Prey

Rating:
Summary: save your money
Review: I'll keep this review really simple and to the point: I found this book to be far fetched and just plain silly.Save your money!!!

Rating:
Summary: Tense and Exciting
Review: Michael Crichton is a master of limited disaster stories. Small areas and small casts combined with high tension and sometimes the possibility of greater impact. Such is the case with this one.

An out of work programmer begins to suspect that his wife is having an affair. But at the same time other strange things begin to happen at home. As the questions about his wife's behavior begin to become to much, he is offered a job straightening out a programming problem at his wife's firm.

The problem concerns nonotecnology and using microscopic robots for imaging. Some of the nanobots are loose and not responding to controls. Their fail-safes seem to be inoperative. The devices are evolving and they are dangerous.

The story encompasses about a week with most of the action happening in a single day. Like Jurassic Park, the story is told from an after-the-fact perspective so some of the tension can't quite build. There are a few unanswered questions that seem like the answers were edited from the final draft (i.e. the black cloaks) but it still reads well.

All in all, if you enjoyed Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Twister, or other similar Crichton stories, you will be hooked on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Crichton's best since "Rising Sun"
Review: I was a little disappointed with Michael Crichton after reading "Timeline", but this book makes up for it. "Prey" is an intense story that is interesting because it brings up questions that will inevitable emerge with the new nanotechnology. The story was good, but I think Crichton's story-telling was a little more flawed in this story than we are used to. "Prey" is told from the point of view of a first-person narrator. I have never been a fan of the first-person narrator, unless the voice is unique, like that of Ishmael in "Moby Dick", I think Crichton's story would have been more credible if told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. First-person narration is also awkward when describing existing conditions in the past tense. Also, it takes away from the tension in the story because it is obvious that the main character is going to live because he was alive to tell the story. Crichton also makes a few type-o's that I got hung up on. He used "tinny" for "tiny" twice, and he said Julia was "diseased" instead of "deceased", which confused me. My only other complaint with the novel is I would have liked to see Jack describe how he felt emotionally at the end, after the tragedy he faces (you know what I mean if you read the book), the story seemed to be lacking in that aspect. Overall, this book was very exciting and suspensful, especially the last 100 pages. It is engrossing and, as usual for Crichton, full of technical details introduced in a way that makes it pretty easy for the casual reader to follow.

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Book!! One of Michael Crichton's Very Best!!
Review: Of all the books in the world to pick up Prey would have to, at this time, be the most wonderful read. It was very suspenseful and from the ending, right when they get stuck in the cars outside and must make it back to the lab, the book is non-stop intense, suspenseful, thrilling action. It becomes irrisistable. I find it amazing how it goes from starting with Jack at a grocery store buying placemats to him fighting nanotechnology with scientists.

Prey, as I said, starts off at a grocery store where the main character, Jack Forman, a stay-at-home dad caring for his children, is buying placemats for the house. It goes on to tell how Jack begins suspecting an illicit affair arrising from his perculiarly acting wife Julia. When Julia gets into a car accident and is taken to the hospital, Jack decides it's time to find out what's going on at her super hush-hush "fab-lab" called Xymos in the Nevada Dessert. Upon arrival it seems that everyone is very uptight and worried and there are only a few people led by Jack's friend who is acting very odd.

Within the first day of arrival Jack is notified that the lab tried building nanorobots as spy cameras for the army. When they escaped it was a hurry to find and collect these robots...they failed, and now they want Jack to help them to better understand these creations which are multiplying and getting much more dangerous by the hour. Soon they are extremely technologically advanced yet if the people succeed is for you to read, and leads to the books amazing and climactic ending.

This book wins me over on all fronts. It was extremely well written and somehow manages to be extremely suspenseful and thrilling. What the people decide is sometimes so out of the blue and so crazy that you can't believe they went through with it, but that is the beauty of this novel which keeps you riveted from nearly beginning to end. Each new time zone/time frame of the novel delivers something new to worry about and gives you a nice boost in your knowledge of technology and the worlds evolution. Most people I know of that read it (which accounts for twelve people) love it and have already read it twice. I'm now buying this book to own and read as many times as I want. You'll fall in love with all the screams and suspense and thrills it delivers, and boy oh boy does Prey deliver.

