"Empire of the Ants" by Bernard Werber (BR)

[Midiain]

This is a buddy read for the 2022 Get to Know You Challenge but anyone is welcome to join.

[Midiain]

(view spoiler)[I have no idea what to expect from this book but the blurb sparks an obvious comparison to Children of Time. Humans contrasted with spider society vs. humans contrasted with ants. (hide spoiler)]

Sorry. I didn't think that was a spoiler for either book since it's in the blurb. I'll be more careful.

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

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[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Chapter 1

How does something said as simply as this manage to comfort and astound me so.

(view spoiler)[
6 kilometres away: BEL-O-KAN,
1 metre high. 50 floors below the ground. 50 floors above the ground. The biggest city in the region.

Estimated population: 18 million inhabitants.
Annual production:
- 50 litres of greenfly honey dew.
- 10 litres of ladybird honey dew.
- 4 kilos of agaric mushrooms.
- Gravel expelled: 1 tonne.

Kilometres of practicable corridors: 120.
Surface area at ground level: 2 square metres.
(hide spoiler)]

Science is fun (when done like this).

[Midiain]

I'm a little less than halfway. The amount of research about ants that went into the book is truly impressive. Just an incredible level of detail. Honestly, I kind of loathe ants but that comes from living in the desert and dealing with masses of them getting into the house every summer. I'm gaining some appreciation for their evolutionary complexity though.

(view spoiler)[The human characters are not particularly interesting or sympathetic. They don't have much personality. Even more than with Children of Time, I don't care about the people and only want to read about the ants/spiders.

I remember the matchstick puzzle from elementary school and I'm wondering where he's going with it or if it's just to get people thinking outside of the obvious. (hide spoiler)]

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

I'm about halfway through now having highlighted many Ant facts that I'm not sure are real but Werber almost convinces me that they are.

I find that the involvement of humans in this story is (view spoiler)[to show how alienated the author (may have) felt growing up with his ant obsession. Like uncle Elmond, we're left being annoyed with the intrusion of humans.
(hide spoiler)]

I did this book a disservice with lazy comparisons to Children of Time. My brain may be getting filled with false data about Ants but I'm happy for the education nonetheless.

[Bonnie]

I need to read Too Like the Lightning by next Wednesday. But since you're having this buddy read and I just got my copy of Empire of the Ants, it is pretty tempting to start in on it with you!

[Midiain]

Ryan, I fact-check and look things up constantly when I'm reading or watching something. There are things that don't bother me too much (like I'll gripe about physics and medical trauma but still love superhero and action movies anyway), and things that destroy my enjoyment. I have found some things that are wrong in this book but considering that (view spoiler)[the ants are anthropomorphized so completely in all their thoughts and motivations anyway, I can let it go by ascribing it to this being an alt world. So, a poisonous moth can just be a venomous butterfly in that reality and I won't worry about inaccuracies with the ants. (hide spoiler)] The plus side is that I'm learning a little entomology trivia.

I remembered reading a short story in school about a plantation owner in Africa battling a swarm of army ants. I was pretty young when I read it and the horror of it stuck with me for a long time but I hadn't thought about it since I was a kid. (view spoiler)[The scene where the uncle was digging up the queen to photograph reminded me of it. They definitely could have planned and prepared better. With the short story, I think I was rooting for the plantation guy to get eaten. (hide spoiler)]

That interpretation of the humans makes a lot of sense.

[Midiain]

Bonnie wrote: "I need to read Too Like the Lightning by next Wednesday. But since you're having this buddy read and I just got my copy of Empire of the Ants, it is pretty tempting to..."

Yes! Join us. Give in to the temptation.

Even if you read the other book first, you can still join the buddy read afterwards.

[Karin]

I am going to pass, but wanted to mention that when my youngest brother was six he wrote a "book" about ants taking over the world. This thread was a happy reminder of that. Yes, it was a graphic book replete with spelling mistakes. No, he did not go on to become either a visual artist or an author.

However, I am going to let him know about this book.

