Rating: 
Summary: Very Michael Crichton
Review: This book is good. Similar to, but not as good as Jurassic park. It was like Jurassic Park in that it warns of a technology that is within reach of our generation. The only problem is that nanotechnology although just as plausable, is not nearly as exciting as dinosaurs.
I actually liked the first half of the book more than the second. In the first half of the book, Crichton was showing his prowess for writing poignant commentary on the reality of modern day marriages in which traditional gender-roles are reversed. He definately wants to make the point that men can and sometimes do stay at home and take care of the family. The mystery of whether or not Jack's wife was cheating on him was VERY well done. In the second half of the book I found myself saying "hasn't this been done before?" It seemed like I was experiencing another movie that I had seen SO many times before. Same situation as with the dinosaurs, different technology. That leads me into another point that I want to make. The book reads like a movie. Michael Crichton is SO good at making the reader feel like he or she is right there with the characters. Reading this book, I felt like I was watching a movie. I could not put it down, and I read it in 3 days. I think this is the reason I wanted to read this book, and the reason I will continue to read Crichton's books. He has a gift for this that is better than any other auther that I have read. Although the book did not leave me feeling particularly good about the future possibility of nanotechnology taking on a life of it's own and taking over our lives, it did provide me with exceptional reading entertainment and as with many Crichton novels, make me feel more informed on a subject and possible technological danger that I had previously known nothing about. I particularly liked his statement for the tombestone of the human race "they did not know what they were doing."
Rating:
Summary: Food for thought
Review: As usual, Dr. Crichton gives us a brisk overview of a complex subject and then cautions us about the potential Frankenstein monster lurking in the wings. All of this is a bit formulaic by now, as are his characters, and yet in some ways nobody does it better. As usual, it's real food for thought (and in this case we may be the food for that thought,both literally and figuratively!) The thriller/horror film blockbuster potential is also there, although as a real horror fan I'd rather they made a book out of Harry Shannon's rollicking 'Night of the Beast,' so there would be some more surprises in store. You know where this one is going every step of the way, although you still want to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking, but...
Review: not up to usual Crichton standards. Like another reveiwer, I felt as though we got an abridged version. The plot is engaging and the science is interesting, but this story could have been another Jurassic Park at the microscopic level but never achieves the grandeur of that great novel. I felt cheated by this novel, mainly because I have come to expect so much from Crichton and this book simply does not reach the quality I am used to from this talented author. Nevertheless, I still give it 4 stars because it is better reading than just about anything out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun and Intense
Review: Enjoyable piece of entertainment. I haven't read any of his other books but after this one I'm sure that I will. Worth the money. Also recommend Evolution by Jennifer MacDonald. It's a stream of consciouness story that I found intriguing and a very unique read, again it was worth the money I spent on it.
Rating:
Summary: I really liked this book, don't know why!!!
Review: Well, if I could have I would have given this book 4 and half, and I wanted to take a half away for two really shallow reasons. Although I really enjoyed this book, it's fast, can't put down reading, I really had no idea what Mr. Crichton was talking about most of the time!!!!I kept asking my husband questions concerning the science in this book, and well, that aside, I really enjoyed it. The second shallow reason I took a half away, was the ending. I wanted about 2 or 3 more pages, things wrapped a little more......but that's just me, because I normally like my endings like that. So...read this book, you will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: 5-stars for fun -- 4 stars for re-tooling Jurassic Park...