5 out of 5 stars. One of Michael Crichton's Very Best and second only to Jurassic Park. It is on my top five Best Books Ever List as number four. Outstanding. A read well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Good story - scary theme
Review: Here we see the "old" Crichton again. He wrote a novel full of suspense after having done his homework in research very well. Over the last twenty years or so the topos of the magician's apprentice who uses his wand without considering the possible - and often disastrous - results of his doings has become a classic in modern stories. And this happens frequently when corporations are too profit-orientated to analyse implicit future dangers that may result from their new technological projects and when they accept possible dangers for the lives of people - or on a larger scale the destruction of mankind. Logically the novel's ending is ambiguous. It is the reader's choice whether he wants to be an optimist or a pessimist in these issues.

The characters - above all the narrator Jack - are well constructed to help the development of the novel and the understanding of a rather complex subject. There are minor flaws in the story's plot, though. Some twists in the action are not really logical. Why is Jack called in to help when he is a potential danger for those who call him? Why does his wife not kiss him at the beginning of the novel? OK, OK, it would have been a completely different story. But a plot has to be logical after all.
Nevertheless I have enjoyed reading the book, I liked the story and I can recommend it to all those who are interested in modern technology and its possible dangers.

Rating:
Summary: It's Crap
Review: Well, maybe not crap, but its nothing spectacular, either. Once again Michael Crichton brings to life a story that he once could have written so much better. Little tiny robots have been invented, and theyre smart. And they can learn. And adapt. And...do things that youd only expect in a horrible John Saul book. For the last 50 pages I kept expecting the alien's spaceship to come out of the clouds and end it all. Not that this book was about aliens (at all), but it had that crappy sci-fi feel to it.

I've no doubt that nanotechnology could become dangerous if used carelessly, but the scenarios Crichton imagines border on the ridiculous. This is the kind of book you buy at an airport, and when youre finished you leave it on the plane so the next person can have it. In some cases people do this to share a good book with a perfect stranger; in this case youre doing it 'cause its just not worth carrying around. 'Prey' will pass the time, no more, no less.

Rating:
Summary: Quite Mediocre
Review: I only purchased it because I was in downtown Phoenix for a conference and couldn't find a real book store within walking distance. I was stuck with the hotel's W.H. Smith and the NY Times bestseller list (blech.)

This book is a fast, pleasant read. The early portions were quite promising, evoking a feeling of creeping doom. I also liked the sprinkles of social commentary, particularly the discrimination fathers face in custody proceeedings.

However, the plot quickly became utterly -- and I mean utterly -- predictable. The only suspense left for me was seeing just how long it would take the main character to figure out what I had figured out, and details of the resolution. The last portions degenerate to a long "beat the unstoppable monster" sequence.

Might make a good movie on the Sci-Fi channel.

Save your money. Or, use it to buy Charles Pellegrino's "Dust".

Rating:
Summary: Prey
Review: Prey, by Michael Crichton has the same great thriller formula to be a great success as Jurassic Park.

Crichton does an amazing job in capturing every detail of every single character. His knowledge of science and technology has proved much successful in this book. Crichton abilities to keep the reader on the edge of his seat until the final pages of the book are astonishing. He never loses his charisma to always surprise you when u least expect it. He does this greatly, when jack finally realizes that his wife is not what she seems to be. And that she has been taken over by the swarm. Like every other novel Crichton has written, he has lessons that can always be applied to real life. Jurassic Park showed that humanity does not have the right to play God. As for this book, Michael does a phenomenal job protesting the fact that humans depend on machines to a very dangerous degree. And as this book shows, that technology can be the end of humanity. This fact unfortunately remains true. If humans depend on machines for everything eventually machines will replace most of us. As we can see in our lives today, the works of machines have replaced factory workers, industry workers, and many other forms of labor. On a lighter note, this book I would have to say is honestly the best work Michael Crichton has ever done. I would recommend it to anyone who is in interested in the harmful effects of technology on our lives or anyone looking for great thriller. This book I am sure will leave u breath less long after u have put it done.

Rating:
Summary: Good job with difficult subject matter
Review: I read Crichton because I believe he excels in writing mystery-thrillers whose plots, to a greater or lesser degree, involve clever and intricate explorations of science and technology. (I have never been tempted to read Disclosure; and have not gotten around to Eaters of the Dead and Congo) If you find science and technology dull and uninteresting, or difficult, you probably won't enjoy this book (Hint: you could enjoy season after season of ER without ever knowing what "CBC" stands for, even though it's in just about every episode; but details of human blood chemistry are essential to Andromeda Strain (and are dutifully explained).

If you have not read Crichton before, I would not start with this work; I recommend Andromeda Strain (early work) or Jurassic Park (more recent). And if you've seen the movie versions, you'll find the books really rather different: much richer in detail and substance and sometimes even very different in plot (Andromeda Strain is the only movie version that does real justice to the substance of its book). If you like those books, you'll like this one.

