Rating: 
Summary: Forget the hype...
Review: Disappointing page turner. Thin characters and totally improbable situations make this most recent Crichton scifi effort a waste of time. At least wait until the paperback comes out; save your money even with the generous Amazon.com promotion.
Rating: 
Summary: A One-Night Stand
Review: Crichton does things differently here...He writes the entire story in first-person; he starts off with family life; he merely hints at the trouble to come. Having read almost all his fiction works, I found this story as engaging as ever.We start off with Jack and Julia, a modern couple facing problems of family life. Jack is at home with the kids, while Julia deals with mounting work pressures and the possibilities for infidelity. Although both Jack and Julia have experience in groundbreaking technology, their story begins in a setting familiar to all, thus adding weight to the coming suspense. Don't be mistaken, though; the suspense will come, and the usual technological ideas will reign. A highly-evolved swarm of nanoparticles has escaped from a secretive lab, and they are responding to predator-prey programming that Jack helped develop and Julia helped perfect. Along the way, Jack will be called in to help coordinate the counterattack against the swarm--if he and his team don't first become the prey. This book starts off with more heart than usual for a Crichton book. I was fully involved by the time the true troubles came. The applications to society and technology are worthwhile to consider, and Crichton pulls out a few surprises by the end. What he fails to do--to my chagrin--is sustain the sense of family and familiarity with which he starts the story. The concern we have for his kids soon falls away into a plot contrivance, and we find ourselves squarely in the middle of a regular Crichton story. A fun and fast-paced story it is, but it could've been even better if he continued with the human angle. Eventually, when the worst of the death toll hits, we find ourselves caring only on a superficial level. In fact, even Jack shows little emotional response. Was I breathless at the climax? Yes. Did I actually care? Nah, not much. After all was said and done, it was a one-night stand of a book. I felt like rolling over, lighting a cigarette, and trying not to consider the horrible consequences of Crichton's technology run-amok.
Rating: 
Summary: Crichton keeps ¿Preying¿ for better reviews
Review: Michael Crichton has been vastly successful financially but positive critical reviews of his works have been far and few. Unfortunately, his latest novel Prey will probably not usher in waves of praise. It is too bad because Crichton deals with issues that are pertinent to all people and his ideas are supported by relevant research. Prey reads like an expanded movie script where action scenes have been fleshed out with perfunctory swiftness. This book is disappointingly a second-rate effort when compared to his similarly themed, yet vastly superior Jurassic Park. In that masterpiece, Crichton successfully evoked descriptive terror while entertaining the reader. But in that work, people were able to rely on mental pictures of dinosaurs from childhood memories and such so Crichton didn't need to work as hard to deliver the frightening images. Here, the menacing entities are nanoparticles - particles that are significantly smaller than the width of a human hair. While these nanoparticles wreak havoc through predatory behavior, they still lack a cogent character. While a future technology appears to be far more dangerous than say an extinct animal, the effort in making nanoparticles terrifying comes up short. This may not be entirely Crichton's fault as nanotechnology is not as commonplace to people as genetic technologies and thus does not deliver the suspense that Crichton has so successfully conjured in novels past. Jack Forman, the protagonist, is a stay-at-home father of three who was fired from his last job for blowing the whistle on his boss. Fortunately for him, his wife Julia just happens to Vice President for Xymos Technologies, a secretive firm that is conducting hush-hush experiments in the Nevada desert when Jack is hastily hired to firefight some serious programming problems. Meanwhile his wife inexplicably begins to exhibit indignant and strange behavior and upsetting the home-life balance that Jack has persevered to achieve. Can there be some connection with her job or is this Crichton exploring the gender role reversal a la Disclosure? The first third of the book sluggishly takes place mostly at Jack's home and here Crichton seems to be unable to find any pace in writing about domestic living. For such a large chunk of text, the characters' dialogue is poorly written (especially the children's). Crichton shines best when he exercises his wonderful gift of explaining abstract scientific concepts in layman's terms. The passages about the nanotechnology, emergent behavior and biological terms make for interesting reading in sharp contrast to his domestic diatribe. Prey is recommended for its ruminations on science but only if you can tolerate the prosaic passages about some of the characters' home life and mundane action scenes. The bibliography at the end does provide an outstanding springboard learning about the scientific principles presented in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical of Crichton's slow decline
