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Jacob Jones-Goldstein's Reviews > The Swarm
The Swarm
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This is probably the only non-political book where I wanted to punch the author in the face after reading it. Possibly the most irritating book I have read since The Dark Tower. the book is fine for about 600 pages, then Frank loses it completely.
First off, if after 600 pages you don't care whether a single character lives or dies, you know your in trouble. Secondly, if you are going to make the argument that everyone is just a mass of DNA and everything we do is the sole outcome of that DNA, why is every single American in this book practically evil? I don't have a problem with the portrayal as such, just that it doesn't jive with what he is putting forth about humanity.
And Lastly, if the Yrr are so much better than humanity, so much more in tune with nature and basically benevolent, why are they using whales as projectiles? All of their offensives essentially involve that mass destruction of living creatures both human and non. That kind of hurts the case of them being benevolent avatars of mother nature or whatever he is trying to suggest.
The chapter about the trip a particle takes through the oceans right in the middle of the books Climax was particularly galling.
This may be the first any only time I invested this much time in a book to basically skim the ending.
It is big and long so it would undoubtedly make excellent kindling.
First off, if after 600 pages you don't care whether a single character lives or dies, you know your in trouble. Secondly, if you are going to make the argument that everyone is just a mass of DNA and everything we do is the sole outcome of that DNA, why is every single American in this book practically evil? I don't have a problem with the portrayal as such, just that it doesn't jive with what he is putting forth about humanity.
And Lastly, if the Yrr are so much better than humanity, so much more in tune with nature and basically benevolent, why are they using whales as projectiles? All of their offensives essentially involve that mass destruction of living creatures both human and non. That kind of hurts the case of them being benevolent avatars of mother nature or whatever he is trying to suggest.
The chapter about the trip a particle takes through the oceans right in the middle of the books Climax was particularly galling.
This may be the first any only time I invested this much time in a book to basically skim the ending.
It is big and long so it would undoubtedly make excellent kindling.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
August 1, 2007
–
Finished Reading
September 10, 2007
– Shelved
September 10, 2007
– Shelved as:
scifi
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Lisa
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rated it 3 stars
Feb 21, 2012 11:58AM
The flat characterization explains my inability to commit to reading this book. Thanks for the insight!
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Dont Even bother trying to read his other crap.... Nice idea about cathedral in Cologne - Starts Out and you think, cool another Pillars of the Earth. And then ' hell how so i end a Book? Let me diverge and Screw up a Good idea'Schätzing should sell his ideas Not Write the books....
Your review was spot on. The only reason I gave it two stars was I finished it - but just barely.
U didn't understand a shit of anything about that book, please, read harry potter and don't let your mind to struggle with too comokex thoughts.A hint. He never said Yrr are benevolent.
I found the most interesting part of the whole thing was challenging our ideas of what forms intelligence can take. it was a somewhat difficult read but i wouldn't go so far as saying it was only worth burning.
I totally agree with your review. What a waste of hours for virtually no payoff.
You're review is spot on!! What a waste of words this book was.
Huh, I can't understand such a negative and one-sided comment without directing it to some kind of lost in translation, sloppy reading and preoccupation because I couldn't experience this in the German version. Maybe I should also read the english one to track apparently completely re-written content in the chapters. Alternative idea, read it several years later again, this could change your opinion maybe. This happened to me with Kafka's The Metamorphosis, I was flabbergasted but sometimes such an arriving never happens but I do hope for you because I know it's possible.
I’m not american nor russian and I haven’t finished this book yet. But to Jacobs review: watch any american movie that involves russians. Without exception, they are illustrated as evil :D so it’s probably healthy to show americans that way for once. The truth is of course, that we have all sorts of people in all nations :)
Uh Idk what book u read but the author said for the entire story that the yrr kill their own faulty cells to survive and that they have no concept of good and evil how could u get that they are benevolent? They are better than humanity because humanity kills the enviroment even if that means killing humanity in the process and because they are far more advanced than human beings
I totally disagree!I was attached to 3 characters till the end.
Spoilers alert!
Americans were not evil, the group of them were.
And that has nothing to do with the DNA argument
Yrr is not so much better than humanity. It is older and it is trying to remove the pollution and human stains in every possible way.
I read it in its original publishing language. Maybe a lot got lost or dulled in translation
By the way. Now with the corona virus shit. Have you given it thought that viruses may be the work or a Yrr’s equivalent? :)
Thanks mate. I was shocked by these negative reviews! I guess it could be the translation... Schätzing actually just used about 20 to 25% of his research for the book and published later one with more of the rest. Real interesting stuff. Maybe some would like to try this as well. Its not a novel but Even facts can entertain you✌️
Lol. Someone's big mad. Thanks for the recommendation!
I read it in English, and I can confirm that those important points were not lost in translation. Agree with those who read it in German that this review is way off base and somehow misunderstood a lot..
I'm surprised you made it through the book. That must be a life archievement or something. I've read the book in German and really didn't like the characters. They were far worse than average.
If you didn't know that most non-Americans think America is Evil... well, you need to travel some.
I started to read this book a while ago and didn’t like it but this year I picked it up again and I have to say I absolutely love it. It may be one of my favourite books… But I read it in German as well, I tried it in english but when I realised the autor was german I switched and I must say, I really couldn’t follow the english version
That Americans were portrayed as evil was the best part
lol buddy if you cant stomach fictionalised evil muricans, get back to reading comics from the 60s. and by no means watch non-murican news.
You mean: "you're in trouble" - I had to say it :)
I don’t think the Yrr were ever meant to be portrayed as benevolent. They are just protecting their home after it being very injured by another species. This book was written very true to classic scifi, ideas over character development, I don’t think you are ever really meant to care deeply about any character, they’re just a means to an end in conveying those ideas.