For those who have read Crichton, I agree with the other reviewers who find much to enjoy here, but find this book not as successful as the two it most closely resembles: Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, which I also believe are Crichton's best fiction works. The difficulty here is that the underlying science is rather more complex and abstract, which I believe accounts for the more lengthy explanatory "footnotes" that interrupt the narrative flow. I was also a little disappointed in the resolution (but to say exactly why would give too much away). On the other hand, as much as I enjoyed Timeline, I find the action here much more relevant to plot development and less gratuitously cinematic than Timeline.

A few comments about some of the criticisms in other reviews:

Character development. There is certainly more in his later books than his early ones. Give the guy a break. You want fascinating and original in-depth psychological profiles or brilliant dialogue, read Faulkner or Albee. All we really need is what is essential to the advancement of the plot.

Likable characters. Reviewers refer to "the bad guys" and complain of bitchy wives and whiny kids and not caring what happens because they don't like the characters. Sorry to say, but these folks have completely missed the point. There are no "bad guys" in this book; good and evil are not at issue. It is not "about" characters, likable or otherwise.

Movie script elements. Compared to Timeline, there just isn't that much in here. Besides, having seen what happens to his books when they get made into movies, who could blame Crichton for sticking in a few movie scenes to start with; he knows much of the plot will get trashed (apparently also true even for Timeline). At least there's no Matricesque kung fu.

Originality. There is very little left in the world of art that can be truly original: much time and effort was spent in the 20th century in pursuit of the truly original, but produced little of interest or lasting value. Thus, "arrogant humanity is almost destroyed by monster of its own creation" was already explored by Shelley in Frankenstein and by Crichton in Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. But the theme is a rich and powerful one that is worthy of many different explorations. And a successful formula is always worth repeating; the challenge and interest is in the details. I believe the Crichton formula is a great success and the details of this manifestation sufficiently interesting to justify reading 500 pages. And yes, I look forward to the inevitable movie, even though I know most of the book won't be in it.

Rating:
Summary: Good concept but a boring, sloppy novel
Review: Unfortunately, this book fails on almost every level. I have enjoyed other Crichton books and the concept behind this one was compelling, so I eagerly sat down to read it. But I was very disappointed. Here are its pitfalls, without giving anything specific away:

1. The first 120 pages consist of the main character changing diapers and taking care of his kids. If Crichton had used those pages for strong character development, that would be fine. But his writing is mediocre, and the diaper-changing drags on too long.

Several odd aspects of the beginning did pique my curiosity, but Crichton doesn't explain those initial oddities until the last 4 pages, after all the events are over! It's tacked on at the very end. .. "you remember that sorta weird thing that happened when he was changing the diapers? Well, here's the explanation. The end." Ho hum. By that point, I just didn't care anymore. The ending was so absurd that more explanations didn't matter.

2. Crichton did come up with a good, high-concept idea for the book: a swarm of nanoparticles, developed for the military for surveillance purposes, gets out of control and evolves into a predatory being that can chase you into any room... a bee-like swarm of microscopic robots slipping through the cracks. Pretty cool idea. It could have been a scary page-turner as the characters try to escape the unstoppable swarm. But this book only shows a glimmer of its promise. Simply put, Crichton didn't try very hard to make it suspenseful. He phoned this one in.

3. It's obvious from the "scientific explanations" that Crichton doesn't really understand the technologies he writes about. Particularly at the end -- the explanations don't even remotely make sense. Some of the swarm behavior is plausible, but the ending is laughable and silly.

4. The whole book seemed hastily written. An editor should have read it for plot glitches. (I won't say anything specific, lest you read the book anyway.) In addition, Crichton keeps awkwardly interrupting the dialogue to explain various theories. You're reading along and then -- woah, let's stop the talking for a second -- here we go with another science lesson! Two pages later the dialogue starts again, exactly where it left off.

6. The most annoying thing is that Crichton gives you a condescending lecture at the beginning of the book about the arrogance of science. He did this at the beginning of Jurrasic Park, too. It would be one thing if Crichton were an expert on his subject matter and had the legitimacy to warn you, the poor uninformed reader, of the evils going on in labs around the country. But his lack of credibility is embarassing. Crichton comes off as someone who has read a bunch of books and then tries to regurgitate it back to you, but without a true, confident grasp of the material. He has no business lecturing people. He gets too many facts wrong. He should stick to fiction. Good fiction.

In sum, I hope another writer creates a good "nanoparticle out-of-control" story... because I still want to read one.