First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Stelliform Press for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Alas, I had to give up midway through. The premise was a stretch, I wasn't feeling the characters (except Magenta, the gender-bending roommate), everything was happening so fast, especially the romance(s)...the protagonist was pining after a school friend, and suddenly she was in love with someone else she had only known for a month (and ready to give up her world for his), and suddenly..."stuff" ensued, etc. The environmental message and the diversity are the driving force of the story, and I commend the author for that; but it wasn't enough to grab and sustain my attention, especially with the story itself being all over the place/feeling cliché more often than not/needing more suspension of disbelief than I can provide (and I mean the contemporary bits, not the sci-fi ones...).

Thank you netgalley for giving me this digital copy. It's a wonderful story with beautiful concept. I enjoy to read this amazing book

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

I appreciated Rylla's innocent view of the world. I think there were aspects of this book that felt unrealistic (ex., the speech she made would not be enough to get into a university anywhere now, let alone in a post-apocalyptic world where unis are rare and super duper prestigious), but I appreciated the reward for fighting for what you believe in.

In addition, feels weird that she's this social media sensation, but social media is banned in her school yet everyone knows about her?? That felt like a huge story gap and I think affected the depth of the relationships Rylla could have made at the school.

The world building was very cool - from the dust of the desert to the thriving underworld of the university, it reminded me of the setting of The Host. I loved the technology and the creativity it took to develop these devices and imagine this world. The inventions within this story felt real and so futuristic that I bought into it immediately.

The pacing also felt weird - how quickly she bops between feelings, how everything shifts and moves through the plot, and the place-to-place travel all felt like they didn't fit right. I don't know how to describe it, but it was off.

All in all, I think this is a great YA story, but there were definitely plot holes that felt inconsistent with the genius of the rest of the world building and story arc. I think this book needed more refinement in terms of cleaning up some of those loose ends, but this story and the message felt very important.

TW: death of a loved one, misgendering, violence, drug use, drug addiction

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
World Building: 3/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Pacing: 2.5/5
Overall: 3/5

eARC gifted via NetGalley by Stelliform Press in exchange for an honest review.

Super cool concept, but the writing as well as the pacing just didn't really work for me. The environmental commentary was nice to see specially thinking about how would this affect kids far out into the future and where they can’t have life where they can develop normal lives for themselves. The dystopian part although seem like an important role but it just felt decoration to make the world seem more interesting than it really was. This is saddens me from how dissatisfied I am with this.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I'll have to try again in a bit, but I tried three times and the book just bums me out a bit 😅
The writing style is great, easy to read and interesting too, it's the content where it just doesn't work for me. I keep getting stuck at about 20% in.

I'm giving this 3 stars because of the writing style and that it's just not for me after all and that's not the author's or the books fault.

Very timely story. Few post-apocalyptic stories focus on climate change, rather they tend to favor zombies, pandemics, or zombie pandemics. It is refreshing to see a writer tackle climate change, and Kern does it well.

Seeds For the Swarm is poignant with well drawn characters, an engaging story, and offers a well researched and believable climate apocalypse scenario.

A realistically bleak future with a tinge of hope. The planet is ending and a young girl lives in the abandoned, barren southern lands, where water is a luxury and survival is necessary. When her speech at a protest goes viral, she is offered admission into an elite school where tech opportunities exist and so do monstrous secrets. This dystopian is a little too much at times but might be the perfect recipe for some readers who don’t mind a lot of the repeated tropes: an authoritarian state, a futuristic setting, a clear conclusion of what’s right and wrong. Though, the world building does pull in despite the pedantic writing and the diversity taken into account reads refreshing with respect to the genre.

Seeds for the Swarm is an engrossing story that follows Rylla as she comes of age during the climate apocalypse. There's a great balance between Rylla's personal growth over the course of the book and the external conflicts of increasing political unrest and mysteries at Wingates University. Rylla's choices exasperated me at times but she was a wonderfully complicated, relatable character that I really enjoyed rooting for. Kern's writing was easy to read. I felt immersed in the story from the very first chapter. There were some slow parts in the story but the writing kept me invested.

