Review: Swarm (Voidstalker Book 4) by John Graham

John Graham spirals deeper into the realms of high sci-fi with Swarm, the fourth thrilling installment of the Voidstalker series.

Gabriel Thorn’s daring and unauthorized behavior from previous books has put him in hot water with Red-Eye, the cold and calculating Director General of the DNI. Despite being manipulated and punished at seemingly every turn, even when his breaches of conduct serve the greater good, he remains a loyal voidstalker. He may be on administrative leave, but when an ancient evil is stirred up during a routine geological survey on a barren planet, threatening the DNI’s future, Thorn is once again flung into a seemingly impossible mission.

Thorn executes one impossible escape after the next, pilfering alien technologies and desperately staying one step ahead of the fearsome Swarm – a mind-possessing and voracious collective consciousness. Even this non-traditional “character” has an intriguing personality, with childlike innocence and malevolent power. Desperately seeking a key to Q-space, the Swarm turns its twisted eye on a single target – unsurprisingly, Gabriel Thorn.

By this point in the series, Graham has found a strong storytelling rhythm, and has carved Thorn into a powerful, multi-faceted hero at the heart of these adventures. While each Voidstalker book can stand alone, the peppered references to past adventures and mishaps, imprisoned parents, and impersonations by androids will all land better if one has been a loyal reader from the beginning, though this installment does take the character in new directions.

The prose bounces between different narrative perspectives, slowly building the story from various directions, including the unfolding drama of Thorn’s children and his wife, Aster. They may be genetically destined to follow in their father’s legendary footsteps, but his life is clearly one of danger, power struggles, and rigid adherence to authority. The children are old enough to understand some of their father’s painful experiences, and their mother fears for their chances at a normal life. The primary antagonists of these books always seem more fearsome than the last, more stunning in scale and even more impossible to defeat, giving this series and its perennial hero an epic glow.

Though the storyline is rich and packed with action, some of the extended sections of exposition in the early chapters feel forced and rushed. Additionally, the dialogue can occasionally be too efficient, rapidly doling out necessary information for readers, but simultaneously robbing conversations of their authenticity. As is fundamental to the genre, suspension of disbelief is essential, but some of the more outlandish plans and events feel slap-dash, as though the author was filling plot holes, or trying to trim the word count. Finally, on a technical level, there are plenty of clumsy expressions or lazy phrasing, as well as idiomatic language and grammatical errors that could be improved to provide a last layer of refinement.

That said, there is also something oddly charming about Graham’s rough edges, so the strength of his character in part transcends these issues. All told, Swarm is yet another unpredictable space saga poured out from a roguish and gifted sci-fi pen.