Prey

Rating:
Summary: screenplay for a B-movie
Review: I don't think this book deserves a rating of 1 star, but it is the lowest I am allowed to give.

There was a time when Crichton wrote great SF. Then he wrote Jurassic Park, which may perhaps be his greatest, and that is when he began to completely unravel as a writer. The success of that book and the monumental success of the movie seem to have forever altered Crichton's brain. Now, he writes cheap screenplays for B-movies, of which Prey is the latest. I have been burned by every one of his books after Jurassic Park - starting with Lost World, which was written with an action film in mind. Well, this is the last Crichton book I will ever read.

The science in this book is absolutely preposterous - swarm technology and nanomachines that are capable of learning so much in a couple of days that they understand and control the most subtle human behavior; these nanobots come together to form perfect replicas of human form. Come on, the 'science' in this book comes right from the mind of an imaginative 11-year old.

Judging from the positive reviews this book has received on this site, I guess Crichton will keep dishing out these badly written pseudo-science/action thrillers. I would have figured that he is rich enough by now that he would be more interested in quality rather than trying to cash in on the movie rights. But I guess not. Perhaps the bomb that was Timeline (also based on a terrible book) will wake him up and make him realize that pandering to pre-adolescent SF/action fantasies can last only so long.

Rating:
Summary: What does a first time Crichton Reader Think?
Review: The combination of buying this book for a buck along with hearing good things about Crichton as writer is what lead me to read this book. The first 220 pages are superb: intriguing character development, good attention to detail, and thought-provoking storyline (also, the description of computer programming techniques which are modeled after different biological systems is utterly fascinating!). Subsequently, I was expecting a whiz-bang finish; unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed. About the only way I can characterize the rest of the book is to say that it's "over the top." Rogue nanomachines capable of arranging themselves to take human form? A symbiotic coupling of nanomachine and human? I realize this is fiction, but there has to be at least some element of credulity. If I were the author, I would have explored the possibility of the nanomachines invading and transforming human cells into virulent entities (i.e. - cancer cells). Or, perhaps I would have delved into the toxic and biological hazards associated with the revolutionary nanomachine production process. There are many directions this storyline could have taken that would have been much more plausible, in my opinion. Instead, the reader is left to believe that the nanomachines, which are man-made inventions, become what is, in essence, a completely new life form. Sorry, that is just a little too hard swallow.

Rating:
Summary: Intense and refreshing
Review: The story keeps you turning the pages. I don't want to spoil this for anyone, but would like to compare thoughts with those who have read the book. Chrichton builds the tension through a lot of surprises, but are they really surprises? It's an interesting mental game played on the reader. Aside from that, it is a refreshing story.

Rating:
Summary: Pray that you can get through this...
Review: As usual Michael Crichton has his usual concept - a bio-technologically engineered invention that goes haywire.

Unfortunately, the story goes haywire too. Jack Forman, recently unemployed stay-at-home Dad, starts observing that his wife, Julia not only has begun working long hours at top-secret research labs at Xymos Labs, but is also acting quite strange. He assumes that she is having an affair. It would be normal to expect the least Jack would do, was atleast try talk to Julia - but instead he is busy reviewing worst-case scenarios of divorce and probable custody battles.

Things begin to unravel beyond this point. The product that Julia has been working with is a swarm of microscopic machines, that co-incidentally use a program called "Predprey" that Jack had developed. Now Jack is called in to help deal with a runaway swarm that reproduces rapidly and seems intent on attacking Xymos Labs. Ofcourse, he is never told the entire truth. The rest of the story is about how Jack tackles this menace.

To give Crichton due credit, he does a good job of making the swarm a deadly, dangerous enemy. But most of the story is totally insipid and cliched. Some of the events and incidents in the book are so far-fetched that all the fancy technobabble Crichton uses, defeats the purpose.

I suggest Crichton focuses on books like Airframe.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read It Is. Jurassic Park It Ain't.
Review: In "Prey" Michael Crichton treats us to another book cooked up from his trademark recipe for a thriller -- an array of scientific and technical facts stacked up to dizzying heights and arranged in always surprising combinations, sympathetic characters trying to save their own necks, and the world, from man-made catastrophe, and lots of running and screaming.

In "Jurassic Park", Crichton asked what happens when genetic engineers, paleontologists, and theme park designers get together to talk about money making ventures. Here, the villainous technologies are genetic engieering, computer science, and nanotechnology. He brings all these elements together in "Prey" to give us a great piece of mind candy. Though not great literature, and not even "Jurassic Park", "Prey" is still entertaining page turner.

There are a couple of problems with the book. First of all, it's just not as thrilling to read a story about someone being chased across a parking lot by a big gray cloud of nanoparticles as it is to read about someone running from a T. Rex through a jungle.

The science is also a problem. Crichton's science is ultimately wrong in most of his books, but his rapid-fire use of a huge number of facts can often make a believer out of almost anyone. The illusion wears a little thin in "Prey", though. "How did the nanoparticles learn to do that?" "Well, they're controlled by a neural net, of course." "Oh yeah. Well, how could they learn so quickly?" "They're programmed to evolve much faster than natural organisms." "Oh yeah." Of course, I'm exaggerating, but the level of scientific discourse is far too handwaving to satisfy "Jurassic Park" fans.

