Prey

Rating:
Summary: potentially compelling story loses all steam
Review: I have to admit that for the first 100 pages I could not put this book down. It was intriguing, well researched and written, fast paced, and I was hooked. Then, when the action moved to the lab in the Arizona desert, I suddenly lost all interest. The reason? the dialogue of the young team at the lab was absolutely insipid, with the F word liberally sprinkled in every other sentence. I was really disappointed. The story lost its pace, got mired in the painfully banal bickering of a team of people no one cares about, and a potentially great story came to an end. I wasn't willing to wade through the muck to find out what happened.
This brings me to a question. Why does Chichton feel he needs to depict young characters - scientists in this case - as nasty, foul mouthed and arrogant? Why does he need to resort to using filthy language? Does he think this will make his books appear more "hip" to younger readers? Maybe he's desperate to widen his audience and thinks he can do so by dumbing his writing down to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The only thing I'm sure of is that he reduced his audience by at least one with this book. That it is a number 1 New York Times bestseller is a very sad reflection on all of us.

Rating:
Summary: Mildly Interesting
Review: I expected more because the concept is very interesting. He did not do much with it to make it interesting. There was not enough tension. I did finish it--it did keep my interest, but it was not a book that I hated to put down. Nor was it a book I couldn't wait to pick up again.

Rating:
Summary: Technology gone evil...
Review: You can read the editorial reviews for the book description. While a very interesting read, it was not very entertaining. Some areas seemed to drag on. For first time readers of Michael try Sphere or Disclosure first. You will not be disappointed...

Rating:
Summary: Just the fact it was another Michael Crichton was enough
Review: Not only is this book a brilliant addition to an already impressive body of work by this great American science fiction and high-tech writer, including "Jurassic Park", "Congo", and more, but, as with all his books, he creates completely believable characters populating completely believable worlds which, naturally, make the high-tech part of the stories completely believable...from cloned dinosaurs to nano-bots...this great author is up there with others of both older science fiction, of which I am well acquainted as I push 50, like "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Rendezvous with Rama", as well as what some call cyberpunk like "Neuromancer", "Mona Lisa Overdrive", "Snow Crash", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter", etc. So get this latest book from Michael Crichton and add it to your own collection.

Rating:
Summary: Preying it would never end
Review: I found Prey to be a real page burner. It hooked me from the first few pages until the very last phrase. As scifi goes, the book is not of the caliber of what are in my opinion the greatest works of scifi such as Dune or the Foundation series, but Crighton manages to consistently produce novels that are both scientifically sound and engaging that echo the long gone era of classic science fiction in which science and not magic drove the plots. As forty year devotee of the genre and a faculty member who teaches a course about scifi, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: NANO THEME, BUT MEGA IMAGINATION!
Review: Having just finished (on March 27, 2003) BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON by Dean Koontz, which dealt with a more fanciful, but equally enjoyable, depiction of nanotechnology, I was pleased to be swept up again into this pseudo-scientific world via Michael Crichton's novel, PREY.

Invariably, I find Crichton's novels to be both educational and entertaining, since he explains every technical nuance with remarkable precision without boring the reader. Consistent with his trademark attention to detail, excellent character and plot development, and absorbing method of storytelling, Crichton has achieved another literary success with PREY. The ending was especially thought provoking, albeit somewhat unnerving, causing me to view computer science with a tad more appreciation-AND suspicion.

Rating:
Summary: Prey
Review: Using facts of computer programming and multitudes of biological research, Crichton has collaborated another page-turner on the futuristic insights of human progress. With all of the supporting evidence, one might say that this scenario could actually occur. Already, scientists are cloning and there's nothing stopping them from making anything biologically dangerous out of genetic manipulation.
The idea of the book is that technology can be too much for us to handle. Though geniuses we are, we still make stupid mistakes. In this case: man lives, man creates, and man gets into trouble - or really just one man gets to clean up the mess.

This one man turns out to be the typical three-kids-day-care dad who knows how to program codes. He struggles with his personal life while trying to find a new job.

Everyday, he encounters the same thing, kids in the bratty prattling stage, endless name calling and torment between sibling rivalries. The children are portrayed so amusingly that they don't even seem to be real. In fact, they are the "hell" that parents live though.

Finally, we get to the big kick: the main-character's wife and his pal, Jimmy, are the closest people imaginable to him. He knows them like the back of his hand, but they are the ones who start the trouble.

Questioning the rights of creation, this scenario is very unique, but like most playing God scenarios that Crichton has written, this also turns out like an action movie ready to be filmed, like the old-timer's Jurassic Park. Unlike most prescript-novels, Prey is a considerably complicated fact book in which the reader needs to truly understand and follow the fundamentals of bio-engineering. The narration style is the key to the revelation of the plot. And like I said: Man lives, man creates, man gets into trouble, and man might come out alive.

Rating:
Summary: Crichton's Worst!!!
Review: I am a huge Michael Crichton fan. I've loved him since I read "Jurassic Park" in three days when I was ten. Twelve years later and I can reread his novels again and again. "Prey" was a HORRIBLE disappointment. It seemed as if he had merely gone through some first drafts of earlier books and cut and pasted them together. The first person narrative was extremely ineffective (Crichton's never done this before, for good reason apparently.) To be honest, I'm sort of embarrassed for him. Oh well, I've got my fingers crossed for the next one...

Rating:
Summary: Crichton never fails to amaze us
Review: Jack Forman is suspicious of his wife of having an affair at work. When he goes to investigate, it turns out more than just an affair. Xymos Technology, the secret research lab where his wife works, has created nanotechnology too advanced for themselves to handle. In "Prey," swarms of self-replicating micro-robots start to evolve and they advance too fast to keep under control. The only way to resolve this is to destroy them before they destroy us. Jack Forman, programmer of the predator-prey software that the micro-robots are running on, is the only hope. Nanotechnology has become too dangerous, and soon the humans are going to be taken over by the micro-robots. They must be stopped before they become even more dangerous.

Michael Crichton has again written a thrilling book. His plot seems incredibly realistic, because he has done so much research on nanotechnology. He does so much research on all of his books, making them seem especially true and believable. A message he is trying to send to us is that nanotechnology is getting more and more advanced, and that soon it will be out of control if we are not careful.

The book starts out as slow paced, but then it slowly pulls you in and prepares you for the fast-paced action towards the end. It is not necessarily a scary plot, but it is making us aware of the dangers of nanotechnology if not controlled properly. Like most of his other books, the plot seems perfect for a movie. The storyline is easy to follow, and the action is intense and thrilling. It is easy to picture the story in your head, with Crichton's detailed descriptions. It is hard to put down, and I highly recommend this book. If you are a fan of Crichton's or a high-tech science-fiction fan, then you should definitely read it.

Rating:
Summary: Warning
Review: I gave this book three stars. Why? Because, assuming you've read some prior Crichton novels (I've read almost all of them) and like his "science" thrillers, you'll either like "Prey" a lot or dislike it a lot, depending on whether or not 500 or so "F" words in the dialogue offend you.

It offends me so much I'll likely never buy another Crichton novel. My two teenaged sons (ages 17 and 13) have seen many of his movies, read his books, and not being overly offended in the past, I blindly purchased this paperback and let two sons, and my wife, read it first. Then my wife comes to me and says, "This is one great story about nanotechnology, but the language is absolutely "terrible". Belatedly, I then read the book and find she's right and embarrassed my sons have read it.

So: I enjoyed the story. A lot. I'd give it five stars if it omitted the most offensive profanity! Whether you'll like this Crichton novel a lot or be offended will in my opinion, be based on your sensitivity to profanity.

So be cautioned.