The bulk of the tale revolves around bootstrapping a military response to a malevolent alien invasion by what appears to be a machine intelligence, intent on wiping out humanity in order to use Earth as a source of raw materials. Our hero is a college computer scientist who is the most successful at deciphering a functional interaction with the alien artificial intelligence powering the spacecraft. In Swarm, alien vessels with alien advanced technology, but no aliens arrive on Earth and begin selecting, rather brutally, human candidates to pilot the ships in anticipation of future conflict with another alien enemy. Larson has crafted a novel twist on alien contact as well as solving the dilemma of advanced technology within a society temporally close to our own. The narrator was ok, but after listening to Ray Porter and Dick Hill, he was a little lack luster.įinally, an explanation for alien abductions! The ending makes you want to buy the rest in the series. I have never heard of the (Hope Monkey) before, but I will always remember it. It kept my attention as the miles I was driving just melted by. I believe those that have trained in the military all there life will be insulted by this. He is a college professor who teaches computer science and this seems to give him the ability to lead armies, design weapons, be a diplomat and be a military strategist. We are given information on his wife's death, which was kind of gross and which adds nothing to the story.

Parts of the book sound like something Piers Anthony would write. Problems: At the beginning the main characters' kids are killed and in a very gross way. The story concept is really good and will keep you listening, even at the times when the writing falters.

Then it becomes kind of (early) Heinleinist. The very beginning of this reminds me of the game Portal.

Swarm by B.V. Larson