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.

Definitely not a standalone novel

I like the book, but the ending is not very satisfying on its own. It consists mainly of setting things up for the next book. It doesn't ruin the book (I don't regret reading it), but I hope future novels aren't quite so obviously baits for the next book in the series.

Great Concept

Introduces the invading force whose needs supersede the needs of the existing life forms on earth, with an unknown civilization evening the odds.

Average Joe saves the Universe

This is a review for the entire series as a whole, rather than just the first book. I find that the first book is rather misleading as far as the main character and the storyline in general. By book 2, you start to realize that the main character is not exactly as you thought he was in the beginning, because you expect an MC in this kind of series to be strong and intelligent, maybe with some flaws, but overall a superhero kind of guy. Riggs kind of convinces you that he will develop into this kind of character in the beginning, but with each new book, you see more and more that he's just a bumbling idiot who doesn't realize that he's a bumbling idiot and thinks he's actually really smart. Watching him sort of wander around causing his subordinates to go white in the face every time he blurts out some new crazy idea is by turns entertaining and hair-pullingly frustrating. Listening to the mind-bogglingly out of touch stuff that he sometimes pours into his internal monologues has made me want to quit the series more than once. That said, I keep... coming... back... for more. I've actually listened to this series at least 6 times (I'm a chronic re-listener) and have made it a little farther in each time. I actually didn't realize that book 9 is the final book until after I bought it. Books 10+ are apparently a spin-off but I have decided just to not go there x'D. Lots of space battles and aliens and evil alien machines, so if you're mostly in it for that kind of thing, you're golden. If you go into it expecting any kind of character development or even any closure for any but the main character at the end, then you may want to look for a series with a bit more depth.

Starts strong and only gets better

I haven't gotten into a series that I've enjoyed so much since Red Rising. This book starts out like a firecracker and only gets better and better. My only criticism is that it objectifies women, but I think the author does fix this objectification in future books somewhat.

PROS OUTWAY CONS

I'm Listening to the series again, for I don't know how many times, over the past 5 Years since I got it.
Are there holes in the story? Yes. But it's a ton of fun. Just don't listen to series 2. After book 9 it falls off.

Good

I liked the first book in this series. It was a little rough listening to the detailed description of the deaths of the children and I found the alien ships were fairly one dimensional. points for original story ans characters.

Original. Occasionally slips to mundane...

... But, overall, it's a good listen; not a wasted a credit.

You know when your friends occasionally describe a movie as a good "popcorn matinee" for those Saturday afternoons when there's nothing else to do? This is like that.

I like to think of this series now as my warm backup when "credit day" arrives yet finding myself all caught up with my main GoTo authors and waiting for their next title.

If you find yourself in that boat and enjoy the occasional bucket of popcorn (with butter) and military sci-fi story a-la "War of the Worlds," meets "Transformers," meets "Alien vs. Predator," AND you're feeling adventurous enough to give an unexplored author a shot, then you're likely to enjoy this one.

Head nod, too, to the performance of narrator Mark Boyett. Mr. Boyett's pacing, voice inflection and character-voice diversity complements the rhythm that was probably intended by author B.V. Larson.

MEL'S BOTTOM LINE: Though it devolves a bit in the middle to a mundane "shoot-em-up" ground fight, there's more than enough originality and enigmatic backstory to keep you engaged in Book 1, even as you "Wish List" future titles in this promising series for those slow Saturday afternoons. But when you do, take this tip to heart: don't spare the popcorn butter! :)

Can't Believe I Waited So Long.....

I came across this story through Audible's "recommendations" and from the description it sounded interesting; however, due to mixed reviews I was hesitate about getting the book and placed it in my wish list where it sat for along time. When I finally downloaded the story, I was very impressed with the story and how much I liked it.

While this Sci-Fi in some ways is like other alien invasions stories, where aliens invade an we fight back. This story has several twists like the aliens who send ships that are looking for commend personal, and capture people and test them and if they fell the test they are discarded. Once the ship finds a person who passes the test, they become the commend personal and fight the other aliens who want to destroy earth.

I gave the story five stars because I found it to be creative, different and captivating. The alien technology was different and I loved the military aspect of the story. Swarm kept me captivated, and was worth the time I invested in listening to the story.

Mark Boyett's performance was solid, and made the story even more enjoyable.

Makes me smirk manly

Any additional comments?

For me, the military feel of this book is its main charm. It makes you feel all tough inside. The book is not pretentious like so many failed sci-fi books. It's just good at being an excellent space adventure full of high tech but strait forward guns blazing action and manly moments.
The narrator understands this and does an excellent job at conveying the feel and pace of the book. I have listened the whole series and you won't regret doing the same. Just don't expect any brilliant writing.
It's like that blond at the end of the bar. A good time that does not require a lot of thought.

PS: Please only read this guys fantasy books if you want to be bored to death by an unending list of horribly cheap "romantic" cliche's.

Flight of the Navigator meets The Terminator

Would you listen to Swarm again? Why?

Yes, I would listen to it again perhaps in a few years when I've forgotten most of the fun.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the concept of equipping Earth with advanced alien tech.

Have you listened to any of Mark Boyett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to most of this series with him as the powerhouse behind why I keep getting the next one. Mark performs with an amazing ability to stay out of the way of the story and still flesh out the characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

To save humanity would you sacrifice yours?

Any additional comments?

I've really enjoyed this series as it is one of those that is easy to get into due to the writing style with a heavy nod once again to the narrator Mr. Boyett.