Prey

Rating:
Summary: Junk Food
Review: I have to admit I read the whole thing, although skimming the action sequences would not diminish the book's value. "Prey" is like a bag of Doritos; you know its probably not good for you to eat the whole bag, but its hard to stop.

Crichton consistently writes down to his audience by inserting technical details in dialogue. "Gee," said Jack, "Tell me more about those molecules." At the beginning of the book, I actually thought he was going to develop his characters in a more literary way, then, snap! Back to the screenplay (with detailed instructions to the special effects crew.)

I regret putting my hard-earned cash into this entertainer's pocket. Maybe I can recover some of my loss by selling my "first edition" in an auction (what was the first edition anyway - 10 million copies?)

Rating:
Summary: Great at first, just plain silly at the end...
Review: First 3/4 of the book is interesting and semi believable. but it just gets to silly at the end and ruins it all.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to believe the same guy wrote The Andromeda Strain
Review: The synopsis of this book and the blurbs looked very promising and even after it begins you get off to a good start, but soon this book dissolves into a boring plot that is sci fi at its worst. I've seen this plot elsewhere. I really thought sci fi and humanity would combine forces in this novel to tell a great tale of struggle against a new kind of bad guy and that maybe it contained a message to the future to beware of how far we push the technological envelope. But this promise never fulfilled itself. It's amazing how quickly this book rocketed to the top. I enjoyed CLONED LOVE and SILICON SECRETS by two unknown authors far more than this book and so will you.

Rating:
Summary: strong cautionary tale
Review: Having lost his job at a high tech firm, forty year-old Jack Foreman has become a househusband while his wife is now the breadwinner, working on a top secret Defense Department project. Jack raises their three children, while wondering how everything could collapse so fast. He even believes that his wife is having an affair while working an experimental design nanotechnology project at the Xymos Corporation in the Nevada desert.

Suddenly, their baby becomes extremely ill, but just as abruptly the infant recovers. Jack is stunned by both related events that have no explanation. However, before he can ponder what occurred, Xymos hires Jack as a consultant on his spouse's project that has problems leading to the Pentagon ready to shut the funding. Something goes wrong leaving Jack and a few others trapped in a war of survival against a highly evolved deadly nanotechnical swarm that he believes his wife released.

Perhaps the leading modern day cautionary tale author, Michael Crichton provides readers with his latest alarm that focuses on nanotechnical research. The story line is standard Crichton lamenting runaway science conducting experiments in areas in which consequences are ignored as funding only is considered. As usual, work occurs inside an isolated facility that leads to individuals heroically struggling to survive humanity's latest blunder. Fans of the author or just solid science fiction readers centering on a modern day controversy will appreciate Mr. Crichton who is at his masterly, but formulaic (at least its his own DNA) best.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing--A Good and Thought-Provoking Read
Review: Perhaps not Crichton's best book ever, but a solidly gripping tale that will hold your interest. Good suspense. The characters aren't overly interesting, but they get the job done. One of the important things Crichton does with this piece is open the dialogue on the ethics associated with micro-, molecular-, and nano-scale cyber organisms. As he points out in this story, we always think we know what we're doing when, often, we really haven't come close to grasping the ramifications of our actions. Good food for thought and discussion. Read it!

Rating:
Summary: A book concerning swarms written by a swarm
Review: I've "discovered" Michael Crichton long before he made a name for himself having read Sphere and the Andromeda strain when they first came out. Since then Mr. Chrichton has made a quantum leap in terms of the amount of research that goes into each book and in his writting style. As a non-native English reader I find Mr. Crichton's prose exceptionally easy to read, precise - almost crystal clear. And when it comes to the amount of research that goes into each book this is well beyond what any other fiction author would do. There is indeed a swarm (albeit one formed by more intelligent independent agents that those forming the book's swarm) researching each book. The results are always cutting edge and, to a large extent, educational for the layman reader. A most enjoyable book -which I could not put down- combining an exceptionally interesting theme, fast moving plot and excellent prose. I just took one star off for what one could call slightly excessive "poetic (or rather, scientific) license".

