Review Empire of Ants - Bernard Werber

Title Empire of Ants
Author Bernard Werber
Pages 305
Year 1991
Reading time 25 day (February 2010)
Rating 9 / 10

This was an interesting read. One of the most interesting reads I had for some time. This is not a novel but also a scientific book. And even a book that will tell you about social interactions.
I always loved ants. They are my favourite insects and one of the most interesting creatures on the face of earth.

This book was written into two perspectives. First the ant and as a human. There is a third that links both of them. They are written as extracts from a encycopledia that it's the plot in the human part. Well in the ant part (and the best) is about life on a hive as an ant and we can learn much from their habits and such. Probably there are some parts that the author invented and mix some things that are not present in europe (the action is no paris). Some plants and ants are not indegeounous from europe. But the plot is a good. It's the story of an male ant as he discovers a secret weapon that could damage the hive and he links with a ant queen (or to be) and a ant warrior. Then they took their own paths and as some die others come to realize the big picture. In this book ants behave as ants even if we see some actions that are common to humans and probably the ants won't feel. We get to learn much about the ants sociology and psychology (with all the pheromenones).

In the human part begins as some family inherit a house that as a cellar and everyone who goes down the stairs never comes out. It's not that well devolped and it's only important for the last pages as we see the interlinked stories of ants and humans.

The end is pretty good and after I read somewhere that this is the first book of a trilogy but if you read it you will have a solid book with a solid ending.

The problem is that this is a translated book from an french author... and I don't know french and both second and third weren't translated. Oh well maybe one day...
In the end I would advice this book to anyone who wants to read a good book with deep meanigs and a socialogy book, if you like ants than this is also a book for you and if you want just to want to read a book that explores another worlds inside our own I would advice as well...

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