So, it's an OK read, and it would (will?) make another great movie. Buy it if you just have to have everything that Crichton writes. Buy it if you just want something to pass the time. But don't buy it if you're looking another ground breaker like "Jurassic Park."

Rating:
Summary: Crichton has Great Ideas-- POOR execution!
Review: Crichton writes some great books. This just isn't one of them! This was Jurassic Park with Nanomachines replacing the dinosaurs and it just didn't do much for me. Characterization was poor and after awhile, you get the impression that Crichton has never worked or been around real life people.

I enjoyed Airframe because Crichton was RIGHT on about the causes 0f such accidents and the flack that surrounds a crash.

I liked Timeline because he did a good job of throwing us into a good time travel yarn, which has not been done properly for many years.

I liked Jurassic Park because of the ideas presented.

The Terminal Man was exciting.

Congo was silly, but still enjoyable.

This novel was just really a sorry reason for the death of some trees. It was a waste of my time as well as Crichton's efforts.

Rating:
Summary: This novel was weird and neat at the same time
Review: For the record, "Prey" has been only the second Crichton book I was able to actually finish; the first book was "Airframe". I have five of Michael's other novels, three of which I tried to get through ("Timeline", "Congo" and "Disclosure"), two of which I haven't yet started ("Rising Sun" and "A Case Of Need", which had been written under the alias of Jeff Hudson).
Crichton's latest, "Prey", was good and kept me entertained. Michael is, obviously, very intellegent (he graduated from Harvard and from Harvard Medical School, then traded the opportunity to be an MD to be an author, though he didn't exactly lose much in the way of being successful), but "Prey" seemed, at least to me, that Michael is just smart enough to convey a halfway decent story. He puts in so much fact--there's a bibliography at the end--that his fiction comes across almost like non-fiction. It seems like Michael tackles issues and topics that only he can fully comprehend, then tries to present them fictitiously.
The narrative of "Prey" is divided into four parts: "Home", "Desert", "Nest" and the title ending "Prey". The main character, Jack Forman, is the first-person narrator. The story, from the perspective of fiction, was neat; the story's premise, being non-fiction, was what was weird, as the story didn't allow me to fully grasp the issues of genetics, nanotechnology and distributed intelligence, which is why Crichton included the bibliography--so I myself could do the required research. Therefore, I, for the most part, ignored the story's premise and enjoyed it as fiction.
The narrative, in terms of langauge, was surprisingly simplistic; but this was, perhaps, due to the first-person POV. Part One was a little long and drawn-out, puts forth a bit too much back-story, but Part Two, Part Three and Part Four kept me turning the pages. However, what could've been done differently was the ending of Part Four. The story's conclusion wasn't the conclusion of the novel--the last few pages (before the bibliography) convey paragraphs of explanation, almost like an indirect epilogue--and at the start there is an indirect prologue. Though the prologue had its purpose, it's too bad that Michael couldn't have integrated such afterward explanation into the story, as in more show and less tell.
Though I deem the premise as "weird", the novel can be understood if it's not taken too seriously. Other readers' reviews claim that the story has factual errors and glaring holes in its plot; well then, evidently, several readers took the novel more seriously than I. Overall, "Prey", I feel, is a worthwhile read. The First-Edition hardcover copy I have is well worth the price I paid--one dollar--and the book's condition is like-new, too.
I give "Prey" a rating of 4 stars, though, because, even if its premise isn't taken too seriously, the book isn't perfect.

Rating:
Summary: alsome
Review: this book was amazing at first it was really slow but once you really got in the book it got alot better. if you like science you should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A well-done thriller with solid audio presentation
Review: I listened to this one on four cassettes, over the last week to and fro from work. It was quite a solid story, with the quick caveat that there's an introduction read by the author.

You know that saying, "That guy has a face for radio?" Well, Michael Crichton has a voice for print. I could barely maintain listening and concentration to his part, and heaved a sigh of relief when he finally shut up.

Then the story started - and it was good. Read by Robert Sean Leonard, he gave it a good go (though often his voice seemed younger than the forty-something hero of the tale). Jack is a "did the right thing and got fired" tech fellow, who specializes in writing code that mimics natural biological behaviour. His wife is working with a company doing something with nanotech. Things start to go wrong, and what escapes is nano-sized, pred/prey programmed, and self-replicating. Cue the cacophanous "Oh no!" music that ends each side of each tape (acually, it's a horrendous screech that has no place on an audiobook, and should <I>not</I> have been chosen), and the slowly rising tension that I'm used to Crichton providing.

If I have any qualms, it's with the not-always explained abilities of the escaped nanotech, and a somewhat obvious "this is what I think is inevitable, so smarten up, humanity!" overtone that Crichten might have toned down just a little.

'Nathan

Rating:
Summary: One of 2 Best Nano Thrillers!
Review: Pretty damned good novel from a damned good writer. Would have given it five stars had I not just read NANO by John Robert Marlow. For whatever reason--perhaps he was trying to follow the Jurassic Park formula of a small group trapped in a remote location--Crichton doesn't explore the Big Picture, so to speak. (Marlow's NANO, on the other hand, sets the technology loose on the world--which it threatens to destroy in a matter of hours.)

PREY is definitely a worthy read--though the nanotech community is clearly siding with NANO as the better book. (See one nanotech-publication editor's review on the amazon NANO page.)