction you will love this book.

I was worried, but it was awesome

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

Awesome story, super faced paced, and totally unpredictable. Narrator is a genius as well. Don't normally read sci fi, but this book has changed that. This one's a must.

Love this series. It keeps you listening!!

I read other listener reviews and took a chance on this book. I have bought everyone in this series. These books are fun and very entertaining to listen to.

Great military sci fi

Great military sci fi if you are a fan of David Webers earlyer book then you will love this series

What you see is what you get

Good military SciFi, but don't expect too much. It is engaging and interesting enough to encourage you to follow along for a nice adventure.