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Astronomy and space

Astronomy and space

The Swarm is coming: Tim Peake adventures into science fiction

03 Oct 2022 Sarah Tesh

Sarah Tesh reviews Swarm Rising and Swarm Enemy by Tim Peake and Steve Cole

A global swarm of data
Digital drove: Tim Peake and Steve Cole’s aliens gave up their physical form to exist as a swarm of data. (Courtesy: iStock/janiecbros)

Maybe it’s the massive rockets shooting out of the atmosphere, or the idea of floating in zero gravity while travelling in space. Or perhaps it’s the futuristic thought of visiting far-flung planets and meeting aliens. Whatever it is, there’s something about being an astronaut that is awe-inspiring, especially for children. So perhaps that’s why the covers for Swarm Rising and Swarm Enemy have “From astronaut Tim Peake” emblazoned across them. It’s definitely a great hook to get kids’ attention.

With the help of bestselling children’s author Steve Cole, these books are Peake’s first forays into fiction. Aimed at ages 8–11, they are written from the point of view of 14-year-old Danny Munday as he and his best friend, Jamila al-Sufi, try to save the world from aliens intent on conquering the human race. While this is a common sci-fi trope, the books are replete with science facts and sincere moral messaging – albeit with both often featured in quite a heavy-handed way.

The books take place “five years from now”, when there’s 6G, self-driving taxis and delivery drones. The story begins in Swarm Rising when Danny’s mum – a researcher in radio astronomy at the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in the UK – rushes home from work to analyse some unusual fast radio bursts (FRBs). Plugging in her data-filled USB device, she unwittingly releases an “alien digital intelligence” called Adi that gets into Danny’s devices, and (rather creepily) befriends him by claiming she’s a friend’s cousin.

Just when Danny clocks that Adi is not a teenage girl who likes the same computer games as him, she kidnaps him, “prints” herself a body and reveals she’s part of “the Swarm” – an alien race that gave up their physical form millions of years ago, and now travels through space as a single hive mind of intelligence. The Swarm has sent Adi to scout out Earth after intercepting the Arecibo radio message, which was transmitted in 1974 carrying basic information about Earth and the human race (that bit’s fact, not fiction). Having determined that humans are destroying the planet, the Swarm has decided that the only way to save Earth and all other life on it is to upload humanity to the hive mind (which for Star Trek fans, may make the Swarm seem like distant cousins to the Borg Collective).

Naturally, chaos ensues, and the race to save the world includes superpowers related to quantum physics, aliens trying to understand the concept of individualism, and the protagonists travelling across space as digital intelligences transmitted via radiowaves. It’s a whirlwind – and educational – adventure, and I enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t your stereotypical alien invasion.

Fast forward to book two, Swarm Enemy, which takes place five months later. This story kicks off with Jamila exhibiting some alien powers on the athletics field. Her actions draw the attention of a group of researchers studying some Swarm tech Adi left behind in Swarm Rising. Not only do these people kidnap Jamila, but they use Swarm-based powers to remove all trace of her from existence – except it doesn’t work on Danny’s memory. He attempts a rescue mission but falls into multiple traps along the way and ends up being rescued himself by Swarm agents, including a newly programmed Adi.

This second book has a lot more twists and turns than the first, which is one of the reasons why I preferred it. Goodies are baddies, enemies become allies, and somewhere along the way the original Adi returns. But in brief, another alien race has come to Earth on the back of the teenagers’ trip across space in book one, and they don’t have good intentions. The journey to defeat the “Malusonians” is action packed and features a lot of sci-fi hallmarks, including zombies, teleporting, DNA hacking, an antimatter bomb, cryogenic suspension and a trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

Science, superpowers and lack of subtlety

As Peake is an astronaut and a science-outreach ambassador, I did have faith that the science in the books would be factual – which is just as well, because there’s a lot of it. They cover everything from radio astronomy and biosynthesis to computing and quantum physics, and there’s even a glossary of “science stuff” at the back to help. Unfortunately, the information comes in huge chunks that somewhat interrupt the flow of the narrative, and because the books are written entirely in the first person, the authors often try and explain it through conversations that are some of the most stilted I’ve ever read, despite it being aimed at children.

The first chapter of Swarm Rising is a prime example of this style. For instance, when Danny’s mum is talking about some previously detected signals, the conversation with Danny goes like this: “ ‘…the radio waves were being thrown out by a stellar remnant.’ ‘The last remains of a star, you mean?’ Yeah, you can call me a geek, but growing up with two astronomers means it’s hard to miss this stuff. ‘There are different types, aren’t there?’ ” It is however worth persevering through the information-heavy sections, and the authors are less prone to them in the second book.

Thankfully, the supernatural elements of the books blend neatly with the science. Take Adi’s powers, which allow her to do things like drive a car on water, bend buildings and walk through walls. She compares it to rolling a dice with an infinite number of sides, explaining how she simply rolls it enough times to get the outcome she desires, no matter how improbable it is. “At the quantum level, Danny, everything comes down to chance and probability.”

As well as science and aliens, these books also feature some moral messages. Peake and Cole are often too overt with these for my taste, but they are incorporated well into the plotline. Pivotal to the story in Swarm Rising, for example, is our destruction of the planet, which is the reason aliens have arrived. “Humanity is too divided. You are incapable of working together to make change,” retorts a member of the Swarm when Danny tries to argue that we can fix it. But as Adi points out: “The children of Earth hold the hope for the planet’s redemption.”

The notion that children – the target readers in other words – will have to fix the mess of previous generations runs strong throughout the books, and, although I think the environmental foreboding is perhaps repeated too often, the plotline is a clever way of inspiring action. There are other, more subtle messages skilfully woven into the stories that are more delicately handled. These include the fight to be an individual in a society that expects you to be a certain way, the importance of empathy and understanding, and the realistic mental-health impacts of being thrown into a world of aliens.

What grates, however, is the fact that the books are so obviously written by two grown men desperately trying to sound like teenagers – for example, they repeatedly use words like “cos” and “obvs” in Danny’s monologuing, which comes off as tired and trite.

Peake is far better when he draws on his own experience as an astronaut. In Swarm Enemy, when Danny and Adi leave the Earth in a bubble of air to reach the ISS, the description of Danny’s emotions, the physical process, and the view of space and Earth is mesmerizing. You can tell that Peake is feeding off his own journey to the ISS, especially when he writes “I felt myself smiling through my soul”. It’s a beautiful touch to the story and feeds the imagination.

I’m obviously not the target audience for Swarm Enemy and Swarm Rising, so perhaps younger minds wouldn’t see the flaws I saw. The books might not become classics, but I would definitely recommend them for any child who’s interested in – or yet to discover – space, science or aliens. Peake and Cole have managed to pack them full of adventure and imagination, and I wish I’d read them with the wide-eyed fascination of a child.

  • Swarm Rising 2022 Hodder Children’s Books 304pp £12.99hb/£7.99pb/£7.99ebook
  • Swarm Enemy 2022 Hodder Children’s Books 352pp £12.99hb/£12.99ebook
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