Prey

Rating:
Summary: Has Michael Crichton been corrupted by Hollywood?
Review: For the first two thirds of Prey, I was enthralled. Michael Crichton is one of my favorite authors, and Prey was up to my expectations.

Then in the last third, I thought the book fell to its knees. The plot devices were no longer credible, even given the suspension of disbelief inherent to this type of book.

My hypothesis is that Crichton was thinking of the big screen when he wrote this book. He put in things that will make great scenes with modern special effects, but that just don't work in print.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Crichton - good story line, no character development
Review: I liked the story, but like many of Crichtons other novels, it ends quickly. I felt like I was watching ER. The story builds, with no character development, and then ends quickly...I do admit, I will read his next book and love his ideas....

Rating:
Summary: Preys On Your Baser Instincts
Review: Standard boiler plate Crichton. Again we've got some new interesting technology that escapes our protagonists control and wrecks havoc, teaching us all that there are some things we shouldn't meddle with.

Frankly we've read this all before. From Crichotn and countless other suspense stories. After reading the first 30 pages or so I got that awful feeling that I could tell exactly where the story was going, and dag gone it if I wasn't right. Crichton's writing is competant but it felt like his heart wasn't in the project. There are two suspenseful moments in the story but they could have been more suspensful if we actually cared for the characters involved. All in all it looks quite obvious that Crichton writes Hollywood screenplays more than a novels these days.

Crichton's biggest mistake is relating much of the ending right at the beginning. By having the main character tell the story to us as if it all happend a few months ago we're alerted to the fact that he's surrvived. In a paragraph before the novel proper starts, we're even givin a brief glimpse of how the story winds up. These techniques strip much of the suspense and intrigue from the story.

Prey is a very quick and easy read. A McDonlad's hamburger when I expected a more nutrious meal from this gifted writer.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but not Great
Review: This was a mildly enjoyable read, but certainly not compelling or breathtaking story (as the flap synopsis would have you believe). The plot is contrived, the characters are not well developed, and there are character imponderables not explained. There is suspense and a fast pace, but they are not well molded. And while there is a plot twist towards the end that is interesting, the story ends abruptly, like a steam engine that just runs out of heat. Not what you would expect from someone of Crichton's caliber.

The story revolves around a nanotechnology project in the Nevada desert. A small research firm is working a Department of Defense contract to develop a battlefield intelligence-gathering system based on a cloud of nanocomponents. These would act in concert, forming a composite lens and communications system that would have a high degree of survivability against conventional enemy countermeasures. To complicate things, "The nanoparticles in the cloud had to be endowed with a rudimentary intelligence, so that they could interface with each other to form a flock that wheeled in the air." (pg. 125) The flocking capability would enhance usefulness as well as survivability. Unfortunately emergence theory came into play during testing and development, which led to rapid evolution towards self-awareness and a survival instinct.

Crichton does a reasonable job of explaining the technical basis underlying the plot. He takes us through nanotechnology, artificial distributed intelligence, flocking behavior, and so forth. This is what saves the book. It's worth reading, but really only for the science in it.

Rating:
Summary: What Did You Expect?
Review: Michael Crichton ain't Shakespeare, but he turns out a pretty good techno-thriller. In "Prey", irresponsible scientists develop a swarm of microscopic "nano" robots that gets loose and turns mean. Hijinks follow. It's a quick and exciting read. Just as "Jurassic Park" looked at the darker side of genetic engineering, so does "Prey" introduce us to nano-technology and give us reason to approach it with caution. You could do worse for beach reading than Crichton's latest thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Great science fiction -- bordering on reality
Review: Very quick read. Great plot. Very interesting nanotechnology subject matter...likely just a few years away given recent advancements in the field. If you're into this stuff and like Michael Crichton's style you won't be able to put this down.

Rating:
Summary: Too Quickly Assembled
Review: As usual, Michael Crichton begins with the most fascinating science and ethical questions of our time, and a great idea for story, and churns out a book in poorly written prose. The characters are two dimensional at best, there are some inconsistencies within the plot, and the rhetorical cliches could only be perfect for, you guest it, a B movie script. Once a gain, a brilliant idea degenerates into scenes better suited for action movies than educated readers.

Rating:
Summary: Good ideas but lackluster characters
Review: I always look forward to a new Michael Crichton book, but this one shows, in my opinion, how hard it is to write a compelling novel about nanotechnology. He gave it a good try overall but the characters are not well-developed enough -- even considering that characters don't have to be all that well developed for thrillers and science fiction.

Better to buy something else -- Jurassic Park if you have not read it -- and get Prey from a library.

Rating:
Summary: Strong story, Incomplete idea
Review: Prey is the first fiction book I've read in a while; a welcome change from having to take notes on every page of similarly-themed scientific works. It explores a nanotechnological disaster, with self-replicating machines working as swarms to overwhelm their creators. Crichton, as always, has done his homework on this one, with several pages of references contained in the back of the book.

The overwhelming theme of the book is man's hubris and our headlong rush into technological achievement. I was reminded several times of Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park saying "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should." It was difficult to believe the extent the characters went to in protecting their precious achievement, (SPOILER AHEAD) though explained dubiously by the machines invading human bodies and influencing them biologically.(END OF SPOILER)

Many signs point to "emergence" (see the book by Steven Johnson) being an essential thing to understand for this book. In a nutshell, this is the idea that you can predict the actions and responses of individual agents in a system, but not the agents acting together. As Crichton puts it on page 173:

"The results of these interactions could not be programmed. It just emerged, with often surprising outcomes...For the first time, a program could produce results that absolutely could not be predicted by the programmer. These programs behaved more like living organisms than man-made automatons."

The scientists' solution to this unpredictability was to program the agents as predators--whose single desire is to feed. This consistent goal keeps the pack working together.

As the authors admit in the book The Experience Economy, "Those who decried previous economic shifts...failed to stop the progression of economic value to higher-echelon offerings. It happened despite their protestations." The question is not whether machines will reach this level--it is how we can benefit from that.

Crichton stops short of admitting that or any other further possibilities of this technology, but manages to create a good thriller nonetheless. 4 stars for the story, but the philosophy behind it will require more exploration.

Rating:
Summary: Manic New Age Zombies Possessed By Really Tiny Robots!!!
Review: This is a great book. By about page nine or so it will start to get under your skin and itch (bad pun intended), and you won't be able to put it down until you finish it.

Crichton has really put it all together here, a tight well worked plot, a really terrifying threat, and just the right touch of erotically served up evil to really give you the creeps. The Thomas Dolby song "She Blinded Me With Science" will make the perfect opening score for the movie.