Rating: 
Summary: I Smell a Pattern Forming...
Review: Hmmm. Let's see here, I see a couple of things that sound a little familiar. I see a high tech experiment, run by a crack team of scientists who don't realize the danger they're putting the world into with said experiment. I also see an outsider who comes into said experiment, an outsider who instantly realizes the inherent hazards of what is going on. Alright, then I see that the experiment goes horribly awry! The terror of it all! Those stupid scientists thought that they could make a profit off of this futuristic technology, when they were putting the fate of the world in jeapordy! Luckily, the Outsider manages to save us all, and yet we are left with a sobering conclusion: Will our own hubris be the end of us all?! Man, Prey had it all, and yet i'm certain i've read it somewhere before. Oh, right, I read it in Jurassic Park. And The Andromeda Strain. And Timeline. Crichton is guilty of plagarism, but I don't think it counts because he's ripping off his own work. Again. Prey is a decent enough way to kill an afternoon, (it's mercifully short) but I wouldn't expect too much unless this is your first from Crichton. Otherwise, it's just another one of his standard Sci-Thriller Mad-libs, this time with Nanobots instead of dinosaurs.
Rating: 
Summary: Better Movie Than Novel
Review: This novel was my first exposure to Michael Crichton. Though I had seen several of the movies based on his books, I had never read him before. The book was an extremely easy read; I devoured it in one day. I liked the conversational style of his writing and the vulnerability he portrayed in his Everyman hero, Jack Forman. The pacing was well-done and the urgency of the situation kept me engrossed. However, parts of the story seemed awkward and his writing seemed sloppy in places. The story was told in first person, but Jack gave information that he couldn't have known (since he wasn't in the room, etc. etc.). It seemed like Crichton was writing this one for a movie, since most of the flaws in the writing would not have mattered in the staging of a film. I thought this was an enjoyable thrill ride, but not a particularly impressive or creative piece of popular fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth is stranger than fiction
Review: Yet again Michael Crichton crafts a tale so compelling that you kow it could simply just happen. In a world dominated by technology it is only a matter of time before some bright spark scientist starts looking at Crichton's novels as a blueprint for world destruction.In Prey he tackles the subject of nanoparticles and also computer intelligence with horrifying results. A simple computer program that helps systems problem solve is used to devastating effect when combined with swarms of nanoparticles allowing them to evolve independently of their creators, once released into the wild they become the hunter and their creators their prey. Not the easiest of books to read as it contains plenty of technical knowledge but it is written with such conviction and so finely crafted that you can forgive him his forays into the "technical stuff" and just sit back and enjoy a thoroughly enjoyable ride. Dealing with human relationships almost as much as the horrifying results of man's arrogance it is a real page turner and you will not be able to put it down, not even long wnough to wonder if that itch is really an itch or part of the swarm invading you.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea, but...
Review: I picked up this book with great expectation. Unfortunately, while the idea was great, I did not find the book to be as meticulously written as several other Chrichton's novels. Worse yet, Chrichton let his imagination wandered too far that a story that could have been highly believable turns into another undistinguished, overly imaginative science fiction tale. I found the idea of nanobots becoming renegades and starting to reproduce in the wild possible, if not plausible, in the next decade or so. However, the idea of them taking over human bodies was laughable. It reminded me of a 1980s movie called "The Hidden" in which an eel-like alien entered human bodies and took control of them. Actually, Julia's mouth-to-mouth introduction of the swarms to David was exactly the same process the alien in "The Hidden" used to migrate from body to body. Furthermore, there are a few things that I simply found puzzling at the least. 1) Why was Jack brought in? The official (and false) reason was to fix the program. We learned later that it was not true. Yet, nobody (including Jack himself) offered any explanation. Was Jack brought in as a consultant simply because there was no other way to introduce him to the scene? 2) When Jack first saw the swarms formed Ricky's shape outside the factory, he immediately realized that it was the same shape with the one he had seen in Julia's car. Yet he did not ask any question; He did not even wonder about it. 3) The swarms invaded and took over Julia, Ricky, Vince, and Bobby but not the others. No explanation was offered. 4) Crichton made the point of nanobots being a confluence of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and software engineering. Yet, with the exception of Mae, everyone had background in Computer Science. How come there was no expert in the other two fields? There are many other things that were not satisfactorily explained in the book. As usual, Crichton wrote something of an epilogue, but it did not offer much in the way of explanation. In the past, I had immensely enjoyed reading Chricton's books. This one simply failed to match those earlier creations.
