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The Swarm (novel)
Encyclopedia
The Swarm is a science fiction
novel
by German author Frank Schätzing
. It was first published in Germany and Austria in 2004 and soon became a bestseller
.
s. The book has several sub-plots and will occasionally follow minor unrelated characters to illustrate how events unfold around the globe.
Sigur Johanson, a Norwegian maritime biologist working at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
in Trondheim is asked to analyze a new species of marine worms
. After several expeditions it becomes clear that the worms, together with bacteria, are destabilizing the methane clathrate
in the continental shelf
. When the continental slope collapses the subterranean landslide causes a tsunami
that hits most of the North Sea
's coasts, killing millions and severely damaging the infrastructure in the coastal regions.
At the same time Leon Anawak, a maritime scientist who investigates the behavior of whales and works for a whale watching
company, makes startling observations in the whales' behavior. In addition, he is called to investigate an incident where whales and sea-born mussels seemed to have attacked and incapacitated a commercial freighter.
When he returns to his whale watching job, he witnesses how humpback whale
s and orca
s attack the watcher's boats. The whales work together to capsize the boats and then kill the people drifting in the water. A large number of tourists and close colleagues of Anawak are killed.
The events that are witnessed by the protagonists are only part of a worldwide phenomenon. Several other attacks are briefly described in the plot: Swimmers are driven from the coast by shark
s and poisonous jellyfish
. Commercial ships are attacked and sometimes destroyed in a variety of ways. France sees an outbreak of an epidemic that is caused by lobsters contaminated with a highly lethal type of Pfiesteria
.
When it becomes clear that all those events are related, an international scientific task force is created under the lead of the United States
. The task force is led by Lieutenant General
Judith Li, a close friend and adviser to the President
; the protagonists become part of it.
While the task force is in session, the attacks on humanity continue: The North American east coast is overrun by Pfiesteria-infested crabs that attack New York City
, Washington D.C. and later Boston
. The epidemic causes millions of deaths and renders the affected cities uninhabitable. The Gulf Stream
has also ceased to exist, an event that may initiate a global climate change that would threaten human civilization.
During a task force meeting, Sigur Johanson finally announces his hypothesis: The phenomena are intentional attacks by an unknown sentient species from the depths of the oceans; he states that this is the only logical conclusion, since the attacks are outside the power of any human agency and cannot be a natural phenomenon. Johanson calls them "yrr", after three letters he typed randomly on his computer. The goal of the yrr is to eliminate the human race, which is devastating the Earth's oceans.
General Li and a small group of scientists take to the sea on the helicopter carrier
USS Independence in an attempt to find the yrr and make contact with them. They discover that the yrr are single-cell organisms that operate in groups (or swarm
s, hence the novel's title), controlled by a single hive-mind that may have existed for hundreds of millions of years. The yrr form a collective intelligence and have inheritable memories that are passed on by manipulating parts of their DNA
. Individual yrr recognize each other by using a specific pheromone
.
The scientists have some success in investigating the yrr and make limited contact. The attacks do not cease, however. Sigur Johanson also finds out that General Li has not been honest with them. One of the scientists has been working on a modified pheromone to eradicate the yrr completely. Johanson disagrees with this approach because the elimination of the yrr may completely destroy the maritime ecosystem and thus the human race.
Li, however, is unwilling to accept that dominance over the Earth may not be a God-given birthright of mankind, and the United States in particular. She will rather take the risk than allow the US power to wane. While she gives orders to have Johanson killed, the ship is attacked and crippled by the yrr and a final showdown ensues on the sinking Independence.
Li races for the ship's midget submarine
s with two torpedoes containing the modified pheromone. The scientists are trying to stop her and at the same time implement their own plan to save humanity. She is stopped at the last moment by Johanson who gives his own life to detonate the torpedoes and kill Li.
Karen Weaver, a scientific journalist, then manages to get hold of the last surviving submarine and dives into the depth of the oceans. There she releases a dead human pumped full of the yrr's natural pheromone, hoping to trigger an "emotional" response. This works and the yrr cease their attacks on humanity.
The epilogue reveals that a year later, mankind is still recovering from the conflict with the swarm. The knowledge that humans are not the only intelligent lifeform on Earth has plunged most religious groups into chaos, while parts of the world still suffer from the epidemic the yrr sent to destroy the threat to their marine homeland. Humanity now faces the difficult task of rebuilding their society and industry without coming into conflict with the ever-watching superpower under the sea again.
, geology
, and geophysics
.
The novel borrows some ideas from the Gaia Theory. It hits on the notion that mankind's activities have created conditions that begin to affect a delicate equilibrium of biotic and abiotic conditions that have fostered and sustained complex life forms and ecosystems.
at the University of Bremen
, while Erwin Suess is a marine biologist and professor at the University of Kiel
. John Ford is a marine biologist in British Columbia and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia
.
