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Prey

Prey

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Wow, you're smart
Review: Thanks Michael, for showing us how brilliant you are. Now stop breaking down nanotechnology and start remembering why we like you....IT'S THE WRITING SILLY! All of your booksmart "look at the research i did" is good to an extent, but man, remember the characters we care about, not the science. I think this one was too far unbalanced with science and research...i only made it to page 170.

Don Donahue

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grabs your attention from start and holds onto it throughout
Review: I never thought Michael Crichton could write a book that was better than Jurassic Park. He has accomplished this feat with this novel. It is a book that is imnpossible to put down. It not only makes you think of what technology is out there, but also how it is being used and monitored. His best book yet.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Slick but not among his best
Review: I don't believe "Prey" is among Crichton's better novels, though he's so talented that even when he's not hitting on all cylinders he still comes up with something pretty slick and entertaining. My primary criticisms of this book are that the character development is a little weak and that the plot seems to fit sort of a prototypical Crichton mold without breaking new ground. I don't think Crichton should stray away from his fascination and concern with technology in future novels, though I would like to somehow see him reinvent himself a little. I don't know how, but I would like to see him expand his vision a little in the future. Nonetheless, "Prey" is still quite a good book that most Crichton fans will enjoy. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GOOD
Review: I noticed alot of great things in this book that reminded me of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.
Great for anyone who liked Jurassic Park.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Crichton is a genius. Prey is not the best of his recent works, I give that honor to Timeline, but it is close. It is an exciting story full of technical theory. If you like Crichton, you will love this book. If you like realist SciFi, you will love it too.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Microscopic Killer
Review: In 'Prey,' Michael Chrichton continues to stay at the forefront of scientific and technological issues to write a thriller. In 'Jurassic Park', Chrichton tackled genetic cloning, and this time around he addresses the field of nanotechnology. For the uninitiated, nanotechnology is a field of science concerned with creating microscopic machines to carry out real world functions (which is probably a grossly inadequate description of the field).

Jack Forman is an unemployed programmer. His area of specialty is agent based programming. When not searching for a new job, Jack stays at home while his wife, Julia, goes to work for a company involved in nanotechnology. In a sharp departure from past novels, Chrichton tells Jack's story in the first person, which is especially efective in the first half of the book. At the opening of the book, Jack begins to notice odd behavior in his wife. She has become blunt and short tempered with him and the kids. Jack begins to suspect an affair.

The first third of the book is probably the best part. In addition to Julia's odd behavior, things start happening around the house. One night, Jack awakes to find his baby daughter screaming bloody murder while a rash breaks out across her body. After a trip to the emergency room, everything at home seems to be a little out of place. Then some minor electronics begin to fail around the house and Jack discovers a suspicious looking surge protector beneath the baby's crib. Chrichton is incredibly successful at establishing an eerie atmosphere in which the reader is just on the edge of comprehending what is going on.

The book moves into it second phase when Julia is involved in a car crash. Jack suspects, for reasons you'll find adequately laid out in the book, that her new project is somehow involved. While Julia recovers from relatively minor wounds in the hospital, Jack goes to work for her company as a consultant, which sends him out to the desert to help solve a programming problem. At this point, the novel takes on a very 'Jurassic Park' like quality. Jack and the others at the research facility in the desert encounter an unexplainable force that must be contended with.

Chrichton's novel is a good one, but it is not his best work. As previously stated, the second and third part of the novel are reminiscent of 'Jurassic Park' as humans struggle to overcome the monstrocities they have created. The atmosphere that Chrichton established in the first third of the novel begins to give away in the second third to too much information which destroys some of the suspense.

Overall, 'Prey' is an entertaining sci-fi thriller. As usual, Chrichton has thrown in some lessons about current scientific issues along the way (this time concerning nanotechnology, animal behavior, and programming). I'd recommend this novel to any Chrichton fan or anyone who likes technological thrillers.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great concept. 5 Stars for the 1st half, 2 for the last!
Review: Great concept, excellent research on behalf of the author and altogether very well put together. However when writing sci-fi you don't have to assume your audience is stupid and will "buy" anything and everything you throw at them... and I am not talking about artificial intelligence or animal behavior algorithms, I am talking about common sense. I felt like screaming "wake up and smell the coffee" to the main character about 100 time through the course of the book... why he kept getting into so many predicaments that no one "logically" would, I don't know. Fiction is not supposed to be totally unrealistic as much as it should be imaginative. There is a fine line between absurdity and a great story line and Crichton crossed that line many times in his book.

The first part of this novel was great! Great setup, outstanding at creating all the necessary suspense... a definite page turner. The second half just plummets! A one ton brick... over the top, at times stupid and resorting to "maybe" whatever was on TV when he was writing that chapter.

In the end, I enjoyed the book, if anything I should say it was a very quick read. The story doesn't overwhelm you and there is not much breath of characters, which keeps it simple. The worst part was that I was really looking forward to reading this book and in being completely honest with myself I have to say it let me down... Maybe it won't let you down

I can't not recommend this book because it does carry along a certain entertaining value and if nothing else it will be an eye opener to the "reality" of what is possible with the technology as we think we know it today... scary... yes, very scary and as an IT professional myself I have to say that it is not that far fetched!

Cheers!

GS

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nice..But lot of Technical terms
Review: This novel is really nice to read,and give u a feeling of watching a full featured English movie.Novel goes in a nice manner from the first to last but at the climax.Climax scenes are
somewhat crazy to read.In overall,this is a good novel to buy and expand ur Michael's Fiction novel collection.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost 5 stars
Review: This book was great, I enjoyed it throughout, but not 5 star worthy. A great book I recommend but you will have read better. The end is pretty entertaining. You will enjoy the book and be glad you read it, but simply not the best out there.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't read it in the dark
Review: Crichton has once again managed to scare the hell out of us with his latest novel PREY. As usual his characters are carefully crafted and his science is flawless, if not a little much. This one will keep you awake at nights with its nasty little predators and rollicking storyline! Crichton didn't let us down! You can't go wrong with this one...treat yourself to a great ride!


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