The Swarm

Rating:
Summary: Killer Bee yarn still a humdinger.
Review: It's too bad that most people will recognize the title only from Irwin Allen's Golden Turkey Award winning (for Most Badly Bumbled Bee Movie) adaptation rather than from Arthur Herzog's excellent source novel. A plausible feeling blend of fact and fantasy, The Swarm tells of the aggressive Brazilian Killer Bees (derived from the misguided cross-breeding of domestic Brazilian Bees with African Killer Bees, which are quite ill tempered) mistakenly getting introduced into the New York area. Quickly they spread across the country and begin posing a serious threat to the nation's safety. Can the bees be destroyed without harming the citizens or the enviroment? If you are looking for edge of your seat suspense then forget Allen's movie (which is good only for a laugh, believe me - it's my biggest guilty pleasure) and read this book, it is one of the best animal (or in this case insect) attack stories ever written.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and terrifying
Review: Moves with speed and thrills. Even reading it now, with killer bees a real threat, it is still highly effective. The movie version by Irwin Allen in 1978 was a travesty compared to this horror/sci-fi classic. Killer bees in this story come into the US via container ships, spreading havoc and famine across the country, and it seems it is up to scientists and the military to stop it. THE BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN!