Bruce Sterling’s “Swarm”

I decided to read a story before turning in last night, so I flipped through The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, ed. by Tom Shippey. I settled on Bruce Sterling’s 1982 story, “Swarm” (first published in the April 1982 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction). It’s an interesting story about opportunistic human Shapers, genetically augmented supermen/women, attempting to take advantage of a once space faring insect-like species that inhabits an asteroid near Betelgeuse. Unfortunately for the two Shapers within the hive, the group “organism” responds by producing an embodied intelligence that is periodically useful in eradicating troublesome species that threaten the “swarm.” It’s a fun story, and recommended!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Review, Science Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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