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.

Great Idea, decent read, light on action.

What did you love best about Swarm?

I like the concept.

What other book might you compare Swarm to and why?

I don't know of any books like this one. Other than the rest in the series.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Very funny in some of the satire.

Any additional comments?

I listend to all the books in this series. It is a very good series with a lot of humor and good characters. I only point out 3 things that make the books a litle less than amazing.
1. The author builds into his story a loophole that allows him to manipulate any plot conflict without any restraints. While the entire series hindges on this one loophole. I applaud the creative idea behind it but it leaves no challange in creating smart resolutions to conflicts. Your plot just uses the loophole to solve every problem.
2. The characters while using and adhearing to a military complex of honor would not necessarily react as they do in the books to many of the situations that happen. I found myself getting pissed off at the main characters quite frequently. For example: Someone is going to try to assasinate a main character and the main character does nothing about it but try to make nice.... that would never happen in a military or political situation.
3. Much of the books could be condensed or use the pages to elaborate on the main plot archs.

This all being said. The book series is still a great read and a ton of fun.

Innovative Plot

Swarm: Star Force by B. V. Larson, is story that takes alien invasion into a whole new realm of interesting possibilities.

Great story, poor production

I enjoyed the story, and the voice actor was fine. My pet peeve was done, and whispers were in low volume not stage whispers. Worse was there are many skips in the recording, which is the real reason for the low score on performance. The low score is for production values.

A great, gritty war novel

I enjoyed Swarm a great deal. It wasn't a perfect novel, but it had a quality that is hard to find these days - it gave me that "just one more chapter" feeling.

The good: Many books have a main character who ends up being crucial to the fate of the world. This is such a book. But Swarm does a good job of actually explaining it, and making it seem plausible, without making its protagonist superhuman. As he explored the heartless AI that had taken him prisoner, the main character's attempts to figure things out and musings about what was going on mirrored my own. There is a definite back story going on, an incredible plot that is hinted at, but that does not quite take shape in this book. Good thing it's only book one, because I want to know more! That being said, there's also a definite (and somewhat happy) ending.

The characters seem interesting - nobody is a cardboard cutout villain, and although we don't get to know most characters very well, most seem interesting. Mark Boyett does a great job of making them come to life with different voices and accents, and I'd be happy to listen to another novel narrated by him.

There is conflict in the book, and consequences. Things are rarely black or white in the novel; instead, the author takes pains to show shades of grey, both morally (sometimes there are no right choices) and with decisions (sometimes the main character fails and sometimes people die because of him). There are also surprises in the book - I was caught off guard a couple times by directions I did not expect the book to go. Even the ending caught me off guard, and set up a wildly different book 2.

The bad: Swarm can be a pretty dark book. As mentioned, lots of people die in the novel, including several because of the protagonist's choices. His own teenaged children die in chapter 2, and while it happens quickly and moves the plot along, it was still darker than I'd have preferred. There is talk of extinction, murder, and a vague hint of rape (not by the main character). At times I found this off-putting.

In addition, the book is a book about events and ideas, not about people. Few people get much fleshing out in the novel, which makes the romance between the main character and an unlikely passenger seem slightly forced. It also seems like some of the angst that ought to be in such a dark book is skimmed over a little too quickly, although not horribly so. The new technologies described in the book are also not covered in much depth, although that's not always a bad thing - lacking a science background myself, I often find hard sci-fi to be trying a little too hard. Swarm was at least internally self-consistent, and often had good reasons for its powers and limitations.

Finally, Swarm changed directions. At the very beginning, it was an adventure, but quickly became a puzzle in which the main character had to figure things out, which I loved. But then it became a science fiction war novel where the protagonist fought side by side with marines against giant robots and talked about politics and logistics. While a great read, I wasn't expecting it (maybe I should have been, though).

All in all, Swarm was a great book, one that was gripping and plausible, but also a little dark and gritty. If you like books about war and solving puzzles, have I got the series for you!

Pulp sci-fi at its best

This story has action, adventure, lust, and alien robots. I'm not sure why I liked it, but I couldn't stop listening.

The main character is a computer science professor from Northern California who is forcibly drafted into service as a alien spacecraft commander. We follow along as the world is introduced to two different versions of invading alien robots and how a group of disparate thugs joins together to create "Star Force".

There is plenty of action and political undertones as the governments of earth react to the threat of annihilation. As for the sci-fi aspects, the characters seem as bewildered by the technology as the reader/listener. The author doesn't dwell on the whys of the technology, but there are parts where I tuned out as he went into the hows.

Overall, though, I thought it was an enjoyable start to a sci-fi series.

Breadth of fresh air.

A very poignant approach to Space Opera. Invasion. Biotics. Automation. Really enjoyable. You should definitely read this great book.

Terrific

Keeps you on your toes wanting to hear what happens next. Very unique and original. Want more of his books now..

Good scifi book

This would make a great TV series.
Great characters, great action, great scifi element. Will read next book in series.

Great Sci-Fi

Great basis for starting a series. Detailed events and plausible scenarios.

Excellent narration. Recommended. Good road travel book. Looking forward to the second book in series.

Great story hanging on for the next book

What made the experience of listening to Swarm the most enjoyable?

The lead charter

What did you like best about this story?

The new use of teck

Which scene was your favorite?

Made contact with the BLUES

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Dream

Any additional comments?

Hate to need to Waite for the next book