Prey

Rating:
Summary: a nano-novel
Review: By this stage anyone who picks up a Crichton novel should be well prepared for the formula: new technology full of hope & promise, unprincipled scientists/techno-freaks out to make a buck regardless of risk, ponderous hero who always intuits that "something isn't quite right here", technology runs amok, scary chase scene, hero wins out in spite of all odds, cautionary message bashing science & technology in wrap-up. I don't mind formulas when I am looking for an escapist novel & in the past Crichton has managed to throw in enough character development & believable science to keep me reading. Alas, PREY seems to have been written on the back of an airline safety card while stuck in a holding pattern over San Jose. The characters are tissue thin, the dialog is unbelievable, and even the monster (a cloud of self-programming nano-particles that are supposed to be the Pentagon's next super spy camera but of course have ideas of their own) fails to grab our attention. I suppose that I should be grateful that we are spared much of the pseudo-philosophizing & gratuitous chaos-theory invocations that kept creeping into Crichton's 90's novels (we do get gratuitous fractals in PREY, but they are blessedly less obvious) but he still hates science & scientists & perhaps it is time to look for other villains? The pity is that nano-technology and self-organizing computer networks are indeed exciting & potentially scary new frontiers in technology & I feel that Crichton COULD have made an excellent novel around them (witness for instance his still provocative book on psycho-surgery: TERMINAL MAN, which even a quarter of a century later makes one pause & ponder. Here he simply doesn't have his mind on the job & resorts to what amount to B-horror movie cliches in place of real character or situation development. Ugh.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining, intriguing book
Review: Michael Crichton's latest work comes in a most unexpected way. I found Prey to be a refreshing change from the usual Sci-Fi novel fare.

The book revolves around a man named Jack Forman, an unemployed but brilliant computer programmer who had created a 'Predator-Prey' software program. After a series of bizarre incidents, Jack is mysteriously called back by his former employers to go to a lab in the Nevada desert. Once there, Jack realizes the horrifying truth: his 'Pred-Prey' program has been used to create a new type of nano-technology that would be used by the government as a high-tech surveillance device. But something has gone horribly wrong. A large swarm of the nano-machines has escaped into the Nevada desert, and it is evolving at an alarming rate. Not only is it learning to adapt, but it is also preying on living things to sustain itself. The swarm must be destroyed, but doing so may prove more difficult than anyone had ever imagined.

Now you may be asking yourself "So what's so scary about a cloud of microscopic machine particles?" Well, leave it to Crichton to make something like that scary! The vague summarization I gave doesn't do the book justice. Its more of a brief synopsis to pique your interest. The book actually consists of 3 parts. The entire first part of the book revolves around Jack's life as an at-home dad. Huge problems are devoloping with his wife Julia, who he suspects is having an affair, and his inability to land a job is getting to him. This entire section of the book is great because of the sheer amount of character development. Many complain about this part of the book moving too slowly, but I found it to be quite interesting. In fact, I wouldn't have cared as much about the character of Jack Forman had this section not been so thorough. One reviewer throws a hissy fit over the interaction between Jack and his kids: a young teenage girl, a pre-pubescent punk little boy, and a baby daughter. I must say I found nothing wrong with the dialog between them. Anyone with kids could tell you that the dialog pretty much sums up your typical teenager and punk little kid with complete accuracy.

After the first portion of the book, we are transported to the lab in the Nevada desert, where the action takes place. I admit that when I first read the blurb about this book I was skeptical. I approached it with limited interest, but once I started reading it I was intrigued. By the second part of the book, Crichton hits you with so much technical and scientific information that its almost too much to take in. But if you read through it and allow your brain to absorb it, the explanations become clear. The concept of why the nano-swarm attacks and 'devours' its prey is explained...and even if you don't catch it, its not difficult to grasp. Once you realize what the base structure of the nano-machines are, it becomes obvious why they must attack and devour.

