The Swarm Audiobook By Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston cover art

The Swarm

The Second Formic War (Volume 1)

Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends April 30, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Swarm

By: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Vikas Adam, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Paul Boehmer
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends April 30, 2025 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.74

Buy for $24.74

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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?

Full cast of narrators includes Susan Hanfield, Emily Rankin, Orson Scott Card, and Aaron Johnston.

©2016 Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
Adventure Fiction First Contact Military Science Fiction Space Opera Space Solar System War

What listeners say about The Swarm

Highly rated for:

Engaging Storyline Compelling Characters Detailed World-building Intriguing Plot Twists Thought-provoking Themes
Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,686
  • 4 Stars
    963
  • 3 Stars
    193
  • 2 Stars
    30
  • 1 Stars
    18
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,579
  • 4 Stars
    694
  • 3 Stars
    136
  • 2 Stars
    28
  • 1 Stars
    10
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,294
  • 4 Stars
    885
  • 3 Stars
    207
  • 2 Stars
    35
  • 1 Stars
    20

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

When is the next prequel coming out?

The Swarm is a seamless, well-crafted yarn in the very best tradition of Ender's Game. Without space battles near Saturn and no Rackham children we trust what we read was a pre-prequel. Mazer promises to be an even more interesting character than Ender, if that's possible. The child heroes are no disappointments either. Bingwen, who we were introduced to in Earth Alive plays a pivotal role in the story and may be saved from an asteroid explosion thanks to high tech armor and nanotechnology co-developed by Mazar and Victor with input from Bingwen himself..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

letdown

I was disapointed that the book did not really end the formic war, story did not progress far enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good. not great.

I felt like too little actually happened. looking forward to the next one. hoping they get things moving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I love the Enderverse

What did you love best about The Swarm?

This book brings you the events leading up to the first battles of the second formic war, following the first formic war.

Any additional comments?

I have greatly enjoyed the Enderverse....
However, having enjoyed it, I question some of the story choices here. Primarily, there seems to be more advances in technology, in this book, than was supposed to be in the second formic war, they were supposed to be using nukes (per Ender's Game). It just seems that the proliferation of some of the techs being worked on and deployed exceed what was supposed to be available. There is also more insight into the formics, than was indicated in the rest of the series.
Some of this can be accepted, under the belief that the information would have been top secret, but, there seems to be more made too well known to fully fit the storyline. Some, must simply be accounted to the fact that this story has been evolving for 30-40 years.
I have great respect for Orson Scott Card, but, as to any author, expanding his works, I recommend that before starting, and completing a new book, that the prior works be reread, to ensure full synchronization to the storyline.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great as always

wonderful story with narrator's that suck you in deep and take you on an intense ride till the end leaving you wanting more. great series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping Story

This was a wonderful story. There are many different subplots, action-packed sequences, touching story lines. It felt a little on the short side, but that might have just been my desire for more. It is also an incomplete story as another novel will cover the rest. Well worth the time and money.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great audible performance, will get next one

If you could sum up The Swarm in three words, what would they be?

So the Audible performance was the best part of the story, which although a good solid entrant into the Ender Saga prequel collection was a bit stale and predictable at times. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the extra 'star' for both Story and Overall is entirely due to the excellent Audible performance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story from Orson Scott Card

This was an awesome story that tells us the before story. Very well done Love the story and presentation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another great book in the series

This book kept my attention throughout. I really enjoyed this book. Would recommend it to all who enjoy science fiction. Keep the books coming:)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Just like the other prequels

If you liked the other prequels you'll like this one. I liked them enough to buy it and don't regret it. But I will say that although I love the Ender series, that doesn't so much extend to the prequels, largely for 2 reasons:
1. I love everything involving Mazer Rackham, and care little about anything involving anyone else.
2. Chapters tend to build up to something interesting, then end. And the next chapter switches to another character doing something, or introduces a new character, that I do not care about at all. Then only much later does the story return to the good part. And I don't like that.

Narration was quite good though, with different narrators for each character, so I was eventually able to identify the protagonist of a chapter just by hearing the speaker.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!