Fans of “The Abyss” and “The Day After Tomorrow” will be pleased with this well-researched doomsday scenario. Be prepared for an extensively cheesy and disappointing ending, however.
By Frank Schätzing, 2004
3.5 Stars
The Good
- Frank REALLY does his research! The scientific underpinnings of this work of fiction are sound. It’s nice, as a scientist, to read fiction in which someone properly uses the terminology, actually grasps the concepts at hand, and also relays them appropriately to the audience. You can tell his marketing experiences have proven useful here.
- Frank generally portrays characters well (see exception below). From the accurate depiction of a few Native American societies, European cultures and mind-sets, Frank gives a detailed, but not burdensome, explanation to motivations, thoughts, and rationales for his characters. I particularly enjoyed his superposition of regular people discovering or falling victim to great and terrible things. Two people with believable lives appear as a vignette, having fun on the beach, only to be mobbed by hoards of toxic deep-sea crabs. He brings the horror of global catastrophes into focus on individuals and their lives, making the scenarios all the more understandable and terrifying.
The Bad
- Schätzing’s portrayal of Americans, particularly the American Government, as fanatical over-zealous Christians is offensively absurd. Why do I see this sentiment out of all my German friends? It would be tantamount to me calling all Germans Nazis, and yet this is the way they perceive us.
- The ending to The Swarm is dripping with pretentious musings that total tens of pages too long. Karen Weaver’s submarine flight into the abyss and the thoughts that are wheeling through her head about the nature of intelligence and ocean currents are Schätzing’s ill-placed editorial on where humans fit in the universe. It could have been worked in another way in which it wasn’t crammed down your throat. Likewise, the Epilogue is a continuation of Schätzing’s anti-Christian sentiments covered thinly with a veneer of Saganism.
- The building momentum of the entire book comes to an unforgivably abrupt and meaningless ending. Mysteries build, mysteries are solved, and then, ultimately, nothing happens.
Overall
Despite the disappointing ending and the afore-mentioned persistant anti-Christian portrayals, The Swarm was a very entertaining read. I would definitely think twice in recommending it, however. There are so many better options out there! If this stays on the German best-sellers list for additional years it will certainly evidence national pride before humble taste.
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