Rating: 
Summary: Reading Michael Crichton releases endorphins!
Review: It starts with the binding of the book, the texture that is unique among other hardcover bestsellers. Like Jurassic Park did with biotech, we get an introduction to where we are with nanotechnology right now and where we are going in the future. Then we strap ourselves in for a fun "what if" ride. Like his other thrillers "Sphere" and "Jurassic park", he does a masterful job with the set up. Giving us haunting images of things I won't reveal for fear of giving anything away. We are kept guessing and are entertained and fascinated along the way. Like Disclosure, Congo, Sphere, Timeline and others we get to see some pretty cool toys and technology. Michael Crichton is the undisputed master of the Science techno thriller. He doesn't quite hit a homerun here as he did in "Jurassic Park" but this is a solid Triple into the gap! Recomended!!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting premise but poorly written.
Review: Crichton is resting on his laurels now. He simply picks a popular topic and cranks out a canned novel on the subject. While I found the storyline interesting, the character development stinks. The main character was an imbecile. All kinds of bad things are happening around him yet he continues to deny the truth. When he does finally wake up to the problem he continues to make one wrong move after another. It's hard to believe that anyone is that dim. All of the other characters in the book are just as weak. The kids are horrendously annoying, the villains are wooden, and the good guys are uninspiring. Even the Swarm is not that scary. The ending is a little too clean as well. This book is simply weak. It is not worth the money. Crichton, like Danielle Steele, can write crap now and people will still buy it. For a much better book on a similar topic read Greg Bear's Blood Music.
Rating:
Summary: Crichton Does it again!!!!!
Review: Once again, Michael Crichton, the master of "Techno thrillers", has done it again. I could not put the book down. It was wonderful. I had heard a rumor in the book store that it was not very good, and was thinking of passing it by. Im glad that I didnt. The book kept me on my feet until the last pages, and thats what Crichton is best at. "Prey" is another one of Crichton's novels that is based on bacteria sized particles, as was in "The Andromeda Strain". This time we are faced with Nanoparticles, that are being tested to help look inside a medical patients body by forming a camera when coming together. But what happens when the particles escape and begin to evolve and think on their own? This novel is just plain chilling. The research behind this book is wonderful, and well done, as Crichton always manages to do. And that is what makes this so chilling. It makes you wonder what would happen if the events of this novel really took place. I think you will be pleased with the results of this fast paced, chilling novel.
Rating:
Summary: Greg Bear, anyone?
Review: 'Michael Crichton is the science-fiction author that people read if they think they're too good for ``regular'' science fiction.' So said Roger Ebert in a movie review. But it's totally true: Greg Bear's books 'Queen of Angels', 'Moving Mars', and especially 'Blood Music', and Neal Stephenson's 'Diamond Age' were addressing the subject of nanotech over a decade ago, and now Micheal Crichton comes along, scoops up the science, throws in a Hollywood action/horror plot, and constructs a right-wing, cautionary, anti-science book the way he's done with everything else he's published. Sure, he explains his science like he knows what he's talking about, but in the end it's just "Westworld" or "Jurassic Park". Technology is bad! Scientists are evil megalomaniacs! Let's burn our computers and run for the hills! It's as if Frankenstein's monster has been reincarnated as a swarm of nanites...Sad.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, if predictable science fiction
Review: Author Michael Crichton's set-ups for his novels have always been inspired, if not fascinating. Anyone who has ever perused his novels "Sphere," "Timeline" and "Congo" can attest to the interesting plot devices that instantly hook the reader, making his quick reads difficult to put down. "Prey" certainly falls into this category. Unemployed computer scientist Jack Forman is struggling with being a stay-home dad while his wife works obsessively on a new project. Her mysterious project happens to involve work he has been involved with in the past. His wife is gone for days at a time and Jack suspects she's having an affair. He is soon brought in to the project when things spiral out of control. What Jack discovers at a remote laboratory in the desert is a swarm of micro computers, accidently released into the environment acting as a killing swarm. Needless-to-say, he has his work cut out for him in trying to destroy this rapidly growing menace. I enjoyed the idea of this new type of monster created by Crichton, and several of the situations when dealing with this insect-like swarm were inventive and suspenseful. The set-up, taking place at a lab in the desert, is perhaps a bit too reminiscent of one of Crichton's early novels "The Andromeda Strain," and the swarms replicating and eventually forming into people was a bit too "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" for my taste. The novel soon closes with movie-type situations in which men and women are running for their lives, climbing ladders and fighting desperately along precarious catwalks. Which is why I don't think "Prey" is an especially great science fiction novel. Like "Sphere," like "Congo" and like "Timeline," the set-up is fascinating, but then it regresses into predicatable plot devices and chase sequences. The colorful hodgepodge of scientists at the lab are fairly textbook, and one can practically predict who's dog meat and who will survive. Thus, the suspense is never very intense nor inspired. Been there, done that. "Prey" is half a very good novel. Crichton has brought a new monster to town, if only the story surrounding the monster was as inventive.
Rating: 
Summary: Hunt for this book
Review: Michael Crichton is great. Jurassic Park, now this. Excellent! Computer Programmer and whiz Jack Forman, househusband, is having marriage problems with his wife Julia, who he suspects is having an affair because of her long worknights at the Xymos lab. He finally gets to go there (he's unemployed) to check on some of their quiet 'project.' But when he discovers that a microscopic nano swarm has escaped, he has to play hero and stop it. Of course, like Jurassic Park, this was one of those survivor ones where people are killed off. Overall, this book was great. It barely surpasses Jurassic Park, and he twists the plot around many times. Buy it. Trust me, when I say "Things never turn out the way you think they will."
Rating:
Summary: Michael Crichton does it again
Review: If you like to read a suspense book that makes you look at technology a different way, this is the book for you. I love how Michael Crichton can show how science can get out of hand. He just might be the George Orwell of his time.
Rating:
Summary: good not great
Review: Typical Michael Crighton book. He does a great job of making the unbelievable seem believeable. From Dinosaurs in Jurassic park to time travel in Timeline. But also typical of his novels the end peters out. The difference in Prey is the build up is not as interesting as some of his other novels.
Rating:
Summary: Crichton gets it right once again
Review: As an avid Michael Crichton fan, I have read every fictional work currently published, and Prey is definately one of the best. He holds the reader in suspense, combining the terror of microorganisms as in The Andromeda Strain and the entangled feeling of Sphere. I was able to finish this novel in three days, and was found arguing with myself at 3 in the morning whether to sleep or to continue reading. I give this novel my whole-hearted recommendation, and hope all Crichton fans enjoy it as much as I have.
Rating:
Summary: Blended Score
Review: If your going to try an read this book, I would give it a 2. But as a book on tape it's a 4. Why the difference, it's easy I would never read through ALL the explanations of the technilogy, but listening to it on tape requires no thought. It just sort of flows. Interesting story. Main character is a bit card board, but in all well worth the LISTENING to.
| 