The character of Samantha Crowe is strongly based on SETI
director Jill Tarter
, who was also the main inspiration for Jodie Foster
's character Ellie Arroway in Contact
(1997
).
and the German producers Michael Souvignier, Ica Souvignier and Till Grönemeyer
bought the film rights to The Swarm in May 2006. On May 9, 2007, it was announced that a film based on the novel was in the works. Ted Tally
has finished writing the screenplay and Dino De Laurentiis
was to be one of the prime financial benefactors of the project. The release date is estimated to be 2015.
and Michael Kiesling
have designed a board game
based on the book, published originally by Kosmos and in English by Z-Man Games
. Each player represents a nation competing in attempts to communicate with The Swarm, and the winner is determined as the most successful researcher.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by German author Frank Schätzing
Frank Schätzing
' , is a German writer, mostly known for his best-selling science fiction novel The Swarm .- Life :Schätzing was born in Cologne and studied communication studies; he later ran his own company, an advertising agency named INTEVI, in Cologne. Schätzing became a writer in 1990, and penned several...
. It was first published in Germany and Austria in 2004 and soon became a bestseller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
.
Plot
The book follows an ensemble of protagonists who are investigating what first appear to be freak events related to the world's oceanOcean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s. The book has several sub-plots and will occasionally follow minor unrelated characters to illustrate how events unfold around the globe.
Sigur Johanson, a Norwegian maritime biologist working at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology , commonly known as NTNU, is located in Trondheim. NTNU is the second largest of the eight universities in Norway, and, as its name suggests, has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology...
in Trondheim is asked to analyze a new species of marine worms
Polychaete
The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin. Indeed, polychaetes are sometimes referred to as bristle worms. More than 10,000...
. After several expeditions it becomes clear that the worms, together with bacteria, are destabilizing the methane clathrate
Methane clathrate
Methane clathrate, also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, "fire ice", natural gas hydrate or just gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice...
in the continental shelf
Continental shelf
The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain. Much of the shelf was exposed during glacial periods, but is now submerged under relatively shallow seas and gulfs, and was similarly submerged during other interglacial periods. The continental margin,...
. When the continental slope collapses the subterranean landslide causes a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
that hits most of the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
's coasts, killing millions and severely damaging the infrastructure in the coastal regions.
At the same time Leon Anawak, a maritime scientist who investigates the behavior of whales and works for a whale watching
Whale watching
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. A 2009 study, prepared for IFAW, estimated that 13 million people went whale watching...
company, makes startling observations in the whales' behavior. In addition, he is called to investigate an incident where whales and sea-born mussels seemed to have attacked and incapacitated a commercial freighter.
When he returns to his whale watching job, he witnesses how humpback whale
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
s and orca
Orca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
s attack the watcher's boats. The whales work together to capsize the boats and then kill the people drifting in the water. A large number of tourists and close colleagues of Anawak are killed.
The events that are witnessed by the protagonists are only part of a worldwide phenomenon. Several other attacks are briefly described in the plot: Swimmers are driven from the coast by shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s and poisonous jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
. Commercial ships are attacked and sometimes destroyed in a variety of ways. France sees an outbreak of an epidemic that is caused by lobsters contaminated with a highly lethal type of Pfiesteria
Pfiesteria
Pfiesteria is a genus of heterotrophic dinoflagellates that has been associated with harmful algal blooms and fish kills. Pfiesteria complex organisms were claimed to be responsible for large fish kills in the 1980s and 1990s on the coast of North Carolina and in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay...
.
When it becomes clear that all those events are related, an international scientific task force is created under the lead of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The task force is led by Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General (United States)
In the United States Army, the United States Air Force and the United States Marine Corps, lieutenant general is a three-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-9. Lieutenant general ranks above major general and below general...
Judith Li, a close friend and adviser to the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
; the protagonists become part of it.
While the task force is in session, the attacks on humanity continue: The North American east coast is overrun by Pfiesteria-infested crabs that attack New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Washington D.C. and later Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. The epidemic causes millions of deaths and renders the affected cities uninhabitable. The Gulf Stream
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...
has also ceased to exist, an event that may initiate a global climate change that would threaten human civilization.
During a task force meeting, Sigur Johanson finally announces his hypothesis: The phenomena are intentional attacks by an unknown sentient species from the depths of the oceans; he states that this is the only logical conclusion, since the attacks are outside the power of any human agency and cannot be a natural phenomenon. Johanson calls them "yrr", after three letters he typed randomly on his computer. The goal of the yrr is to eliminate the human race, which is devastating the Earth's oceans.
General Li and a small group of scientists take to the sea on the helicopter carrier
Amphibious assault ship
An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault...
USS Independence in an attempt to find the yrr and make contact with them. They discover that the yrr are single-cell organisms that operate in groups (or swarm
Swarm
Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by animals of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving en masse or migrating in some direction. As a term, swarming is applied particularly to insects, but can also be applied to...
s, hence the novel's title), controlled by a single hive-mind that may have existed for hundreds of millions of years. The yrr form a collective intelligence and have inheritable memories that are passed on by manipulating parts of their DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. Individual yrr recognize each other by using a specific pheromone
Pheromone
A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual...
.
The scientists have some success in investigating the yrr and make limited contact. The attacks do not cease, however. Sigur Johanson also finds out that General Li has not been honest with them. One of the scientists has been working on a modified pheromone to eradicate the yrr completely. Johanson disagrees with this approach because the elimination of the yrr may completely destroy the maritime ecosystem and thus the human race.
Li, however, is unwilling to accept that dominance over the Earth may not be a God-given birthright of mankind, and the United States in particular. She will rather take the risk than allow the US power to wane. While she gives orders to have Johanson killed, the ship is attacked and crippled by the yrr and a final showdown ensues on the sinking Independence.
Li races for the ship's midget submarine
Midget submarine
A midget submarine is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to 6 or 8, with little or no on-board living accommodation...
s with two torpedoes containing the modified pheromone. The scientists are trying to stop her and at the same time implement their own plan to save humanity. She is stopped at the last moment by Johanson who gives his own life to detonate the torpedoes and kill Li.
Karen Weaver, a scientific journalist, then manages to get hold of the last surviving submarine and dives into the depth of the oceans. There she releases a dead human pumped full of the yrr's natural pheromone, hoping to trigger an "emotional" response. This works and the yrr cease their attacks on humanity.
The epilogue reveals that a year later, mankind is still recovering from the conflict with the swarm. The knowledge that humans are not the only intelligent lifeform on Earth has plunged most religious groups into chaos, while parts of the world still suffer from the epidemic the yrr sent to destroy the threat to their marine homeland. Humanity now faces the difficult task of rebuilding their society and industry without coming into conflict with the ever-watching superpower under the sea again.
Themes and motives
While the story unfolds the novel touches various topics, including the destruction and poisoning of the maritime ecosystems on earth, the importance of the sea for humanity and the coexistence of different species. The book also remarks on the human inability to thoroughly understand "alien" life; it speculates on the philosophical and religious consequence that the discovery of another sentient species on earth may have.Publication history
The Swarm was a number-one-bestseller for eight months in Germany and has been translated into 18 languages. It was lauded by many critics and readers for its accurate representation of marine biologyMarine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, and geophysics
Geophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
.
The novel borrows some ideas from the Gaia Theory. It hits on the notion that mankind's activities have created conditions that begin to affect a delicate equilibrium of biotic and abiotic conditions that have fostered and sustained complex life forms and ecosystems.
Use of real life persons
Four characters from the novel actually exist and were written into it by Schätzing as thanks for answering his questions on the scientific background: Gerhard Bohrmann and Heiko Sahling are geologistsGeology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
at the University of Bremen
University of Bremen
The University of Bremen is a university of approximately 23,500 people from 126 countries that are studying, teaching, researching, and working in Bremen, Germany...
, while Erwin Suess is a marine biologist and professor at the University of Kiel
University of Kiel
The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...
. John Ford is a marine biologist in British Columbia and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
.
The character of Samantha Crowe is strongly based on SETI
SETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
director Jill Tarter
Jill Tarter
Jill Cornell Tarter is an American astronomer and the current director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute.-Education:...
, who was also the main inspiration for Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
's character Ellie Arroway in Contact
Contact (film)
Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....
(1997
1997 in film
-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
).
Claims of plagiarism
Thomas Orthmann, a German marine biologist and journalist, claims that dozens of passages in The Swarm have been lifted word for word from his writings. He is demanding compensation from Schätzing. Schätzing refuses to pay any compensation, but has agreed to acknowledge Dr Orthmann in the next edition of The Swarm.Film adaptation
Hollywood actress and producer Uma ThurmanUma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
and the German producers Michael Souvignier, Ica Souvignier and Till Grönemeyer
bought the film rights to The Swarm in May 2006. On May 9, 2007, it was announced that a film based on the novel was in the works. Ted Tally
Ted Tally
Ted Tally is an American playwright and screenwriter.-Screenwriter:Born William Theodore Tally in North Carolina, Tally was educated at Yale College and the Yale School of Drama, and has also taught at each of them...
has finished writing the screenplay and Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
was to be one of the prime financial benefactors of the project. The release date is estimated to be 2015.
Boardgame adaptation
Wolfgang KramerWolfgang Kramer
Wolfgang Kramer is a German board game designer.Kramer formerly worked as an operations manager and computer scientist, but since 1989 he has worked full-time on game design. He has designed over 100 games, many which have been nominated for or have won the Spiel des Jahres...
and Michael Kiesling
Michael Kiesling
Michael Kiesling is a German board game designer. Many of his games have been nominated for or have won the Spiel des Jahres, a German games award.He is best known for co-authoring the board game trilogy Tikal, Java and Mexica with Wolfgang Kramer....
have designed a board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
based on the book, published originally by Kosmos and in English by Z-Man Games
Z-Man Games
thumbZ-Man Games is a company incorporated in 1999 in the USA to produce games. The headquarters is in Mahopac, New York, near New York City. It is named after its proprietor, Zev Shlasinger...
. Each player represents a nation competing in attempts to communicate with The Swarm, and the winner is determined as the most successful researcher.