The setting of the United States in 2075 is vividly rendered by Kern. The country is split between the Lush states that have ample access to water and the Dust states where desertification has turned the soil to dust and water has to be shipped in. The ways in which life has changed to adapt to environmental catastrophe were both fascinating and horrifying. I liked that even in a bleak future, there's still hope for humanity in Seeds for the Swarm.

Thank you to Netgalley and Stelliform Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The scenario here is one of the more realistic I've read in a dystopian novel. We look at our current world and see how it could turn into that of this book - massive income inequality and resource allocation entirely controlled by corporations. A truly compelling concept. The actual reading is considerably less so. It tries to include too much. There are all of these side complications with loads of build up that contribute little to the plot on the whole. It might have worked better as a series.

This is an excellent read exploring a world where climate change has left the lower US states fighting for water, and all but cut off from the "lush states" in the north. After a video of her fighting for water rights goes viral, Rylla is asked to go to the lush states and join a mysterious school. This novel is about Rylla's adjustment to the glittering school, and what happens in the dust states she's left behind. There's a lot packed into this short novel, and I could see it being a great book for high school classes to explore. I didn't realize until the end that this is the first book of (at least) two, so I was surprised by the ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC I received.

TW: drug use, transphobia (misgendering)

This is a dystopian sci-fi story that bridges the gap between our current climate change and the not so far off future. Rylla, Theo and all the other characters don’t act like teens in a science fiction novel, they act like real teenagers, and it was easy to feel like I was right in the room with them.

The worldbuilding, description and details were all so well written, and I read this book in only a few days. I was hooked, and now I can’t wait for the world to know about this story as well. There are so few books like this, and it’s so important to share them all.

I will say that there are quite a few topics that aren’t too appropriate for a younger audience, but depending on what people are reading, it should be fine.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stelliform Press and the author for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I loved it, it was exactly the type of dystopian novel I was looking for, especially since some of the situations in this are relatable even in modern day. It was easy to read and i finished it within just a few days. This book is what the YA dystopian genre has been missing and I'll definitely recommend it to my friends. Especially teenage readers would find this inspiring and riveting since the main characters are teenagers who want to fix the world.

Thankyou Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC!

This came out at the start of this month, and have to admit, this is an incredibly strong first novel. This manages to blend the first time college experience with climate dystopia really well, and set up the future stakes for the rest of the trilogy. I think that Mx. Kern ended up leaning in a bit too hard to the drug addiction aspect of this in terms of a crutch for the plot, but that's honestly my only real criticism of this. I actually like that we end this unsure as to who Rylla should trust. Definitely worth paging through, and I'll be interested in the rest of the series, as well as the rest of Mx. Kern's books to this point.

Rylla has lived in the Dust her whole life-- the part of the country abandoned to drought, where survival is hard won and there are so few living things she knows all their scientific names. All she wants to do is go to college, and one night, after an impassioned speech she makes in defense of her home goes viral. teachers from an elite school offer her a spot. Wingates is everything the Dust is not-- water isn't rationed, there's more than enough food, and there are animals here that went extinct long ago.
As a Humanities student at Wingates, Rylla's job is to study people and help save the world. But she quickly realizes there's more to this school-- and the world-- than she originally thought.

Seeds for the Swarm is devastating and hopeful and quite possibly the most impactful book I've read this year. It's an examination of humanity-- the good, the bad, and everything in between. It shows us at our best, at our worst, and in the moments when we're trying our best, no matter the outcome.
The tension throughout the book was incredible. Between not knowing who Rylla should trust, not feeling like I had a full grasp of what was REALLY going on in the world (which mirrored reality so well!), and watching Rylla behave like a teenager in unfamiliar, impossible situations, I was completely enthralled.

Seeds for the Swarm has cemented itself as one of my favorite books, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes next.