Rating:
Summary: Crichton does his homework
Review: Even if you're not thrilled with his book, you have to appreciate Chrichton's attempt to get the science right. Crichton certainly did his homework in order to spin his tale in the most realistic, plausible way.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: This book is not worth the read. I am a fan of Mr. Chichton but this book just doesn't work. The characters are weak along with the plot. I wish Mr. Chichton would stop with the futuristic Science Fiction junk and stick to the more humanistic style stories such as, Rising Sun and Disclosure.

Rating:
Summary: Best Since Jurrasic Park
Review: Michael Crichton has been writing the same story for much of his career: Scientists meddle with Something Best Left Alone. That Something escapes, life as we know it is threatened, and the hero battles greedy corporations who think they can reestablish control and make billions by stuffing the genie back in its bottle.

There's nothing wrong with recycling this old theme. Even the supposed original, "Frankenstein," echoes the Greek myth of Icarus, whose wax wings melted when he flew too close to the sun. The success of such stories depends on the cautionary tale they attempt to tell, and this one's target is a good one: nanotechnology. Better, Crichton avoids the "gray goo" cliché in which runaway nanomachines eat up everything in their paths, like a plague of molecular locusts. Here, the real culprit is computer-driven nanotechnology that is capable of evolving so quickly that nobody can understand it, let alone control it.

To enjoy a Crichton novel, you have to be able to accept certain things as givens:

1. The story is a vehicle for the science. This one must contain at least 50 pages of exposition about computers, nanotechnology, and biology. Crichton would have made a good science writer.

2. The story will start at the beginning and proceed in sequential manner (except, in this case, for a brief preface). "Prey" doesn't really get rolling for about 100 pages.

3. Characters are not Crichton's strong point. Here the protagonist is better developed than most of Crichton's leads'but then he undercuts his "sensitive male" characterization by dashing off into the desert when the plot requires him to do so, risking his life repeatedly and never once questioning what will happen to his children if he dies. Too bad: there would have been a lot more tension if the hero had been more conflicted.

4. Crichton has always been weak when it comes to endings. "Andromeda Strain" was a great book, but the ending is a severe anticlimax, and the same can be said about "Sphere," "Congo," and several others. I suspect that Crichton, a scientist at heart, has trouble venturing too far afield from reality. That makes for good near-future science fiction concepts'and poor endings.
That said, this book's ending is a pleasant surprise. There's plenty of action, and a resolution that fits appropriately into the story buildup'even if there are a few disconcerting moments when you realize that you're seeing a movie outline more than a book.

Bottom line: if you like Crichton, you'll like this book. Conversely, if you don't like this book, don't buy any of his others.

Rating:
Summary: Jurassic Swarm
Review: Not since "Jurassic Park" has Michael Crichton written a novel as simply entertaining and spellbinding as "Prey". The plot is straightforward: a Silicon Valley-based start-up's experiment in the blend of nano-technology and biological engineering has gone horribly wrong, creating a sinister yet virtually invisible malevolence. Jack Forman, an unemployed programmer married to an executive of the errant startup, becomes the unsuspecting and reluctant hero. To establish a foundation of credibility, Crichton must devote some time to the basic science involved. But while some have found these interludes dry or unnecessary, I found these brief side roads fascinating - highly relevant to the story, expertly distilled to the layman's perspective, and well-blended with the story line. The parallels between distributed programming, for example, and highly socialized animal communities - like termites - added a dimension to this thriller that few contemporary writers besides Crichton could pull off. Some will have problems with the liberties taken with the science, while others will take issue with Crichton's obvious political views of the subject matter. My advice: forget the politics and the science - just sit back and be prepared to enjoy one of the best yarns of the last decade.