Rating: 
Summary: Next Movie
Review: This book is going to make a great movie, just like Jurassic Park. Remember how Jurasic Park's theme was that nature cannot be harnessed? I cannot give this book a 5 star rating (save those for "The Count of Monte Cristo" or "Pillars of the Earth" (Ken Follet). However, Prey is a good read. I could not put it down until I read the whole thing - it made me late for work.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling scientific thriller
Review: Crichton's latest novel shows he's still at the top of his game, and he carries us along on a fast-paced thrill ride filled with horror and suspense.Crichton's books generally center on some new and potentially disastrous technology (i.e. the dinosaur cloning in Jurassic Park), and in Prey he addresses nanotechnology. In the near future, he warns, these tiny machines may group into a "swarm" and rapidly evolve into a threatening intelligence. This is the premise the hero of Prey races to resolve, as he also tries to find a new job, deal with his wife's adultery, and take care of his kids. The plot details are well summarized by others, so I won't go into them. Although in many ways this novel is typical Crichton fare, I found it more horrifying than most of his other works, reminiscent of King. Although there are perhaps a few too many coincidences in Prey, Crichton's introduction does a good job of telling us that nanotechnology is coming whether we like it or not, and must be thought about and dealt with before it is too late.
Rating: 
Summary: Semi-compelling
Review: A disappointment. While the premise of nanotechnology run amok is full of possibilities, the characters in this novel are utterly forgettable - especially the protagonist Jack. It seems that the author wanted to make sure no one was left behind in the plot development so we're left reading lowest common denominator character development. Main characters die off and....who cares? Even the other characters in the novel seem oddly unaffected by the unfolding events within the story. This book isn't horrible. There are a few moments of spooky tension but overall it's not up to Crichton's other work.
Rating:
Summary: Swarmed over...
Review: Take a billion or so nano-particles, add a pinch of The Invasion of The Body Snatchers, a dash of the egg farm plus 3 rungs of the ladder escape from Aliens, 2 tablespoons of the cardboard characters in Jurassic Park, sift together with a reproducing strain from Andromeda, mix thoroughly in the Nevada desert with a pound of concept from the Forbin Project, then add pages and pages of highly technical nano-data in the spirit of A Brief History In Time...and you have PREY, Michael Crichton's latest. It is far from his best work, very derivitive, preachy at times and, if not viewed politely, could be thought of as half-baked.
Rating: 
Summary: More Treatment than Novel
Review: I could not put "Prey" down and read it the day I got it, but when it was over I had to scratch my head. The concept is gripping (if self-plagarizing), but the characters are perfunctory and the narrative is as much about story-boards as story-telling. Invoking all the usual Crichton themes, "Prey" involves another tale of corporate greed causing scientists to tinker with nature, only here the creatures are "nanoparticles" rather than dinosaurs. (Didn't any of these greedy corporate scientists read 'Jurassic Park'? Or Frankenstein, for that matter? Don't they know that nature will not be harnessed and controlled?). The particles are a combination of genetic engineering and computer programming, and behave something like the angry swarms in the 1986 horror movie "From Beyond." Crichton is a great teacher, as usual, popularizing cutting-edge technological and scientific theories enough to make the reader feel smarter than the characters, and the story moves briskly and efficiently to a (mostly) satisfactory conclusion. But in the end, "Prey" is a carnival fun ride of a book -- enjoyable but somewhat pointless.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent style, compelling topic
Review: I'll admit that I'm a science fiction fan...and a software engineer. But even if I weren't, I'd like Prey. It is a compelling read, centered around an interesting topic. It is grounded in enough science fact to be good science fiction. As any good writing, the author pulls you into the characters' world. If I had the time, I'd have read it cover-to-cover @ a single sitting (of course, then I'd be sad that there was no more!). Do yourself a favor - buy this book and then pass it around to your friends.
Rating:
Summary: Great concept, but....
Review: The concept for this book, especially in the hands of Crichton has huge potential. Unfortunately, it falls short of the very bar that Crichton, himself, set. The novel is obviously very well researched and there is an extensive bibliography at the end. I only wish Crichton had spent similar effort on the plot and the characters. The plot is fairly linear and predictable and the characters are mostly shallow and stilted. This is one of those rare cases where I wish the editor had indulged the author a bit more to allow him to render a richer environment and a deeper plot.
Rating:
Summary: Prey, the unabridged audio
Review: I have always been and will continue to be a fan of Michael Crichton but "Prey" was a disappoinment. Since publishing "The Andromeda Strain" the author has written several screenplays in the guise of novels in which technology runs amuck. This novel follows the same theme but is tiresome. "Harry Potter" is more fun and for that matter more believable under the circumstances. The audio book was poorly narrated--at first I thought the bateries in my machine needed changing so I changed them but the narration remained slow. Also, the narrator continuously pronounced Nevada the irritating way Nevadans resent. For those interested in the audio version, don't waste your money on the unabridged version--buy the abridged for a quicker and less tedious "read."
Rating:
Summary: Not so great....
Review: I must admit I was really not thrilled by this book at all. It was not only very predictible, but he could have left out all of the technical explainations, they were BORING and the average person would have no clue what they are talking about! Oh and the "transfer" thing, (those who read it will know what I am talking about) was disappointing! Man, how many times has that already been used in Sci Fi stuff!? Not only that but something about the thought of all of mankind at risk, and this guy almost being killed like three times in one day - then thinking to call his kids at home a dinnertime was a bit... I don't know, just stupid. It really took away from the moment.
I had planned to buy a few more Crichton books... but I think I'll pass.
Rating:
Summary: Nice effort, but...
Review: I will admit first off that I did read this novel in the course of an evening, i.e. I was "riveted," so at least in that respect, the novel served its purpose. But, Crichton is Crichton is Crichton, and I'm getting rather bored of seeing characters in his novels being flown off to remote locations via helicopter. There was one thing that was nagging me through the whole novel, and ironically (I suppose), it was what drew me to "Prey" in the first place: this is Crichton's first novel written in the first-person. I was kind of "giddy" to see him try something new. And he gets away with it except for the fact that he is also writing "Prey" in the PAST tense, and therefore, we know from page one that the narrator has already survived the events of the novel. So, for a writer of suspense and of scientific-thrillers, Crichton sort of defeats the purpose of his own genre. What "riveted" me were the descriptions of the science, nanotechnology (again, very Crichton, very well done), and the story, well...knowing the narrator is alive and well, you can kind of figure everything out as you go along.
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