Rating: 
Summary: He Never Fails To Amaze Me
Review: First of all, I don't understand why people are calling this book Crichton's worst, and why one of the other reviewers thought Timeline was horrible. Let me say this. This is book is wonderful, I was hooked immediately, and finished it in a day and a half. Some people just must not have the power to appreciate good literature. Crichton, you never fail to amaze me.
Rating: 
Summary: frustrating rehash...
Review: a shame. i had great hopes for this book, the possibilities for the story were endless...and all he did was make "prey" a nano-tech version of his "jurassic park" he wrote more than 10 years ago (replacing the "smart" raptors for the "smart" nanobots), or even worse, the cheesy "tremors." and, as a few reviewers noted, even "star trek-tng" did this exact same storyline, sans the wife's-maybe-cheating subplot, thankfully.really frustrating to see one of my favorite authors crash and burn like this. but i can't give "prey" 1 star - his pacing and his dialogue is still many levels above other "action" authors who continue to dump out a book each year. that alone is worth 3 stars. i just wished it was more...
Rating:
Summary: Well, the first part was really good
Review: Literature can both reflect societal moods and create them. This book may be an example of this cliche, as it is a jump start on a particular area of technology that is the subject of intense research at the present time: nanotechnology. There is talk about the possibility of self-replicating nanoscale robots, and with also the possibility that these entities could be intelligent, many individuals, scientists and non-scientists alike, feel apprehensive about this technology. The technology is not yet here, but developments in the 21st century are accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The book starts off well, at least after the introduction, which the author has felt the need to insert. The presence of the introduction is a distraction from the story line, at least for me personally, for I want to start the story without any biases or prejudices. The author's opinions in the introduction are somewhat negative about the future and character of humankind. A reader disagreeing with the author's opinions may be tempted to read the book with a hostile frame of mind. The author therefore should have kept his opinions to himself, and have spoken them through the characters in the book. He is clearly very worried about the developments in nanotechnology, and does not trust the scientific community to deal with it responsibly. The author though is bound by the constraint of making the story interesting, and that is hard to do without interjecting a large degree of malevolence in the technologies he is using in his story. Friendly, helpful nanobots are not going to hold anyone's attention for long. The first 150 pages or so of the book were very exhilirating: the tension building in the mind of Jack, the main character, and his doubts regarding his wife's behavior kept my attention. The author does a fine job of capturing his introspection, and in the meantime the reader gets a kind of crash introduction to terminology of evolutionary algorithms and artificial intelligence. Indeed, the reader gets exposed to talk of distributed parallel processing, or "agent-based programs", artificial life, ant routing, genetic algorithms, and protein folding, to name a few. As soon as Jack enters the desert though, the story gets less credible. Since this book has only been released for a few weeks, I could only say why I believe this by revealing the plot, which I don't want to do for the sake of new readers. I was surprised actually that the author took the move he did, as I was expecting the behavior of the nanobots to be much more subtle, as well as their detection. Instead though their behavior was very extreme, and this led me to think of how easy they would be to combat. The behavior of the nanobots would be much more believable if they would have acted in more mischevious ways, and such behavior would follow I think more naturally from the first part of the book. As the story nears its end, the events become more and more unbelievable. In addition, the characters seem to be almost juvenile in their behavior, and the author has the annoying habit of having them constantly using the "F-word". This is supposed to (I guess) make them more realistic, but instead they come across like they are playing nothing more than a difficult video game. In addition, obvious countermeasures to the nano-swarms make the story less believable. One could for example program a collection of swarms to engage in battle with the malevolent ones. Hence in general this is a disappointing book, which again is too bad considering the first part, which was written very well. I did not walk away with a feeling of foreboding that I did when reading the author's "Andromeda Strain" way back when. And if the book was meant to frighten the reader about the perils of nanotechnology, it missed its mark, considerably. But even if it did succeed in instilling fear about the possibility of nanotechnology, the research in this area will continue, and hopefully will be realized very soon.
Rating:
Summary: best ever
Review: Michael Chrichton is the best author ever, hands down, flat out.
Rating:
Summary: Best Technical Narrative Yet
Review: I have read all of Michael Crichton's books due, mainly, to his focus on the technical background to back up his far reaching fantasy plots. This book has, by far, the most tecnical yet understandable descriptions yet. His references to principles of both biology and advanced computer science give this book a credibility not often found in science fiction novels. Specifically his descriptions of the use of bacteria as the basis of the nano-mechanism villians of the novel was extremely detailed, yet easy to understand. This book outpaces some of his earlier work in its ability to keep the story exciting and moving along at a pace that keeps the reader from being able to put it down. As a fan of his novels, I believe this book is vintage Crichton and a must read for any science fiction fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Shows Crichton's limitations
Review: My major complaint with this novel is that it's pretty obvious that Crichton never once actually ran this past someone who is experienced with the electronics side of nanotechnology. From about page 70 I started nearly screaming -- "so when are you [guys] going to construct an EMP generator"? The idea of disrupting the silicon parts of the nanotechnological beasties is something that never occurs to any of the supposedly technologically savvy types in the book. The fact that the "final" solution was totally biological in nature just shows the author's lack of training or knowledge in this area...
