The Swarm

Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
The Swarm Cover

The Swarm

spectru
10/1/2018
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This is generally is as well written and entertaining the other Ender prequels, (you need to have read them first) but it is clearly a set-up, a preamble. It doesn't come to climax. It was published two years ago and, unfortunately, the next two books in the trilogy are still awaiting publication.

I first read about the ansible in Ursula K Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, decades ago. There have been ansibles in other science fiction books I've read since then. I'm pretty sure Orson Scott Card has mentioned the ansible in other books in the Enderverse, and Perhaps I've read of the ansible in books by other authors. In The Swarm, the ansible gets invented. Initally, I felt that was presumptuous of Card, but I guess the ansible was in Ender's Game, so it had to come from sometime in Ender's history.

The afterword by Card's co-author Aaron Johnston is interesting.

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