Review: First off, I'm a die-hard Michael Crichton fan...absolutely LOVE his stuff...however -- 'Prey' is definitely a 'formula' novel...most notably a Crichton formula novel which borrow extensively from previous works like 'Jurassic Park' & 'Timeline'. If you have read many of his other novels, this formula will become immediately apparent: Big corporation is messing with technology they don't fully understand nor appreciate, and in the process unleash something baaaad. First it was the Dinosaurs when InGen toyed around with genetic manipulation where they shouldn't have...next we have a very similar company in 'Timeline' that wanted to send the elite on once-in-a-lifetime trips through time, using science again that was a bit beyond our control and now we have nanotechnology in 'Prey' that provides a frightening look at what *could* happen should this kind of near-future science fall into the hands of those who attempt to use it for all the wrong reasons. Just because Crichton is using his 'formula' here, that doesn't mean he doesn't provide us with some great cliff-hangers and genuine surprises along the way...his writing talent is far too refined to have forgotten how to pull a few strings with the readers. 'Prey' begins with poor Jack, a reluctant house-husband with a wife who has quickly become one of the powerhouse leaders at Xymos (you guessed it, the 'big corporation' that funds experiments that go horribly wrong). Her sudden and suspiciously odd actions make Jack begin to suspect that she (Julia) just might be having an affair. He pushes this thought away every time more and more evidence begins to mount that this is no longer a theory and more likely a fact. Her behavior seems erratic (at best), distant with him and the children and she tells small (but significant) lies which unravel the fabric of their relationship. All this is shockingly interrupted when Julia is involved in an accident which sends her to the hospital. Meanwhile an incredibly un-expected invitation by his former boss (who fired him under trumped up charges) is offered to Jack asking him to come back (sort of) to help Xymos figure out how to solve a problem with a program that Jack's technical team had designed some time before. At first Jack is totally against going back under ANY circumstances...but as the problem with Julia becomes more of an immediate concern, he figures that maybe he could find out more about her supposed affair by accepting the offer. This is where the rubber hits the pavement, so-to-speak. This is where Jack becomes immersed in the world of nanoswarms, produced by Xymos for the Military to spy on the enemy. As in all of Crichton's novels, nothing is as it seems, and the people who give the tours of the production facility know a lot more than they are letting on (always to the suspicion of those on the receiving end of the tour). Jack has reason to believe Ricky (the tour-guide) is holding back crucial information on the little problem they have come up against. It appears that the company has made a once-in-a-lifetime scientific breakthrough which has allowed them to begin full production of machines on the molecular level. Millions of microscopic machines were accidentally vented to the Nevada environment and have a peculiar problem: they won't come back...they seem to be multiplying on their own (which they just shouldn't be able to do)...they seem to be killing desert animals...oh, and they were programmed using a predator/prey program that Jack and his former team-mates created. Just about everything that Ricky says turns out to be half-truths or outright lies from pretty much the beginning. Jack almost immediately has a plan that nobody had previously thought about which will eliminate the nanoswarms...but if you know the typical Michael Crichton novel, you know that first, and even second plans usually go horribly wrong. What exactly is Ricky hiding from Jack and just about everyone else? How are the nanoswarms able to multiply? How are they developing behavior that their programming says should be 100% impossible? How is Jack's wife, Julia embroiled in all of this, and is she really having an affair? And the biggest question of all: Can the nanoswarms be stopped...and if so, how?
Good questions and for the sheer fun of the story I gave 'Prey' 5 stars, but for re-telling a story told before in 'Jurassic Park' and 'Timeline' I give it just 4 stars. Perfectly enjoyable even despite my reservations and I very much look forward to the future movie at the local cineplex, it ought to be a real nail-biter.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This is his best since the Andromeda Strain! I sat up half the night finishing it; a real page turner. SIX stars
Rating:
Summary: Rocking sci-fi/horror, one of his best in a long time
Review: After the dismally pretentious "Timeline," Michael Crichton took three years off before coming back with "Prey." And the time off did his writing a lot of good. For the first time since "Rising Sun," Crichton writes in the first person, and while his narrator seems little different from, say, the protagonists in "Rising Sun" or "Disclosure" (i.e., white male, 35-40, dad), the style works here for a number of reasons. First, his slowly building suspicions carry you along, propelling you into the narrative. Second, the reader is not subjected to the pages-long pedantic asides that plagued "Timeline" (and even "Jurassic Park"). Of course, there are the techno-touches that make it a Crichton novel, but these are integrated much better into the story. The plot is described well above, and in brief, is as follows: Jack Forman, former Silicon Valley computer programmer, is now a stay-at-home dad while his wife Julia works intense hours at a nanotechnology company. But Julia is really moody, not to mention, absent much of the time. She keeps working late, and Jack starts to wonder if she's having an affair. When she is home, she yells at the kids and at Jack, and then apologizes, only to blow up again later. Is she cheating on him? Is she on drugs? That's only the beginning, as Jack ends up getting called out to the nanotech factory, only to face even worse problems. "Prey" has something of the feel of a good Dean Koontz novel, like "Midnight" or "Fear Nothing." In other words, it could be put in the horror section of the bookstore, but isn't really like Stephen King horror. It's more up the alley of another story about BIG SCIENCE gone bad.
Rating:
Summary: Crichton's New Prey.