Even so, there are details that are left out which would tend to confuse the reader. Also, I found myself somewhat disinterested in a few of the side characters. Crichton introduces them briefly but never goes into much detail about them, which results in a rather unconcerned attitude towards those characters. Otherwise, the characters that have an impact develop over the rest of the book rather well.

The action in the book is pretty well done. I felt a sense of urgency for Jack, and there were some parts during the book that made me cringe. Other parts were exciting, others were nerve-racking, and most were just plain tense. It was tough to put the book down, and when I got to the final third of the book I found myself reading non-stop until the end.

One of the most remarkable and impressive aspects of the book has got to be the Bibliography. When you see how much painstaking research went into the book, you'll realize that all that technical mumbo-jumbo that Crichton spewed out on so many of those pages is actually relevant, and you'll appreciate the work that went into it and be able to take in all the knowledge. It almost seems too incredible and ubeleivable to be real, but most of the information that Crichton put into the book was entirely accurate, which takes the book up a notch (and makes the future of technology seem not quite as safe anymore...).

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Its never gets so technical that you just want to put it down, and it never really drags either. Its definitely not another Jurassic Park, but its a worthy read nonetheless. If you're looking for a book that will entertain and thrill you, then pick up Prey. Its not going to be the next Great American Novel, and if you're expecting an utter masterpiece then you will be disappointed. I see alot of criticism for this book that is just completely asinine. Either people need to lay off the No-Doze or they just need to be able to keep an open mind and accept this book for what it is: a well-researched, science fiction/science fact adventure that will keep you reading til the end. I won't go as far as saying that this is one of the best books I've ever read, but when I was finished with it, it just felt good to read an intriguing and entertaining book.

Rating:
Summary: Prey For All Of Us
Review: Michael Crichton must have phoned this one in. I've never written a review before but I felt this novel was such a stinker I had to respond. I think I've read all his books. I look forward to a new Crichton novel but, holy suffering swarms of bugs, what a mess this thing is. Did his ex get this in the divorce settlement?

I listened to this on an audio tape. After about 3 of the tapes, I started to use the fast forward button to try and speed things up. I didn't help. I couldn't descibe the plot of this book this book because it's so stupid. Yea, we know about the swarms of bugs but that's just the beginning. The bugs evolve into people and some of the characters are really the bugs and it's all evolving so fast that you can't keep track of who's who (or want to). I really hate a suspense book that spends all it's time chasing around in circles. In this case it's swarming around in circles. Imagine the novel Cujo only with killer bees that morph into a vicious wife. I'm not making this up. I'm hitting the fast forward button every 5 minutes and nothing changes, it's just more ridiculous!

In the last chapter (I think it was the last chapter, my Walkman was getting low on batteries from the constant fast forwarding) Crichton has an Agatha Christy moment where he attempts to explain what's been going on for the last 12,000 pages. Thanks for that Michael, I was wondering about all those incredible loose ends and plot turns that one paragraph ties all together.

Oh my God, is this book bad! Looking for a good summer read? Go read Cujo again. I least the bad dog doesn't turn in to a bad spouse.

Rating:
Summary: Crichton is Starting to Slip; Prey Just Another Book
Review: Okay. If I compare Prey to the other novels that Crichton has written, it is not going to stand up too well. Everything --from the science to the characters to the plot-- stands in poor contrast to, say, an "Andromeda Strain" or a "Jurrasic Park." The formula that had served Crichton so well in the past (neat technology + characters a reader can sympathize with + mind boggling disaster = great novel) has become transparent and worn out in Prey. The main character was just too perfect: supportive father and husband, so in the right, so nauseatingly good. He was a caricature of a protagonist. The bad guys were as inhuman: out of control monsters or a faceless, malignant corporation. Heroes and villians straight from the cookie-cutter seemed like to me. And the science lacked originality or challenge. Instead of 2003, the story could very well have been written in 1993, technologically speaking.

The language is fine throughout the novel; easy to see that the author has an excellent grasp of it. Too bad he didn't use his skills to push the science fiction genre's envelope.

He used to.

