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Title: Prey by Michael Crichton ISBN: 0-06-101572-5 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.36 (586 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A peak into our powerful and dangerous future
Comment: As part of a broad public discussion, not a specifically scientific one, Michael Crichton reaches into the deep thick darkness of our future with his new book, "Prey," and viscerally pulls out some issues, some potential realities, with his poetry-prose, that are so central to our continued breathing and cognition that we are well advised to ignore the obvious scientific weaknesses of many parts of this book. The issues he brings up include the development of nano and bio technologies, artificial life, and swarm and emergent behavior.
The plot of "Prey" is formulaic in many respects, following closely in the footsteps of books such as "Frankenstein," which was the first real story about artifical intelligence, "2001: A Space Odyssey" and, of course, "Jurassic Park."
In ignoring these varied faults, as we read "Prey," we sit quietly on this beautiful dark night and get a glimpse of the deeper issues that glimmer, simmering, on our nearest horizon.
Rating: 4
Summary: A book written to be a movie
Comment: It's 2009 and Jack Forman, software whiz at Media Tronics, is fired the day after he tells his lawyer about the corruption at the company. Pretty much blackballed in Silicon Valley, Jack functions as a stay at home dad while his wife Julia pursues a high-powered career in venture capital working on the Xymos deal. Xymos bills itself as the world leader in molecular manufacturing and is marketing its ability to create nanoparticles that can be injected into the bloodstream and project images of everything they pass through in the human body. This is all in the first twenty-two pages.
For the next hunderd pages or so the story bogs down, weaving together the tension in Jack and Julia's marriage with a lot of scientific backdrop for the climax to come. Then the action shifts to the Xymos plant in the Nevada desert where the nanoparticles are being produced. Jack is brought out to fix some software that Media Tronics created for Xymos and discovers that the nanoparticles have taken on a life of their own. From here on you can just imagine the special effects in the movie that will ultimately be made. Jack goes from one impossible situation to the next in his effort to save the world from the evils of a scientific miracle gone awry.
Enjoy the action for what it is, but don't get too hung up on Crichton's message that advances in computer and biotechnology may converge to precipitate the end of the world.
Rating: 3
Summary: Nanobots and nanoplots
Comment: Well, MC is allowed to write a so-so book every once in awhile - and this is it. If anything, I would normally be accused of going too easy on Crichton, since he's probably my favorite contemporary author. I've read all of his books, including the John Lange and Michael Douglas pseudonym novels, and I saw some uncharacteristic errors in "Prey."
First, "Prey" is written in first person, and I don't particularly enjoy his first person writing (Case of Need, Rising Sun, etc.). It's not just a style preference - it actually stems from Crichton's intrinsic writing style. As any of his readers know, what makes his writing so amazing is his ability to seamlessly integrate in-depth research into fiction. However, the first person perspective naturally limits a writer's freedom to do this, and in Crichton's writing this tends to lead to awkward inner-reflections and cumbersome bursts of dialogue. While "Prey" manages this far better than say, "Rising Sun," it still limits what is arguably the best reason for reading Crichton to begin with.
Second, this is the one novel where I would surrender to his more ardent critics that the "technology" portion of the novel competed with the plot. In past novels the unbelievably deep science has been woven into the story with amazing clarity, and the technology serves the story itself (Jurassic Park, Timeline). In "Prey," however, I found in more than any other novel that Crichton was using a contrived and cookie-cutter plot as a soapbox to enlighten us on scientific ethics, in this case artificial intelligence. The plot is simple and in my opinion jaded - scientist screw up, release something bad into nature, it needs to be contained...I've already read "The Stand" and "Outbreak." While Crichton normally takes the normal and elevates it to the sublime, in this case he didn't. The plot was nothing more than the obvious outcome of a given situation. The science was also much more complicated than in previous works and I would imagine the average reader will be lost throughout much of it, or at least struggling so hard to understand nanotechnology they'll miss the relevance to the story.
Third, the dialogue is off. Thinking back throughout his works, I realized that Crichton hasn't written many teenagers. This book shows us why. There are sections of the teenagers' dialogue that are literally embarrassing to read. Example: "...I'm trying Dad. But he is a majorly turkey (...)." "I am not! Up yours, weasel poop!" No it's not a typo - "a majorly turkey (...)." I don't know if Crichton (or his editor) has actually spoken to a teenager in the last 25 years, but in my experience no kids - nor any other human being I've ever known - actually talk like this. The teen dialogue is utterly unacceptable.
These are the major problems with the novel, and I feel it's at the bottom of Crichton's efforts. If you're a fan it's definitely worth reading, but for me it just didn't have that special thing that all his other novels have.
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Title: Timeline by MICHAEL CRICHTON ISBN: 0345417623 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 24 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The King of Torts by John Grisham ISBN: 0385508042 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Airframe by Michael Crichton ISBN: 0345402871 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 28 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Reversible Errors by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446612626 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: By the Light of the Moon by DEAN KOONTZ ISBN: 0553582763 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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