Lings

By: Atticus Andrews

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

They came. The ravagers of the universe. The scourge of star systems. The enemy of his race. They decimated all that he knew, slaughtering his colony like a herd of insects. Carrying their metal guns and tactical missiles, the marines butchered his siblings by the thousandfold. For that, they would pay. Krill is the last of his kind in a distant corner of the galaxy. Entrusted with the survival of his species, Krill carries with him an egg given to him by the Hive Mother herself. Her last, parting gift. What will it hatch into when it's born? A new hope for the rebirth of the Krath?

When Zergs Hack the Plot

The story largely plays out like a Terran vs. Zerg match from StarCraft—except one side is controlled by a mentally challenged character, and the other by a hacker using a developer console.

The main plot barely holds together, especially considering the villain could have obtained the necessary genetic material in a much simpler way. I'm not exactly a fan of unstoppable magic that no one seems to have developed any reasonable countermeasures for.

Technology and tactics make just as little sense. The standard marine is equipped with armor that kind of works, but his primary weapon feels about as effective as a bow and arrow against the average enemy.

In an era of nanotech, autonomous war robots (somehow without even basic firewalls), and self-replicating factories, minefields are still cleared by sending in foot soldiers to walk over them. And honestly, the list of absurdities could go on for a while.

What did surprise me—in a good way—was the AI voice. It was actually tolerable for the entire duration of the book, which, given everything else, felt like a small miracle.

Interesting, surprising and unexpected point of view

Overall really liked. Have a lot to say so distilling to few points:
- story is told from an alien race point of view, which is very interesting
- there is an AI device that keeps switching sides between the aliens and humans, and kind of semi develops a mind of its own, but not in a cliche way
- in fact, this is pretty interesting written. The humans are mostly one dimensional, which is a bit of a shortcoming, yet the alien race is fairly developed personality wise
- the automated narration is surprisingly fine. Really did not mind
- there is a bit of a prolonged section about the “economy of choosing which unit to hatch” which seems more like a background concept for a strategy game, and is a bit boring
Overall - recommended if you are a sci-if nut. And if you aren’t, go get yourself check to find out what’s wrong with you
Totally worth read / listen