Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan & Deborah Biancotti, Swarm (Zeroes #2), Allen & Unwin, Oct 2016, 400pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925267242
If you enjoyed the first of the Zeroes novels, then you will be entirely enthralled by this one. The pace is a little slower than the first novel, giving us time to get know each of the anti-superpower heroes a little better, but once the action heats up there is a lot more at stake than in the previous novel. There are more deaths for a start.
Something happened in the year 2000. Some babies were born with unusual abilities that might or might not be superpowers. Nate Saldana, known as ‘Bellwether’, can guide a crowd to do his will, Chizara, known as ‘Crash’ can wreck or enhance any electrical or electronic device from a distance with the power of her concentration, Thibault, often (un)known as Anon, can simply disappear from your awareness while he is around. Ethan (‘Scam’) has a voice that can talk its way out of almost any corner, though there is no telling what other, worse corner it might talk Ethan into. ‘Flicker’ is blind but can see out of the eyes of those around her. Kelsie lives on controlling the mood of a crowd—a power that could be angelic or demonic, and that is the basis of the plot in this sequel novel. What if a teenager with one of these powers goes all out to satisfy the worst impulses in the human soul? The results are horrifyingly barbaric. Freud has something to answer for here, having spent his life persuading us that there is a powerful, selfish, instinctive, and immoral force within each one of us that goes by the name of the ‘Id’. In other words, it is no longer the case that only the evil are evil. If we are honest, since Freud, we believe each one of us could become murderous.
This novel has excitement, suspense, thrilling episodes, and real tragedies to tell about while it tackles some troubling questions about the human psyche, the human soul, and human potential. These are real and urgent issues for young people growing into a world where there are many wars, mass movements of refugees seeking safety, terrorist attacks across Europe as well as the Middle East, and high levels of paranoia of which politicians and preachers are taking advantage. This is a novel worth reading for the thrills and then worth thinking over, and talking about its ideas. Recommended for readers 15-20 years.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy
