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The Swarm cover art

The Swarm

By: Frank Schätzing, Sally-Ann Spencer - translator
Narrated by: George Weightman
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Summary

More gripping than Crichton, classier than Cussler, Frank Schätzing's record-breaking ecological thriller is now in audiobook.

Frank Schätzing's amazing novel is a publishing phenomenon with translation rights sold around the world, drawing rave reviews for both pulsating suspense and great scientific knowledge.

The world begins to suffer an escalating and sensational series of natural disasters, and two marine biologists begin to develop a theory that the cause lies in the oceans, where an entity know as the Yrr has developed a massive network of single-cell organisms. It is wreaking havoc in order to prevent humankind from destroying the Earth's ecological balance forever.

The Americans, under the ruthless General Judith Lee, take a more pragmatic approach than the scientists, seeking to wipe out the being of the deep.

The scene is set for a massive confrontation....

©2004 Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Koln (P)2004 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

What listeners say about The Swarm

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very good

A masterful story, brilliantly narrated.
I read it in the German originally but my German wasn’t quite up to the task of sustaining it to the end. My bad. The translation is excellent.

It’s a story you have to think into. It starts sooooo slowly that’s it’s almost painful. Schaetzing gives way too much time to developing the micro plots in the first section. But, like any grand steam engine, it takes its time to get going. When it does, the momentum is enthralling and the micro plots then all make sense, quite movingly in some cases. As I said, masterful. And a wonderful job. Having done the whole 30 something hours, I’m going to do it again. Because it’s worth it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book,

fascinating story, brilliantly read, thought provoking concepts definitely worth a credit and your time

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Just couldn't finish it.

Having read other reviews that said this is a bit of a slow starter I gave it ten full hours before I gave up. I should have realised after I'd gone back to the start three times that this was a boring, unreadable mess but I persisted. Ten hours in I'm done, returning it.

It is a badly written, lumpen, tedious load of tripe. And sooooooooooo boring. I love a good science-based thriller but this isn't one. The characters would have to improve hugely to achieve two dimensions, the story drags and drags and drags. Just awful.

Try John Wyndham's "The Kraken Wakes" to see how it should be done. Characters you care about, a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat and all done in about eight hours of intense, enjoyable listening. "The Swarm" is quite the most tedious book I have ever downloaded.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Audiobook review

If you're reading this am going to presume you've watched the TV adaptation so know the basic plot line. Which for the first half of the book it closely resembles. The criticisms about the politics of the adaptation do make sense. But equally detract from the end televised result, a total compromise based on economics, sadly. The other biggest difference was the prose, with the author ofen waxing ad nauseum about the actual climatic changes, the story is based on. (My favourite written chapter is Tolkien's 'Treebeard)'. I really don't have any issue with an extended prose, but for me it made a long story unnecessarily longer. And I didn't find it essential to my understanding of the plot or storyline. The best part about the written work is the character development, again as expected much more back story than a TV adaptation could afford, but it does skew the emphasis on heroes and villains and main characters! The highlight for me was the performance of Geroge Weightman, who's narration was superb, unobtrusive and well delivered. If you're unsure about taking the plunge, do it, it is worth 37 1/2hrs of your life but at times you will get frustrated at the lack of any real pace.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A good story struggling to get out

This was a bit of a slogg to get through. there is an entertaining story buried deep in this book, but it's nearly lost in all the padding. overwritten and often repetitive I was begging please just come to the point through a lot of it. this could easily have been half the length. the narrator on the other hand was excellent, there are a lot of characters in this story and was never lost on who was speaking.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Delightfully different

A bit drawn out maybe, but I truly enjoyed listening to this book. I had to keep reminding myself that I'm listening to fiction - it is fiction, right...? Quite scary, especially the realistic bits.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

could be 75% shorter without losing anything

the over all story was great, but pacing was painfully slow. you could cut 3 /4ths of the book, lose nothing and have an interesting and thought provoking read. I wish there was an abridged version. this production was very well read, but the translation was a little sloppy.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disaster movie stuff

The science is informative and thought provoking, as is the overall philosophy, but you know where it is going from the outset and there are few surprises along the way. For such an epic work it is largely unrewarding. I was, however, hugely impressed with the narrative skills of George Weightman and will look out for anything else with which he is involved.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Up and down

Thought the narration was good. Can be difficult to differentiate lots of characters but this was ok. Felt the America-centric themes were tongue in cheek but it became nauseatingly overplayed. Far too heavy handed and a more subtle approach would have been just as powerful. no need to be so obvious when we are all aware. Too many disposable female character for me, especially early on. Got through it but can’t say I’ll be looking for a follow up or anything else by the same author.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really interesting story

Very nicely weaved together, interesting sub plots and overall very much enjoyed it. Would read other books from this author if available in English

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