Review: I love reading Michael Crichton novels. He seems to be the only author that I can breeze through with little effort and in a reasonable time. The reason for my inability to put his novels down is the suspense and the technological depth. I'm kept on edge while being fed an intriguing thesis. Prey is no different, in fact it uses exactly the same formula as his other hits. If you're looking for an "A typical" Crichton novel, one that introduces you to a collection of top level geeks, who find a scientific problem, and work as a dysfunctional team to disarm threat after threat, then this book is for you. I know what I am getting when I buy a Michael Crichton novel. Not a literary classic, not an analysis of characters, but a techno thriller. Jack Forman is a house husband, unemployed because of his strict work ethics. His wife, Julia, works for Xymos, a company on the edge of breaking new ground with Nanotechnology. Just as Jack believes that his marriage is on the verge of complete breakdown, with his wife acting like she is having an affair, she has an accident. Jack is then drawn into Xymos as a contractor to oversee his old team that developed his agent based program that is at the heart of the Nanosystems Xymos manufacture. The suspense spirals upward as Jack is drawn into a battle with "Nano-Borg". Prey reminds me of a mix between Sphere and Jurassic Park, with the threat of a touch of Disclosure thrown in for legal good will. Locked in an isolated fab plant, cut off from the rest of the world, with an engineered threat, while dealing with a family emergency that could end up in the courts. Talk of the latest anti-male threats of "Alienation of Effection" makes me wonder if there isn't just a little autobiographical material thrown in. I loved both novels, so it made it easy for me to enjoy Prey. With Timeline and Jurassic Park The Lost World I couldn't help but see him setting up scenes for a cinematographer. Prey, on the other hand, didn't read as much like a movie. I guess it is always in the background, especially when the rights were purchased by Fox before publication (see "Fox Snag's Michael Crichton's PREY"), and he is well know for his movies. It just didn't distract like the others. As usual Crichton explorers some of sciences latest areas, artificial life and nanotechnology. Jack led a team involved in creating distributed processing, creating computer applications that spread the workload across a number of agents. The field has explored swarm technology, the same processing that a colony of ants or bees use to work together as a team. Combined with nanotechnology the possibilities explode. As do the potential problems. Science is truly on the verge of all these possibilities, with Gaak the escaping robot, a robot that learns how to fly, and a circuit that reinvents radio, all recent scientific creations. For anyone with a passing interest in the future, Prey is fascinating reading. Prey certainly seems to be the pinnacle of Crichton's mountain of suspense. He builds layers as any breakout novel should. Don't pick it up expecting literary or character depth, but as an easy to read suspense filled novel it is hard to put down. If you've enjoyed Crichton's novels or movies, then Prey will be an enjoyable read. As a primer, it is worth reading Bill Joy's paper in Wired Magazine, "Why the future doesn't need us". Combine them both and it becomes evident that we have to be very careful with what we do with science. We may have learnt much in the past few decades, but we don't know near enough.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, enthralling, and exciting Techno-Thriller!
Review: I have been reading Michael Crichton since I read Jurassic Park ten years ago, which soon became one of my favorite books. Since then, I have avidly read Crichton's entire fiction collection as well as Travels, and Crichton has become one of if not my number one favorite author. His eloquent, chilling, enthralling, and most of all unique books are second to none. Released almost three years after his previous book, Timeline; Prey is another well-researched, cutting-edge, techno-thriller. Prey is considerably different than Timeline, besides the common link of a science lab in the middle of the desert. I want to say Timeline is a bit more exciting than Prey, because up until the 40 or 50 page climax, the antagonist(s) are relatively intangible. Those familiar with Crichton's works will notice many more similarities with The Andromeda Strain (also in a lab in the desert) and later in the book Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Like The Andromeda Strain the bad guys are microscopic and constantly evolving, but this time there's a twist, and possibly by the end on Prey, it may twist beyond all scientific possibility (I don't know, maybe not...hell, his last book was about time travel...it is science fiction), which to me may have be the only flaw for those who try to approach the book as an essay in a scientific journal and not as a novel (which the earlier portions of the book will temp you to do). Throughout the book are the ever-more-concrete evil nanoparticles (little robots), driven by programming intended to simulate artificial life (not, Michael Crichton emphasizes, to be confused with artificial intelligence...at least until late in the book where the vacuum left when the science disappears is filled with action), and so-called "emergent behavior" engendered by genetic, evolutionary, predatory behavioral algorithms...strait out of recent advancements in computer science. ...I know to most that may seem like a foreign language to those whose faces would go blank if I told them to obey me, because I am root, but in fact the book is very readable, and the science and pace make the concepts interesting and within the grasp of most readers. The book's action scenes are very exciting, but can be a little repetitive, nothing compared to his dinosaur evading, medieval battling past books. The strongest point of this novel are Crichton's characters who are much more human than most characters in his past books. This is amplified by his choice to use 1st person, which he has not used before in anything I have read of his (not counting his autobiography, Travels of course). The rights to make the book into a movie were bought by 20th Century Fox around six months ago (extremely early...it came along with the announcement of the book's existence), and with good reason, as the book is very cinematic and I look forward to it as well as Paramount's upcoming Timeline movie, and hopefully Disney will take advantage of its $10 million investment on movie rights to Airframe (another wonderful Crichton book). When the plot comes together, and the theme expressing the dangers of these rather new and unexplored areas of science, you will realize that this is a very good book, one of Crichton's best. His message is clear, the book is very fascinating, the action is innovative and exhilarating, and the pages fly by, and I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I recommend this book to any fan of thrillers, science fiction, or just plain science.
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