The Swarm

A lovely Germen girl who was working in our lab for the past year or so gave me this book as a parting gift. The Swarm by Frank Schatzing. It's written originally in German, but has translation rights sold globally. It's also a bloody big book at about 900 pages, small print, and 2 medium sized pictures. So there's a lot of reading involved.

Perfect for the crappy +2 hours/day I spend on the train coming to and from work.

I'm not going to give anything away about the book, but basically, I really enjoyed it. I found it engaging and enjoyed how it built up tension, particularly in the 1st third to half of the book. There's science stuff in it, but I think it should be manageable for most people, as it is an international best seller, and I don't think there are that many scientists who could possibly make hard-core science books reach that status. I found the book a bit preachy at the very end though, but this in itself gives insight into the author's stance on reality, pop-culture views on religion, and our (human's) place in this world at least. Based on the book's popularity though, these views may be shared with a larger populace.

Not to take away from the rest of the book though, it's a great read. And I would probably put this book up there with things I think people should read. Not because of any dogmas, or controversial issues being challenged (Da Vinci Code anyone?), because this book doesn't aim for that. It's just a really good read. Absorbing, interesting, and most importantly for this genre, enjoyable.

Soooo. As to what it's about...

Starts off slow with a few people disapearing while fishing in some small south american countries, then the discovery of some interesting worms feeding on continental slopes in the north Atlantic off Europe, whales disapearing for a little while... A series of non-events slowly become marginal events, and then build up to all-hell-breaks-loose events. Things get crappy and we have to deal with it somehow. I don't really want to give away any more because my ignorance in my initial reading helped make this book better for me, and I wouldn't want to take that away from you, because I know that you will ALL go out and buy/read this book mainly because I am telling you to, (I have a massively over-inflated view of the importance and effects of what I say on other people, except for Alex and Rebecca though, they could generally care less).

There's a good cast of characters, and I didn't forget their names at the end of the book, which means they all play some significant role and were dealt with by the author in such a way as to allow someone such as myself (who still struggles with which hobbit went to Gondor with Gandalf and which stayed at Rohan, I know it's either Merry or Pippin, but which one? and I've read the books twice, and seen the movies at least twice) to remember each's role/name/allegiance.

I'd give this book a 5 out 5.

For comparison though, I would probably rate The Da Vinci Code a 3 out of 5 because the only thing I enjoyed really out of it was the proposal that Jesus was romantically involved with a woman who may have had a child. The story itself seemed to exist to propose this theory to mainstream media. It was a puzzle/chase book with little character development and I did not get absorbed by the plot or feel anything for the characters. In contrast, I felt for some of the characters in The Swarm, I became engrossed in the story.

Well, I guess that's my book review for the year. Honestly though, I missed reading a book on the train today that had nothing to do with work. So I might pick up another and give another report back in awhile....

Enjoy your weekend oh People of the Blog.