The Swarm, Orson Scott Card
The Swarm, Orson Scott Card
38 Rating(s)
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The Swarm
The Second Formic War (Volume 1)

Author: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston

Narrator: Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Stefan Rudnicki, Susan Hanfield, Emily Rankin, Orson Scott Card, Vikas Adam, Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 18 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/02/2016

Synopsis

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

About Orson Scott Card

ORSON SCOTT CARD may be best known for his science fiction (including Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead), but, regretting the lack of fantasy novels set in the American past, he started the Tales of Alvin Maker, the epic of a powerful mage on the American frontier.Card was born in 1951 in Richland, Washington, and went to school in Santa Clara, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Provo, Utah. After serving as a missionary for the LDS Church in São Paulo, Brazil, he earned degrees at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, worked as an editor of books and magazines, and wrote plays and audioplays. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. They are the parents of three adult children and grandparents of seven.

About Stephen Hoye

Stephen Hoye is an Audie Award and Earphones Award winner for the Best Voice in Biography and History.  His audiobook career includes reading dozens of audiobooks, including James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side, Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip, and Ben Bova's The Aftermath.   Hoye trained at Boston University and The Guildhall in London. Hoye has worked as an actor for more than 30 years, with roles in films such as The Delivery, Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Little Shop of Horrors, and Spies Like Us.  On television, he's been seen in The Return of Shelley, Drop the Dead Donkey, and Crossroads.  He's also appeared on stage in Henry V and Love's Labours Lost, both at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, London.

About Aaron Johnston

AARON JOHNSTON is the coauthor of The New York Times bestselling novels Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, and other Ender's Game prequel novels. He was also the co-creator and showrunner for the sci-fi series Extinct, as well as an associate producer on the movie Ender’s Game. He and his wife are the parents of four children.

About Arthur Morey

Arthur Morey has recorded countless audiobooks, including titles by such authors as M. Scott Peck, John Updike, Richard Russo, Anne Tyler, and John Irving. He attended Harvard and the University of Chicago and has taught performance and writing at Fordham, Northwestern, and the Art Institute of Chicago.  Arthur has appeared in a host of off-Broadway and off-Loop productions.  He has won three AudioFile Magazine 'Best Of' Awards: in 2011 for BIOGRAPHY & HISTORY, in for History & Historical Fiction, and in 2009 for Nonfiction & Culture.  His work has also garnered multiple AudioFile Earphones awards, and he has been nominated for an Audie Award.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on August 22, 2019

3.5 stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature: Orson Scott Card‘s ENDERVERSE has grown to sixteen novels and counting, along with several novellas and short stories, since he published Ender's Game in 1985 (or if you want to go back even further, since the original “Ender’s Game” short story w......more

Goodreads review by Eric on November 10, 2016

An interesting idea for the beginning of a story ruined by completely uninteresting characters, and series shattering continuity errors. Unless you REALLY enjoyed the characters from the previous trilogy about the First Invasion, you will probably want to pass on this one until the rest of the Secon......more

Goodreads review by Andy on September 08, 2016

Good fun for Enderverse fans, so 4* for that crowd. Not the best in the series and not worth it on its own. What is different in this episode is that the International Fleet is completely dysfunctional. In the other books, the governmental authorities have a level of omniscience and infallibility th......more

Goodreads review by Sean on May 14, 2019

masterful storytelling. the characters here are so insightful, and the alien race's technology marvelous. the infuriating careerist military leaders and criminals are loathsome, the goodness and wisdom and character of the heroes are inspiring. I don't know if I've ever read a book that engaged my i......more

Goodreads review by James on April 12, 2017

Starts out OK but to make a long story short, it should have been shorter! There is much to be said for a build up to the next book, but this one was not really developing the characters much from the previous novel. You are required to read the previous one or else you will be lost, not a good sign......more

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