Prey

Rating:
Summary: A book written to be a movie
Review: It's 2009 and Jack Forman, software whiz at Media Tronics, is fired the day after he tells his lawyer about the corruption at the company. Pretty much blackballed in Silicon Valley, Jack functions as a stay at home dad while his wife Julia pursues a high-powered career in venture capital working on the Xymos deal. Xymos bills itself as the world leader in molecular manufacturing and is marketing its ability to create nanoparticles that can be injected into the bloodstream and project images of everything they pass through in the human body. This is all in the first twenty-two pages.

For the next hunderd pages or so the story bogs down, weaving together the tension in Jack and Julia's marriage with a lot of scientific backdrop for the climax to come. Then the action shifts to the Xymos plant in the Nevada desert where the nanoparticles are being produced. Jack is brought out to fix some software that Media Tronics created for Xymos and discovers that the nanoparticles have taken on a life of their own. From here on you can just imagine the special effects in the movie that will ultimately be made. Jack goes from one impossible situation to the next in his effort to save the world from the evils of a scientific miracle gone awry.

Enjoy the action for what it is, but don't get too hung up on Crichton's message that advances in computer and biotechnology may converge to precipitate the end of the world.

Rating:
Summary: I "PREY " FOR NOT ANOTHER CRICHTON DIVORCE
Review: Is this book just evidence to support his divorce?
Does his x-wife get the rights , so he just wants to punish her?
As usual , he is on the cutting edge of technology, but all he seems to want to do is write a mysogonists diatribe against women and mothers. I guess this book should be used in writing class to teach why someone going through a divorce should not write. I went to school with this 6'4 baskeball star, but all he does in this one is"dribble" and "foul out".More Nano-lit than nano-tech.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Try, No Cigar
Review: The only other book of Michael Crichton's I have read is "Timeline". Okay but rather trite and predictable. This new one looked intriguing so I bought it before I caught a flight. It starts out very well and the tension builds quite well. Unfortunately, once in Nevada and the "swarms" start, it goes downhill. The suspense just isn't there. Page after page of "explanation" and shallow characters and the "F" word every third sentence, made me leave this book on the plane for someone else to use as a sleep-aid.

Rating:
Summary: Very Michael Crichton
Review: This book is good. Similar to, but not as good as Jurassic park. It was like Jurassic Park in that it warns of a technology that is within reach of our generation. The only problem is that nanotechnology although just as plausable, is not nearly as exciting as dinosaurs.

I actually liked the first half of the book more than the second. In the first half of the book, Crichton was showing his prowess for writing poignant commentary on the reality of modern day marriages in which traditional gender-roles are reversed. He definately wants to make the point that men can and sometimes do stay at home and take care of the family. The mystery of whether or not Jack's wife was cheating on him was VERY well done.

In the second half of the book I found myself saying "hasn't this been done before?" It seemed like I was experiencing another movie that I had seen SO many times before. Same situation as with the dinosaurs, different technology.

That leads me into another point that I want to make. The book reads like a movie. Michael Crichton is SO good at making the reader feel like he or she is right there with the characters. Reading this book, I felt like I was watching a movie. I could not put it down, and I read it in 3 days. I think this is the reason I wanted to read this book, and the reason I will continue to read Crichton's books. He has a gift for this that is better than any other auther that I have read.

Although the book did not leave me feeling particularly good about the future possibility of nanotechnology taking on a life of it's own and taking over our lives, it did provide me with exceptional reading entertainment and as with many Crichton novels, make me feel more informed on a subject and possible technological danger that I had previously known nothing about. I particularly liked his statement for the tombestone of the human race "they did not know what they were doing."

Rating:
Summary: Food for thought
Review: As usual, Dr. Crichton gives us a brisk overview of a complex subject and then cautions us about the potential Frankenstein monster lurking in the wings. All of this is a bit formulaic by now, as are his characters, and yet in some ways nobody does it better. As usual, it's real food for thought (and in this case we may be the food for that thought,both literally and figuratively!) The thriller/horror film blockbuster potential is also there, although as a real horror fan I'd rather they made a book out of Harry Shannon's rollicking 'Night of the Beast,' so there would be some more surprises in store. You know where this one is going every step of the way, although you still want to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking, but...
Review: not up to usual Crichton standards. Like another reveiwer, I felt as though we got an abridged version. The plot is engaging and the science is interesting, but this story could have been another Jurassic Park at the microscopic level but never achieves the grandeur of that great novel. I felt cheated by this novel, mainly because I have come to expect so much from Crichton and this book simply does not reach the quality I am used to from this talented author. Nevertheless, I still give it 4 stars because it is better reading than just about anything out there.