[Bonnie]

Caillen wrote: "Yes! Join us. Give in to the temptation.
Even if you read the other book first, you can still join the buddy read afterwards. "

I like knowing other people are reading it at the same time!

[Midiain]

I finished it just now and I liked it quite a bit but I have some mixed feelings so I'm going to think about it a little before giving my final verdict.

[Bonnie]

Mother gave birth to five more puny individuals, then turned to face her visitor.

Hehe.

I am reading a paper book of this (having switched over to ebooks a couple years ago) and wanted to tap on trophallaxis

[Bonnie]

The (view spoiler)[eating alive of the (hide spoiler)] woodpecker scene caused me some disturbing dreams!

I liked the transition where I thought Ant 327 was talking about lasers, that was funny

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

That scene really was the stuff of nightmares. Had me remembering a wildlife documentary I once saw of Ants (view spoiler)[trying to eat a slug but the slime was a hindrance. They ran off to cut up leaves and used them as platforms to keep their legs clean as they dined.
(hide spoiler)]

Ants are terrifying in ways that I didn't think of as child.

[Bonnie]

Red Wood Ants!

Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formi...

Ant Wiki:
https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Formica_...

Dr. Ross Piper, mega-colonies:
https://www.rosspiper.net/2018/01/03/...

[Karin]

Bonnie wrote: "The [spoilers removed] woodpecker scene caused me some disturbing dreams!

I liked the transition where I thought Ant 327 was talking about lasers, that was funny"

There are ants in South America that do just this even now, but only whatever is in their path. I read the survival story of a 1971 plane crash and one of the things this girl had to avoid was paths like this (she had been taught a number of things which helped her stay alive and go for help--she wasn't the only person alive immediately after.)

She was a teen and became a biologist. Juliane Koepcke, and there's an online article about her here but it isn't very complete and doesn't mention the ants. I can't recall the title of the book I read about her in.

I haven't yet read her book When I Fell From the Sky, but read about her in a different book that might have included other survivors that has not been properly shelved.

[Midiain]

The weirdest thing I ever saw ants do was a writhing, scurrying ball floating in a pet's water dish. I don't know why or how it all started but apparently, they couldn't get out so they just kept climbing over and around each other endlessly. When I scooped them out, the ball immediately disintegrated into hundreds of ants that ran off in all directions. Not a single dead ant. It was equal parts fascinating and creepy.


Ok, bad news first. What I didn't like:
(view spoiler)[The humans. Just everything about the human part of the book. None of the characters were written to be engaging or interesting, which is an issue for me even if they weren't supposed to be. The dialog felt stiff and unnatural, although this could be partly due to English not being the author's first language. Their story felt contrived and was full of nonsensical things. I think there were some continuity issues too but I didn't go back and try to verify that.

Why would you leave your mad science invention and secret world behind a flimsy, broken door and nothing but a single line in a note saying to never go through it? I question how a single person could even get slabs of concrete and building materials down a spiral staircase that took multiple hours to traverse, but then he used them to build a secret door with a coded lock and a series of Indiana Jones traps to keep anyone from leaving, instead of sealing it off so no one could get there in the first place?

How did random people know who had disappeared down the basement? How did anyone at all know where Nicolas had gone?

It's possible that someone could invent a way to communicate with ants through pheromones but they don't have complex brains and language that would allow for conversation and abstract concepts.

People possibly could survive on a diet of what ants could provide but even one person would require a massive amount of food from the ants' perspective. The ants would be spending all their time and resources just feeding the group of humans that do absolutely nothing for the colony in return.

All the trapped people were ridiculously calm and happy about being stuck in a cave for the rest of their lives and losing everything and everyone they'd cared about. I might be able to believe it if they were all biologists but they were not.

The author had reasons why he chose to structure the story as he did and he has numerous fans that enjoyed it. That's fantastic and no disrespect at all for anyone not bothered by the things that irritated me. I personally would've liked the book better without the humans at all. (hide spoiler)]

What I liked:
(view spoiler)[That ants. I loved the science and insight into ant biology and behavior. It bothers me somewhat that it was peppered with things that were wrong but I can overlook it because it's fiction. I loved the attention to detail and the world-building that created a whole society and mythology around the ant community that was based on real ant behavior.

