Der Schwarm

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The Swarm

Original Title:	Der Schwarm
Written by:	Frank Schätzing
Central Theme:
Synopsis:
Genre(s):	Science fiction
First published:	2004

Der Schwarm (English: The Swarm) is a 2004 novel by German author Frank Schätzing (who is also the author of Limit).

The plot: Sea life has gone crazy! Marine worms cause devastating tsunamis, whales attack ships, and crustaceans invade the coasts in order to infect everyone with deadly micro-organisms. All in all, the creatures of the ocean seem to be hell-bent on exterminating mankind. Scientists all around the world try to determine the reason for all these events, and of course hope to find a way to stop them. The main characters are maritime biologist Sigur Johanson and whale researcher Leon Anawak, who have to deal with human opposition and the maritime threat at the same time... In the end, a fringe theory by Johanson turns out to be true: Behind all this are the yrr, a hitherto unknown sentient species living in the depths of the ocean...

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Tropes used in Der Schwarm include:

• Animal Wrongs Group: The group around Greywolf, harassing whale watchers. But they disperse after the whales have gone postal.
• Anyone Can Die: And most characters do.
• Apocalypse How: The goal of the yrr.
• Assassin Outclassin': Vanderbilt attempted to kill Johanson, but Greywolf and Anawak prevented it.
• Berserk Button: Anawak has THREE of them: Greywolf flanderizing his Native American heritage, interrupting him while explaining his research, and saying the 'Indian' word in front of him.
• Big Damn Heroes: Anawak and Greywolf preventing the assassination of Johanson.
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: and whales and lobsters and worms and jellyfish and ...
• For Want of a Nail: Johanson blames himself for Tina Lund's death.
• Freudian Excuse: Stone has one.
• Gaia's Vengeance
• General Ripper: Judith Li is a female version.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Johanson, though he was already lethally wounded when blowing up the submarine including him, Judith Li and the poisoned torpedo which was meant to destroy the yrr.
• Hive Mind: The yrr.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After he discovers a secret door, Johanson is given an amnesia drug.
• Manipulative Bastard: Judith Li.
• Multinational Team: Due to the global scope of the events, people from numerous nationalities have to work together.
• Noble Savage: Jack O'Bannon, who calls himself "Greywolf", sees himself as one, even though he is only one-quarter Native American. Meanwhile, Leon Anawak (a full-blooded Inuk) hates this stereotype.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted, although the persons involved are not that famous. They are scientists who helped Schätzing do his research. Mostly minor roles, although one of them even fights a shark!
• Nuke'Em: Judith Li, Jack Vanderbilt, Mike Rubin and others secretly plan to annihilate the yrr, with poison instead of nuclear weapons, but the general idea is the same.
• Organic Technology: Seems to be how the yrr achieve all their strikes against humanity.
• Pungeon Master: The author's acknowledgements are FULL of puns related to the word "yrr", at least in the original German version.
• Puppeteer Parasite: An interesting take on this trope: The yrr apparently can only possess sea creatures, and thus have to do pretty creative stuff in order to fight the land-dwelling humans.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The discussions between Anawak and Greywolf consist mostly of these.
• Redemption Equals Death: It's similar with Jack Greywolf.
• Shown Their Work: Many scientists in the cast = many Mister Expositions. And Schätzing did so much research that he was even able to publish a second (non-fiction) book about the themes dealt with in Der Schwarm.
• Southern-Fried Genius: Stan Frost is quite a cliched Texan, boisterous and plucky. And a very capable scientist.
• Starfish Aliens: The yrr, although they evolved on Earth. But they are so alien that the humans have to rely on someone from the SETI project in order to establish contact with them.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: It irks Leon Anawak to no end that Jack Greywolf intentionally Flanderizes his Native American heritage.
• The Swarm: Well, duh!
• Synchronization: The quirk of the Yrr.
• Unwitting Pawn: The researches of Johanson, Anawak and the others were secretly used for creating an anti-yrr poison.
• Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Early in the novel, a Magical Native American lampshades this with the closing words of his own speech.