Review: As with all of Crichton's work, this one is extremely well researched, and makes some complicated and rather futuristic science accessible to a broader range of the public. It also conveys the reader along its suspenseful plot with eager turns of the page (you'll be able to turn through this one during a typical flight). However, it's also characteristic of Crichton's recent novels - pedantic, almost as if it's written for imbeciles, leaving no suspense except to find out what's going to _happen_ next - rather than what the characters (and readers) are going to _learn_ next. I don't think the first person narrative helps with this problem. For people who have done absolutely no reading about emergent systems, biological models for technology, or nanotechnology, this book may be a good primer. (Though I believe it needed a stronger editor, I prefer Neal Stephenson's _The Diamond Age_ as a more prophetic vision of the dangers of nanotechnology.) Crichton's _Prey_ treats its readers as if they're not smart enough to put together some pretty obvious connections, and then strays off its solid science to a rather frivolous - and painfully, incessantly telegraphed - fright for an ending. As with his dinosaur books, Crichton appears to be writing a screenplay rather than a novel. And, frankly, _West World_ and the terrifically underrated _Looker_ and _Runaway_ were much better examples of his skill in that arena. For readers interested in well written and solidly plotted science thrillers, I'd recommend Crichton's earlier work, such as _The Andromeda Strain_ and _The Terminal Man_, or Neal Stephenson's _Cryptonomicon_.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, but utterly misguided
Review: As a long time Crichton fan, I have waited for Prey with bated breath. Prey is a page turner, from the very first page. It's as exciting as it is fast moving. However, it is also an utter disappointment. Nanotechnology as a subject has so much potential in the hands of a master of the technology thriller such as Crichton, but he completely fails to take advantage of it, so we end up with a book that reads more like a modern "Night of the Living Dead" rewrite than a Crichton technothriller. Plot holes abound, particularly near the conclusion. Instead of the technothriller everyone was waiting for, we get a half way decent action movie script (and it's already been sold!). It's formulaic, and anyone with half a brain could already see the entire plot from the first chapter, leaving the work devoid of suspense. All in all, a good read, but wait for the paper back.
Rating:
Summary: based on the thing
Review: Although the book is interesting and well written, Prey has the same problems as Airframe and Timeline, it reads as a first draft. The impression left is as if this is a summary for the real book that would arrive later.
The other problem with this book is that its premise has been used before. If you have seen John Carpenter's "The Thing" or if you read John Campbell's original short story then you already know the complete plot for the book, just change the site and change who is responsible for the virus, the destruction sequence is the same as in the movie.
But even knowing all this the book is a good read and entertaining, just wait for the paperback
Rating: 
Summary: If you've enjoyed past Crichton titles...
Review: You'll love this one. This novel is vintage Michael Crichton. Plenty of suspense, and you learn a little about an emerging technology. I might be a little biased because I like the subject of nanotechnology, but you don't have to know anything about the subject in order to enjoy the book.
I gave five stars in terms of Crichton books, and books in the same genre.
Rating:
Summary: (same)n
Review: OH whoopee doo...Crichton has managed to churn out yet another formulary novel. Crichton has managed to suck me in again, but I swear this is the last time. This time it's about nanotechnology. But it is rather consistent with all of his novels, whether they be about time travel, space aliens, diamonds in Africa, dinosaurs, or, uh, dinosaurs again. They all start out the same way. First he briefs us 'lay people' to the technology (which is usually pretty cool), and then heads down the 'ol assembly line: his novels ALWAYS involve (1) a crackerjack team of specialists in (2) a nearly impossible situation where they have to rely on (3) the most esoteric areas of their specialties that they manage to (4) recall and implement with the easiest of effort, who are (5) cut off from the rest of the world in one way or another, and there is always the (6) skittish one of the group that manages to die because he freaks out, with an (7) unwilling, but genius expert leading the team, battling a (8) sinister member amongst them that is all too obvious, (9) while running around in relatively implausible action sequences (that seem to drag on forever), and (10) manages to make us average humans look more stupid than ever. I managed to figure out the ending of this book from the first couple of chapters not because I am smart, or that I am incredibly insightful, but because the book is so painfully predictable. I often wonder if Crichton has a format in Word that he punches up and just fills in the lines. I usually enjoy Crichton's up-to-date analysis of today's technology, but when you are going to make a novel out of it, at least make it different than your past novels!
Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile and Compelling Read But Far From His Best Book
Review: Ever since I read THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN shortly after its publication in 1969, I have been a Michael Crichton fan and have always eagerly awaited his next book. And PREY IS QUINTESSENTIAL MICHAEL CRICHTON, a story to tell and a message to get across. He begins with an introduction that discusses the recent advances in technology and warns of his concerns regarding their dangers. (Just as JURASSIC PARK was not only a great story, but a book about the possible abuses of cloning.) Unfortunately, while I have enjoyed several of his recent works, in my estimation few of them, including this one, fulfill the promise of the his first novel. First, his recent books seem to be written primarily to become movies, in fact this one is almost indistinguishable from a film script. (And it could be a five star movie, but book readers need more detail and character development.) Second, as the review by Roger Buffington indicates, as I understand the technologies involved, the events in this story are highly improbable and some crucial developments go unexplained. (I cannot describe them in detail without giving away the plot.) Third, while the author attempted to clear up a lot of the loose ends in the final chapter, I found the conclusion to be relatively unsatisfactory. The story opens with Jack Forman, an unemployed computer programmer and software engineer, playing the role of Mr. Mom while his wife Julia pursues her career at Xymos Technologies. She is a former venture capitalist turned corporate vp in charge of a top secret apparently "bet the company" project in which Xymos is engaged. The project involves biotechnolgy, nanotechnology, massively parallel computer processing systems and extensive software development of learning algorithms. As the project nears deadline, the pressure on Julia intensifies, and as their relationship deteriorates Jack suspects that she may be having an affair with someone at the company lab where she is spending an increasing amount of time. The project goes seriously awry, and Jack is called in as a consultant and soon learns the ominous truth. The machine has mutated and escaped from the lab and is acting as a lethal virus that has the potential not only to murder the lab employees but infect the human race. Nothing is as it first appears, and the race against time begins to halt the spread of the virus. This is a true techno thriller and very fast paced. All the action takes place within seven days, and in fact in a very effective technique the chapter breaks consist of discrete rapidly moving time segments in sequential order. Thus, despite my reservations I found the book hard to put down until I had finished it, which is one of the reasons why I decided after much reflection it deserved as high as a four star rating. Also, the discussions of the technologies involved were quite interesting and well done. I am familiar in concept with several of them and found this part of the book very enjoyable. (However, if you are not scientifically literate, you will have to either skim them and accept the premises of the book or they will slow you down cosiderably.) Also, while the premise seemed implausible, once accepted the story was internally consistent. The book suffered from two additional irritating flaws. First, several developments were well telegraphed to the reader, yet despite Jack's obvious intelligence and attention to detail he was oblivious to the implications of certain events and some of Julia's actions. Also the last chapter was a forced attempt to clear up some of the unexplained happenings, but seemed to be an afterthought addendum which still left several crucial things not cleared up to my satisfaction. While I recommend this book with the aforementioned reservations, I would suggest that anyone interested in a serious discussion of the topic read the article by Bill Joy, the respected chief scientist at Sun Microsystems, which appeared in WIRED MAGAZINE a couple of years ago about the dangers of technological innovations developing human like intelligence capabilities. At times as I was rading PREY it seemed as if that article had been the genesis of Michael Crichton's plot line. Also, if you are interested in a truly prescient sci fi story regarding the potential of self replicating machines, read the short story AUTOFAC by the great Philip K. Dick. (It is included in the collection titled MINORITY REPORT AND OTHER STORIES - the title story is a great classic and much better than the movie.) In conclusion, I believe that Michael Crichton's introduction to PREY indicates that he had a message that he wanted to convey (and his cautions are in fact well taken); nevertheless, while he developed the story in an entertaining and arresting manner, he stretched the technologies involved to do so and also ignored the historical evidence that technology and human ingenuity have much more often been the source of progress than disaster.
Rating:
Summary: Not great literature, but still a fun read
Review: (3 & 1/2 stars) The best way to read a Crichton novel is to recognize up front that it is nothing more than popular entertainment. Just surrender to it and go along for what will be a very enjoyable ride. With Prey, as with other previous novels by this author, there is an exciting story that's mostly quick and easy reading. As the cliched blurb quote says, it's a real page-turner. The "villain" of the story is the nanoswarm, rendered in appropriately cool and menacing descriptions by Crichton. The "hero," Jack, is a fairly believable character as he gets deeper into the web of Xymos, the company making the nanoswarms. As other reviewers have noted, the movie rights for Prey have already been sold, and it will translate well to the big screen (with a large SFX budget). There are some flaws with Prey that caused me to give it a slightly lower rating. The scientific explanations are sometimes boring, and distract from the narrative flow. For example, try this passage which pops up right in the middle of Jack's first moments at the Xymos fabrication plant: "The technical definition of emergent behavior was behavior that occured in a group but was not programmed into any member of the group. Emergent behavior could occur in any population, including a computer population." That's just an excerpt from a page-long lecture. Well, "yawn..." The intro, another college lesson from Mr. Crichton, is something to skip -- especially since it repeats verbatim the same exact two quotes that begin the book! There were also a few credibility gaps and holes in the story, but none serious enough to get in the way of the thrill ride of this made-for-Hollywood book. It makes for a great afternoon or two of armchair escapism.
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