This is a kind of dystopian sci-fi close future where the USA's south became poor with no wildlife and water. Rylla lives in Texas and her dream is to get into college. One day when her virtual school is almost over as she can't afford more she hears about her river which is going to get turned into a dam. She gets mad as that will destroy life so she runs into the place where the decision meeting is being held and says a speech. She gets viral, though not in a pleasant way. But that gets her a scholarship to a prestigious college in Chicago. She's going to be a humanitarian major. But not all things are as they seem, and she gets herself in some conspiracy while things for her family keep going down back in the Dust... What will she do when she keeps losing her mind? Lol.
So yeah the premise is cool, it tries to be so diverse, to cover so many topics around so many areas. And it just didn't work for me. The MC was annoying, it took me forever to read this. The side characters were fine but not the guys Rylla liked. Everything was messed up. I just wasn't sure if the author did enough research on things. The science felt like a stretch. I understand the whole theme of climate change and saving the world, but everyone just wasn't nice... I don't get it. Rylla kept becoming crazier and making stupid mistakes all the time, but she keeps getting forgiven. I don't know... Mental health could've been handled better, especially the addiction story was so unrealistic. The whole friendships just felt odd, I didn't feel anything for anyone. There was also some mature language used which I didn't appreciate. I just felt like the tutor tried so hard to write teenagers but ultimately failed... the plot twists didn't make me feel anything either.
The muslim character was stereotypical and what does the author mean by making her say that she's not religious in a literal sence just for being a scientist and gay?! Rylla was so frustrating and gross. She was totally straight I don't know why she said she isn't. All the crushes she had were guys. The guys she liked were toxic. It was frustrating how woke it tried to be but not in a very natural way. I just... am so frustrated ok? I wanted it to be better!!! Author do some more research sometimes and try to sound less ignorant!!!
Sorry. Not for me. Maybe some of you will enjoy it, I don't know...

A novel that would have been better fit for non-fiction. There is so much info-dumping in the school setting that I wish the author had just.. written about these topics instead of framing it inside a rather weak dystopian novel. The cast of characters and pacing is what fell really short for me; way too fast and glancing over important details. The world building as well felt weak in many areas and not thought through in others, as a "dystopia" I felt there are multiple areas the world is too nice to be dystopian. The world ending is looming, and that is a big threat I didn't feel urgency for.

DNF @ 27%

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

I have a few things to say about this.
First of all, the book starts without any explanation of what world we find ourselves in and then the characters suddenly give us a bunch of made-up terms that we are just supposed to EVENTUALLY understand. It felt like I started a series on the third book without knowing.

Rylla is a seventeen year old who suddenly decides to stand up for the river she loves so much when she finds out that some politicians want to build a dam. She gives a half-assed speech and that gets turned into a meme song and somehow a university finds it and thinks she’s worthy of a scholarship? I feel bad using the word “ridiculous” to describe this situation but I can’t think of another appropriate word at the moment.

And another thing: I ended up skimming through some things because I couldn’t find interest in some parts so I might have missed the bigger picture here but… Rylla clearly gets told social medias aren’t allowed on campus but somehow everyone knows who she is and about her viral moment. What??

I don’t think the story was BAD, but I couldn’t be bothered to care about anything that was happening and I didn’t really like the writing style either. It was clearly a book written with the intent to make people think about the environment but I don’t feel like the execution was good enough.
Maybe it gets better, but I really can’t continue reading this, I’m sorry.

All of this is just my opinion, and I definitely felt like the book was not for me, but some people might still really enjoy it so don’t take my review too seriously :)

It was an exciting work and I had to admit that despite the swift pacing of the novel, it still took me a long time to finish it. The characters are great and interesting. I would love to read and learn more of the side characters but it's great overall.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Seeds for the Swarm was the first sci-fi book I read after a while, so it took me some chapters to get used to the dystopian world. It moved in relatively fast pace, almost like Divergent-kind of book, with darker twists and environmental messages. Also love how characters casually presented themselves with names and pronounces, and this book has wide range of diverse characters!

Story wise, I really enjoyed this kind of dystopian, futuristic sci-fi infused with politics, rebel groups, and the sorts. About the characters, Rylla certainly had a personality. We know about her secluded background and why she seemed to keep making these "wrong choices" especially relationship wise, although yes it irked me a bit at times haha but she was a nice lead of this book. Jury is still out for Theo, though.

I'm excited to read the next book and know what will happen!