YMMV / Der Schwarm

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Considering no Deepflight torpedoes had ever been used against them, how did the yrr know those carried by the crashed Deeplight would explode solely by contact, something which is actually unintuitive by human standards? Were they actually launching the sub up as a explosive weapon, or merely disposing of it by sending it above on the fear it could be dangerous for them?
• Harsher in Hindsight: The year of the first publication of the (original German version of the) novel, was also the year of a horrific tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
• Squick: The lobster. It is reduced once you learn what exactly happened to it and why it did happen, but it's still squicky.
• Strawman Has a Point: Vanderbilt is meant to be an embodiment of American paranoia towards Islamic terrorists, and as such it takes a lot for him to accept those are not behind the biological war. Thing is, his arguments for it are not weak at all, and he makes a good point stating terrorism is not necessarily rational and therefore might perfectly include the destruction of the terrorists themselves. However, while other characters do point out that the inhuman complexity of the biotechnology involved makes his thesis improbable, they often prefer to put the focus instead on the arbitrary notion that, as he is a CIA guy and not a scientist like them, he must be just obssessed with terrorists and thus his ideas are all paranoid nonsense.
• The Woobie: Various characters can be seen as this, including Anawak.

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