Bernard Werber

Reveals the hidden world of an ant empire run from the basement of a Paris apartment, into which the apartment's new owner vanishes along with his family

Empire of the Ants

Ignacio Velarde

mithraditize: to make immune to a poison by administering gradually increasing doses of the poison

the ending is such a good reflection of the human race

Ants came to this planet long before man. Since then they have developed one of the most intricate civilizations imaginable – a civilization of great richness and technological brilliance. During the few seconds it takes you to read this sentence, some 700 milli0on ants will be born on earth... Edmond Wells had studied ants for years: he knew of the power which existed in their hidden world. On his death, he leaves his apartment to his nephew Jonathan with one proviso: that he must not descend beyond the cellar door. But when the family’s dog escapes down the cellar steps, Jonathan has little alternative but to follow. Innocently he enters the world of the ant, whose struggle for existence forces him to reassess man’s place in the cycle of nature. It is an experience that will alter his life for ever... Empire of the Ants is an extraordinary achievement. It takes you inside the ants’ universe and reveals it to be a highly organised world, as complex and relentless as human society and even more brutal.

Empire Of The Ants

Pavonini

I already like books about animal societies, so I guess I'm biased. You could tell he'd done some research (I did a bit on ants myself a few years ago) which meant that though it had the feeling of magical realism, a lot of the details were right.

The best parts of it were definitely the sections following the ants. They felt like a proper mystery-adventure and I was excited to see what happened next. The ant facts didn't feel superfluous or crowbarred in to the text. 

I wasn't so keen on the way individual ants had intelligence, as my understanding was that they have more of a swarm intelligence. I thought that was anthropomorphising unnecessarily but I understand that it advanced the plot.

The whole story with the humans and the cellar was just... bizarre. I'm not sure how I feel about that. 

Some of the "insights" from Edmond Wells and his Encyclopaedia were quite tired, and bordering on racist I thought. Comparing the Japanese to insects? Check. Shallow anthropological observations about caste in Hindu society? Check. Honestly humans are a separate topic I would expect the same level of research in to write anything profound. (Werber spent 15 years researching ants as a hobby.)

There were a couple of quibbles I had with the misuse of words - calling the venomous moth Zygaena a butterfly. (Still amazed at the fact of there *being* venomous moths!) Mixing up a few biological terms which aren't interchangeable (I didn't mark where he or the translator did that, but I'm sure it would be easy for others to spot). These may have been mistakes in translation rather than errors from Werber himself.

Apparently this book is well known in France. I had never heard of it. It was given to me as a gift after a lengthy explanation of how amazing it was (and if I read it as a child I'm sure it would have changed my life too). It's worth reading and I'm sure older kids would love it.

Empire of the Ants

Reviews

Highlights