Rating:
Summary: Fun and Intense
Review: Enjoyable piece of entertainment. I haven't read any of his other books but after this one I'm sure that I will. Worth the money. Also recommend Evolution by Jennifer MacDonald. It's a stream of consciouness story that I found intriguing and a very unique read, again it was worth the money I spent on it.

Rating:
Summary: I really liked this book, don't know why!!!
Review: Well, if I could have I would have given this book 4 and half, and I wanted to take a half away for two really shallow reasons. Although I really enjoyed this book, it's fast, can't put down reading, I really had no idea what Mr. Crichton was talking about most of the time!!!!I kept asking my husband questions concerning the science in this book, and well, that aside, I really enjoyed it. The second shallow reason I took a half away, was the ending. I wanted about 2 or 3 more pages, things wrapped a little more......but that's just me, because I normally like my endings like that. So...read this book, you will enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: 5-stars for fun -- 4 stars for re-tooling Jurassic Park...
Review: First off, I'm a die-hard Michael Crichton fan...absolutely LOVE his stuff...however -- 'Prey' is definitely a 'formula' novel...most notably a Crichton formula novel which borrow extensively from previous works like 'Jurassic Park' & 'Timeline'. If you have read many of his other novels, this formula will become immediately apparent: Big corporation is messing with technology they don't fully understand nor appreciate, and in the process unleash something baaaad. First it was the Dinosaurs when InGen toyed around with genetic manipulation where they shouldn't have...next we have a very similar company in 'Timeline' that wanted to send the elite on once-in-a-lifetime trips through time, using science again that was a bit beyond our control and now we have nanotechnology in 'Prey' that provides a frightening look at what *could* happen should this kind of near-future science fall into the hands of those who attempt to use it for all the wrong reasons.

Just because Crichton is using his 'formula' here, that doesn't mean he doesn't provide us with some great cliff-hangers and genuine surprises along the way...his writing talent is far too refined to have forgotten how to pull a few strings with the readers. 'Prey' begins with poor Jack, a reluctant house-husband with a wife who has quickly become one of the powerhouse leaders at Xymos (you guessed it, the 'big corporation' that funds experiments that go horribly wrong). Her sudden and suspiciously odd actions make Jack begin to suspect that she (Julia) just might be having an affair. He pushes this thought away every time more and more evidence begins to mount that this is no longer a theory and more likely a fact. Her behavior seems erratic (at best), distant with him and the children and she tells small (but significant) lies which unravel the fabric of their relationship. All this is shockingly interrupted when Julia is involved in an accident which sends her to the hospital. Meanwhile an incredibly un-expected invitation by his former boss (who fired him under trumped up charges) is offered to Jack asking him to come back (sort of) to help Xymos figure out how to solve a problem with a program that Jack's technical team had designed some time before. At first Jack is totally against going back under ANY circumstances...but as the problem with Julia becomes more of an immediate concern, he figures that maybe he could find out more about her supposed affair by accepting the offer.

This is where the rubber hits the pavement, so-to-speak. This is where Jack becomes immersed in the world of nanoswarms, produced by Xymos for the Military to spy on the enemy. As in all of Crichton's novels, nothing is as it seems, and the people who give the tours of the production facility know a lot more than they are letting on (always to the suspicion of those on the receiving end of the tour). Jack has reason to believe Ricky (the tour-guide) is holding back crucial information on the little problem they have come up against. It appears that the company has made a once-in-a-lifetime scientific breakthrough which has allowed them to begin full production of machines on the molecular level. Millions of microscopic machines were accidentally vented to the Nevada environment and have a peculiar problem: they won't come back...they seem to be multiplying on their own (which they just shouldn't be able to do)...they seem to be killing desert animals...oh, and they were programmed using a predator/prey program that Jack and his former team-mates created. Just about everything that Ricky says turns out to be half-truths or outright lies from pretty much the beginning. Jack almost immediately has a plan that nobody had previously thought about which will eliminate the nanoswarms...but if you know the typical Michael Crichton novel, you know that first, and even second plans usually go horribly wrong. What exactly is Ricky hiding from Jack and just about everyone else? How are the nanoswarms able to multiply? How are they developing behavior that their programming says should be 100% impossible? How is Jack's wife, Julia embroiled in all of this, and is she really having an affair? And the biggest question of all: Can the nanoswarms be stopped...and if so, how?
Good questions and for the sheer fun of the story I gave 'Prey' 5 stars, but for re-telling a story told before in 'Jurassic Park' and 'Timeline' I give it just 4 stars. Perfectly enjoyable even despite my reservations and I very much look forward to the future movie at the local cineplex, it ought to be a real nail-biter.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This is his best since the Andromeda Strain! I sat up half the night finishing it; a real page turner. SIX stars