Rating:
Summary: Nanotechnology
Review: Before I read this novel by Mr Michael Crichton I had never heard of the word nanotechnology and much less nanorobots. It is a very exciting book and yes this is not very different from the other Crichton books like Jurassic Park or Timeline and the Andromeda Strain, it still a book about science gone wrong, but so what, as long as it's exciting and not boring he should keep writing books like this. Michael Crichton cand do no wrong, I have read all of his books and all of them are great.
Rating:
Summary: Like Cheese Curls
Review: ...Tasty, but not particularly filling. As one reviewer noted, this has the unmistakeable feel of a movie treatment. I had thought that the novels that movies were based upon were supposed to be richer in detail, full of character development and those characters' interior worlds. Crichton glosses from one scene to the next, introducing just enough detail to keep the plot afloat for the next action sequence. No, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, and yes, Crichton does bring up some interesting ideas about the dangers of nanotechnology and biotechnology. (Not worthy of a three-page bibliography, usually reserved for scholarly works, but interesting nevertheless.) Still, this book seemed rather less imaginative than anything by Philip K. Dick, and I found myself not particularly caring about whether the wife would live, or whether the kids were OK, or the end of the world, or anything like that. The characters were two-dimensional, hurried, barely even sketched. Great idea, haphazard execution. Perhaps Mr. Crichton's editors are too much in awe of the author-as-moneymaker to offer him constructive advice on the basics of creative writing, but I'm sure there are good community college programs toward that end if he's interested.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: What a cool idea! Nanometer-sized particles that can learn and mimick living things. The spookiness of this out-of-control technology will really keep your attention in this book. Very imaginitive and intelligent!
Rating:
Summary: Dick and Jane and Spots get Nanophobic
Review: This was the worst piece of writing I've ever read to the finish.I read on because I couldn't actually believe how preposterously bad it was nor believe that the score or more of blurbs in the paperback could possible be authentic. It is wooden at every level -imagination, dialogue, description. Almost every character is tediously unpleasant or else their proper name is implied to be enough to flesh them out.The world described,in dozens of instances, couldn't possible correspond to any other imagination than that of an unimaginative 12 year old boy raised solely on the worst action cartoons-in fact it could have been written by Gov. Arnold.The worst part of it is this brand-Crichton-just has to move its bowels every year or two and the product is efficiently consumed in robot fashion by millions of well trained ninnies. I highly recommend The Diamond Age as an antidote.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book, a must read!
Review: This is one pf the best books I have ever read. I have read all of Michael Crichton's fiction novels and this is by far the best. I started reading one day and I literally did not put it down until I was done. Great action, excellent scientific background and explanations. The changes in the characters were strong. They are believable and very real. It almost seemed like I knew them in reality. This book can be genuinely scary at many times. I can't wait to see the movie when it comes out. What happens to some of the characters and the events of the book seriously stayed in my mind for days, and when a book gets you thinking like that, you know it's good. The ending seemed quite a bit tragic to me, but I guess that was one of the many tools Crichton uses to show the possible effects of this emergent technology. All in all, a very compelling and thrilling novel, possibly the best I've read in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Another good Crichton novel, but far from his best
Review: Hand-in-hand with Crichton's oft-used "don't mess with Mother Nature" theme is the "don't arrogantly mess with science we can't fully comprehend or control" theme. "Prey" has many of the same interesting elements that made so many of his previous novels so fascinating and gripping, but "Prey" also suffers from a weak and unsatisfying conclusion. I still enjoyed reading the story, but the chase scene at the conclusion felt like something from a generic TV movie. Not that a (possible?) movie version would fare any better. The Crichton novels that have been turned into feature films saw a lot of their scientific and moralistic edges softened considerably. Too bad, too, because the films were much less interesting than the books as a result. But is "Prey" worth a read? Oh yeah. And I anxiously look forward to his next book, whatever it will be. By the way, Crichton is a pretty decent film director, too!! Check out his films: Runaway (w/Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons), Coma, The Great Train Robbery (w/Sean Connery), Westworld, and Looker.
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