science

The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel)

The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) rather than just read about it. In short: The Swarm is a 2016 science fiction novel by American writers Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, and the first book of the Second Formic Wars trilogy of novels in the Ender's Game series. It was released on August 2, 2016.

Key takeaways

The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Swarm is a 2016 science fiction novel by American writers Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, and the first book of the Second Formic Wars trilogy of novels in the Ender's Game series. It was released on August 2, 2016.

Plot The first invasion of Earth was beaten back by a coalition of corporate and international military forces, and the Chinese army, but China has been devastated by the Formics' 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. Earth's government has been reorganized for defense; it now comprises a Hegemon, a planetary official responsible for keeping all the formerly warring nations in line, and a Polemarch, responsible for organizing all the military forces of the planet into the new International Fleet. But ambition and politics, greed and self-interest remain, as important members of the military continue to place their career prospects ahead of Earth's defense. It is up to Bingwen, Mazer Rackam, Victor Delgado and Lem Jukes to create a weapon that can effectively defend humanity.

Series The book is the first of the Second Formic War trilogy by Card and Johnston. The projected titles for the second and third books are The Hive and The Queens respectively. The Hive was released on June 11, 2019.

See also List of Ender's Game characters Orson Scott Card bibliography

References

External links The Swarm title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel)

In research: The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010s science fiction novel stubs, 2010s war novel stubs, 2016 American novels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) in simple terms?

Why does The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Swarm (Card and Johnston novel).