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The Swarm

The Second Formic War Series, Book 1

#1 in series

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston return to their Ender's Game prequel series with this first volume of an all-new trilogy about the Second Formic War in The Swarm.
The first invasion of Earth was beaten back by a coalition of corporate and international military forces, and the Chinese army. China has been devastated by the Formic's initial efforts to eradicate Earth life forms and prepare the ground for their own settlement. The Scouring of China struck fear into the other nations of the planet; that fear blossomed into drastic action when scientists determined that the single ship that wreaked such damage was merely a scout ship.
There is a mothership out beyond the Solar System's Kuiper Belt, and it's heading into the system, unstoppable by any weapons that Earth can muster.
Earth has been reorganized for defense. There is now a Hegemon, a planetary official responsible for keeping all the formerly warring nations in line. There's a Polemarch, responsible for organizing all the military forces of the planet into the new International Fleet. But there is an enemy within, an enemy as old as human warfare: ambition and politics. Greed and self-interest. Will Bingwen, Mazer Rackam, Victor Delgado and Lem Juke be able to divert those very human enemies in time to create a weapon that can effectively defend humanity in the inexorable Second Formic War?
The Second Formic War
#1 The Swarm

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 11, 2016
      Card and Johnston continue to flesh out the early years leading up to the events of Ender’s Game with this first installment of the Second Formic War trilogy. Following 2014’s Earth Awakens, humans have beaten back one invasion from the alien Formics and are preparing for the larger onslaught yet to come. A sprawling cast works on numerous fronts to develop the weapons, technology, and tactics to defend Earth, but they’re often stymied by bureaucracy, corruption, and self-serving, ambitious leaders. The real mystery, however, is what exactly the Formics are attempting to accomplish in the asteroid belt, and whether humankind’s best and brightest, including Mazer Rackham and Victor Delgado, can figure it out in time. The authors carefully construct their story on a solar system–wide scale, the numerous plot threads unspooling at a leisurely speed while still maintaining tension. Despite this being a military piece at heart, the action is often overshadowed by long explorations of scientific developments, discussions of morality and philosophy, and bureaucratic obstructions, such as Mazer’s court-martial at the hands of a hostile superior officer. It’s a solid continuation of the ongoing epic, moving all the pieces into place for the next entry.

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  • English

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