Rating:
Summary: "'The Birds' on acid"
Review: This is the only book I've read by Crichton. I expected much more. His plot and story lines remind me a lot of Koontz, and that is neither good or bad. This is a fantastic area, but as many writers have delved into similar stories, an author must go above and beyond the norm. I love many of the movies based on Crichtons novels: Andromeda Strain, and Jurassic Park especially. I do believe that between Crichton and Spielberg this would make a killer movie, but the screenplay would have to be better than the book. This book is highly entertaining, I read it in just a few hours...time not totally wasted!

Rating:
Summary: I'm worried about Michael Crichton.
Review: I have to admit, on the most basic level I really enjoyed Prey. The subject of nanotechnology is really interesting to me. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age is a great peek into a semi-far future after nanotechnology has become common. Prey hooked me fairly quickly and I read it in less than a week. But as much as I like Michael Crichton's "technology out of control" books (Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, Prey, etc.), as I read Prey I couldn't shake this nagging feeling that I was reading the novelization of a movie. The way Crichton described some scenes seemed almost to be screenplay notes to an FX department, and I pictured in my head how a CGI team would implement them. I think Michael Crichton is a very good author, I'm just worried that he is starting to write books with the intention that they will be made into movies. And that is a formula for disaster.

Rating:
Summary: Pop science movie script
Review: Reading this book I got the feeling that I was reading a movie script that wanted to combine Alien with Outbreak. The story was formula. It appears the author was attempting to write a script that would allow a director to make use of particle animation technology along with a number of other special effects. If what you want to read is science fluff, this is your book. On the other hand, I'd wait till the movie comes out (bet on it).

Rating:
Summary: Good Book!
Review: This book is an excelent novel. Michael Crichton out does himself. Writing one of the best books i've read to date. This book is about nanotechnology and how it can destroy us and how we have to be careful with science and nature. Its a good novel, but some parts can be difficult to understand. Great book, I'd recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Michael Crichton has proved to me over and over again that he can crank up the suspense and really get me interested in a story-- Prey held true to this throughout the entire time I was reading it.

Told in the first person, Prey was definitely a departure from how Crichton normally writes; usually he writes in the third person, jumping from character to character and giving insights into their perspectives, feelings, and actions. This time 'round, though, he stays with good old Jack Forman, a devoted family man. Although quite a large chunk of the story is wasted on events that happen at Jack's home [hence the 4 stars'], they eventually help explain things that happen later on in the story. As the plot moves along, you are carted along with Jack (who is desperate for a job) to the desert where he finds that the job he was offered isn't as great as he was hoping (he didn't plan on his life being in danger, after all). The plot moves along quickly, and as it progresses the tension increases page by page.

Although this is not my favorite Crichton novel, it still was quite a ride and I really enjoyed reading it. For anyone who is looking to introduce themselves to Crichton's work, this is not the book to start with [try Jurassic Park or Sphere].

Rating:
Summary: Should've been better
Review: I expected much better from Michael Crichton. "Timeline" was one of the more exciting books I've read, and a book close to the level of "Jurassic Park". But in "Prey", Michael Crichton fails to build the believable tale he's embedded in previous works. The dialogue, especially between Jack Forman's children, is borderline ridiculous, and the threat from the technology (usually a hallmark of Crichton books) degenerates into a series of "deadly monster chase scenes" that reads like a typical episode of Scobby-Doo! Most of the premises upon which the plot is built are erroneous and impossible, but prospective buyers should read for themselves. True fans will probably still like it. For those who need alternative, try "Conquest of Paradise: An End-Times Nano-Thriller". That book provides a far more accurate portrayal of self-replicating nanotechnology and does so without the cartoonish characters, bad dialogue, and endless chase scenes (I wonder if our heroes will get away???). Throughout the whole of "Prey", the writing seemed very sloppy and rushed. If you're looking for an average Michael Crichton book, read "Prey". If you're looking for great nanotechnology fiction, then you're far better off with "Conquest of Paradise".