I loved the characters. I loved looking into alien minds and thought processes. It was interesting seeing how ants might perceive the larger world and their interactions with other species and with other types of ants.

I didn't like that 327th died "off-screen" but I get why the author did it that way. It was fun to watch the main characters investigate the mystery and later go on a journey of exploration. I liked how the experiences and new information she'd learned made 56th such a very different queen teeming with new ideas and innovation for her colony.

The "tanks" and using rhino beetles as aircraft were wildly creative ideas, even if they were highly implausible. I also enjoyed the battle strategies.

I thought it was interesting that the ants couldn't see vehicles on the road but could only perceive them as motion, sound, and vibration. They would have to be aware of human feet and legs even if they saw them as something like moving tree trunks, but I did like that they only saw the soles of shoes as coming out of nowhere to crush things.

I feel like I learned things from the book, and it got me to look up information and learn from that even when the book was wrong or misleading. Honestly, I don't think I'd have chosen this book to read just on my own but I'm glad that I did read it. I still don't like ants, but maybe I appreciate them a little more now. (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

after Part I, The Awakening (?)
Enjoyed wondering about (view spoiler)[whether the ants' world might be in the people's basement. Or if some of the things from the ants' POV were intersecting with the humans' POV, e.g. when the expedition set out to get meat, was that the family dog? (hide spoiler)]

Some funny bits getting to know the ants.

[Bonnie]

after Part II, Deeper and Deeper.

-Why did Nicholas go (view spoiler)[to live in an orphanage instead of with his grandmother? (hide spoiler)]??????
-Why are most transitions/switch between sections done with two blank lines, but occasionally done with three asterisks? I have not caught on to how those switches are different.
-i like the three (maybe four, if you count Uncle Edward's notes differently) sections/voices.
-i don't like that the humans' story now appears to be (view spoiler)[Horror, with people going into the basement and disappearing. Stephen King. Or maybe Urban Fantasy with a spiral staircase that goes down for miles. Neil Gaiman.
I would rather have it be realistic. (hide spoiler)]

May be seeking out some documentaries about Ants soon!

[Midiain]

I wondered that about Nicholas too. (view spoiler)[Was it just to further the plot or is that how it works in France? (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Part III, Three Journeys

(view spoiler)[Surprised that the Human and Ant stories have not connected yet. Still trying to figure it out and imagine how they do.

It seemed incredible but Edmond had envisaged Jonathan's disappearance and made provision for it in his will: "If Jonathan dies or disappears, and has not himself left a will, I should like my mother Augustus Wells to move into my apartment. If she disappears..."

In the light of recent events, Edmond had certainly not been wrong to allow himself at least four heirs.

(hide spoiler)] HA!

Getting pretty fond of our ant friends. The 4000th warrior, 103,683rd soldier and the 56th princess/Chli-pou-ni. (view spoiler)[The 327th male, I miss that little guy. (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Grandma Augusta at age (view spoiler)[100 years (at least she told Jonathan and the entomologist she was). Pretty active for that age! to descend spiral staircases for four hours carrying a picnic basket, shoot a gun, "run" and "leap."

She is psychologically healthy too. Didn't hear from her son for 55 years and then read in the paper that he'd been killed by wasps nearby. Didn't miss a beat! (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Watching the documentary "Attenborough's Ant Mountain"
It is about our very own "Russet Ants" ie. Wood Ants.
Hypnotic!

[Bonnie]

Excerpt from Seven Surrenders:

“Except ants” is Mushi’s motto.
Humanity is forever boasting of its ‘unique’ achievements: “Humans are the only creatures who build cities, use agriculture, domesticate animals, have nations and alliances, practice slavery, make war, make peace; these wonders make us stand alone above all other creatures, in glory and in crime.” But then Mushi corrects, “Except ants.”

Yay ants