Swarm

by Jon Evans

James Kowalski is having a bad week. First he found out his genius girlfriend Sophie has been hiding something important from him. Now the US government wants her to investigate a drug cartel's new weapon: unmanned drones. Drones that happen to look a whole lot like the ones his best friend Jesse uses to hunt treasure in the Caribbean--or so Jesse says.

Then a research trip goes violently wrong, and James finds himself stranded deep in the Colombian jungle, on the run from brutal drug lords.

But things don't get truly desperate until he stumbles upon what's really going on. Because that just might be the end of the world as we know it...

Genres: Thriller, Fiction

355 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jesse C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jon Evans' book Invisible Armies is one of my favorite techno-thrillers. Even more than a decade after it was published, it still holds up really well as a snapshot of early 2000s hacking. I was excited for Swarm given that was his most recent novel and dealt with the use of unmanned drones as terrorist weapons. But, disappointingly, the characters were all paper-thin and the plot was not gripping. The fact it was told in the first-person by a relatively uninteresting character did not help things. Even the surprise appearance (at least to me) of characters from Invisible Armies did not do much to enliven things, given they had no onscreen time for character development.

[Michael Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tight thriller with frighteningly plausible tech

A few typos, a bit of imperfect prose, and being a few years out of date, don't hold back this tight, terrifyingly real, technology-savvy thriller.

If you're sick of thrillers where they use "visual basic to hack an IP address" or other nonsense you'll enjoy this.

But the picture it paints of how drones may drastically change the world forever, and how scary machine intelligent agents acting on their own can be, are extremely relevant in 2024, given the advances in drone tech and AI since this was written.

Not just a fun read, it might be an important one.

[Linda Biddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story let down a bit by poor grammar

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read about drones gone wild. Drones are a fairly cheap weapon of the future to manufacture. What happens when a fleet of them gets in the wrong hands? You get the techno action of Swarm.

The main character runs across the world trying to prevent a mass drone attack, while dealing with questionable loyalties of his genius girlfriend. The author has a good handle of realistic technology and doesn't just throw out meaningless technobabble. I appreciate the diverse locations, pop culture references, moral dilemmas, and action.

The plot starts to go off the rails a bit when the drone conspiracy is expanded to unrealistic proportions. There is also some editorial issues in the novel that need to be cleaned up. (Missed words, fragmented sentences, etc.)

Overall a good read, and I'll seek out more work by the author.

[David]

I am a fan of Mr. Evans having read Beasts of New York. This tale is a James Bond international like thriller. It is fast paced exciting and complete (some stories leave too many questions unanswered). If you had the intelligence to build something that brought the world close to its end, what would you do?

[Mark Polino]

After more than week I simply couldn't get anywhere with this book. This year I'm not finishing books that don't hold my interest. Part of it may be that I'm sick of the trend toward first person narrative.

[Ivor Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. At times I was really impressed, and at others was rolling my eyes. I think the writer has some chops and will read more of his stuff in the future.

[Bill Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit unbelievable at times, but a fun combo of action and the philosophical tangles around a disruptive military technology.