Rating:
Summary: Better when it was called Jurrasic Park
Review: In Prey Michael Crichton rehashes the story of Jurassic Park, except this time instead of dinosaurs you have a swarm of killer nano-bots and instead of an island it takes place in the desert. The book reads like the screenplay he is sure to develop from it and quite frankly he should have just skipped the whole writing a book and gone straight to Hollywood. It's a fast read and an ok story, but wait for the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: Mary Shelley woulda liked it...
Review: If the name Michael Crichton is unfamiliar to you, you are not alone. I didn't recognize his name when one of Dave's employees recommended this book to me. Scanning the book jacket made him more familiar to me. His accomplishments include: The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Jurassic Park, and the television show E.R. Prey is a Frankensteinian story about man's messing with nature... like some of the others the author has written. I think that Mary Shelley would approve, and likely enjoy it once brought up to date on our technology, and her ancient warning is still valid... perhaps even more so today than it was when she originally wrote Frankenstein. The story opens with the protagonist taking care of his children while his wife works in a high tech industry. I found much to identify with in that character, so was immediately interested. As I read further, I found other things of interest. Most notably, technophiles will find the inclusion of bits of program code for predator/prey algorithms used with things similar to alife. The mention of a T-shirt that says "Obey me, I am Root", is hilarious... but only Unix and Linuxphiles will appreciate that humor without reading Mr. Crichton's explanation. One might also recognize one's co-workers by their descriptions... I certainly did, and I don't even work in a high-tech field! Prey is somewhat like a Tom Clancey techno-thriller in that the technology discussed is quite well within the realm of developmental possibility. As I see the picture, the only thing that severely limits the industrial manufacture of molecular level machines is the "build time" dilemma, the unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate) fact that any useful molecule would have more parts in it than could be assembled in all the time that the universe has existed. The technocrats of Prey solve this problem by getting bacteria to build molecular level assemblers which then build the individual nanotech devices to the specifications of the military contract... or so it is thought. Unfortunately, the devices, components of a sort of flying compound eye that can dissolve into dust and re-form as needed, fail because the tiny machines are as much a slave to the wind as any dandelion or cattail seed, and lack power to resist it. I will not divulge the method elected to solve the problem as it would wreck the story for the reader, but it combines all the stupidity and danger that narrow-minded pursuit of even a noble goal can result in. What is unleashed is chillingly reminiscent of a swarm of killer bees... only more dangerous by a factor of at least a million. How close to this eventuality are we? Well, the back of the book contains a lengthy bibliography for those individuals who are brave, smart, and crazy enough to want to find out. I think that this book should be required reading for anyone working in the field of nanotechnology... and those who scoff at the premise ought to be banned from working with it. Any new technology is potentially dangerous... and carried to the levels achieved by the fictitious characters of this book where biotech and nanotech are merged with computer science to build bio-mechanical organisms that can write their own specifications would be beyond control... even had they not taken stupid and dangerous risks. The kiss of death takes on a new meaning in this novel... and I certainly hope that enough people read it and take the message to heart that enthusiastic scientists are reigned in a bit before proceeding. We certainly cannot keep the genie in the bottle forever... but we had damned well better make certain we can control it before we get the corkscrew out! Buy this book. Read it. Loan it to others to read. We have been warned. Dale A. Raby
Editor/Publisher
The Green Bay Web
Rating:
Summary: A Great Technology-Gone-Amuck tale
Review: Chricton gripped me once again after Timeline, with the introduction of nanotechnology, something foreign to me until this book. But, aside from the technology that Chricton delves in to (as usual), the story kept me turning the pages. What held me the most was the antagnost that was neither phantomesque nor man, but something one may never conceive of. The story did tend to dwindle a bit toward the end, but it was a quick read. Chricton is now officially out of the dog house for giving us Airframe.
Rating:
Summary: Dirt Bag
Review: This book gives new meaning to the words, "dirt bag." The predator is a artifically created swarm of robotic dust. The author doesn't seem to appreciate the difference in words like evolution and mutation. His whole world is evolving and his story very nearly unravels. It is just a bit too preposterous to swallow even if the author does believe it possible. It doesn't hold together as well as his swarm. Too bad. Save your money.
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