Prey

I have always enjoyed Michael Crichton's work but this was a complete disapointment. The book reads like a B Zombie movie. It follows an obvious plot line (heroes trapped in isolated outpost and faced with horrible monsters) and doesn't even try to hide this fact. It creates the situation using comepletly unbelievable circumstances. The story was predictable, the character's shallow and the science forced. Too bad.

Now Crichton is just churning out movie outlines. That's all this book is. There's very little substance to the "science" here. It's an interesting concept, but very little explanation of why or how things happen. And the characters are equivalent to those fabled teenagers in "Friday the 13th". Nobody has any sense and people keep wandering off and doing stupid things that get them killed. And the most frustrating thing: no one EVER thinks to pick up the phone and call the police or other authority for help. Silly, just silly. Save your money and wait for the movie, then save your money again.

Just when you think Michael Crichton has written his best work, he comes up with an even more fascinating topic.

I have been interested in the possibilities of nanotechnology since the late 80's when I read a book by Drexler called "Engines of Creation". Crichton has taken this idea and coupled it with some of the latest ideas in Computer Networking theory to produce an exciting, fast-paced, nightmare of a book. I read it in one day. I especially loved Crichton's editorial comments explaining the scientific concepts including actually providing the code that the programmers where concerned about.
I'm just grateful that Crichton continues to aim his books at his most loyal audience. Those who actually "get" what he's talking about. Its refreshing to read Sci-Fi that is based at least partially on some scientific premise rather than the more commercial "And then it happened Automagically!" approach.

I read the book over a matter of two days. It is a very interesting and fast read. I've always been a huge fan of crichton and had eagerly awaited the release of his latest. I was also eager once I heard the film rights had already been purchased.
Now to the novel. Amazingly fast. The story jumps into gear and doesnt stop. It seems to be a mystery novel at first then switches gears and heads into the sci fi adventure style of crichton. Its written in first person and to me that is the only thing I didnt like. But that is just my personal oppinion, Iwould have loved the story had it had multiple points of view. It would have been nice to get to know the other charachters. Though seeing though the eyes of JAck was interesting also. but he created a great slew of charachters alongside him, why not use them. to me it kind of downplays the suspense...usually always the story teller survives.
As for the story and suspense, great.I was drawn in..felt like I was part of it. The swarms are terrifying..and I wish there had been more about their creation. The pace was very very fast...
The end even seemed to happen too quickly but was satisfying. Unlike his other books I think that this may make the best movie as there seems to be less to translate.
All in all it isnt my favorite of his work. It didnt explain the technology as well as TIMELINE nor have the charachterization elements of SPHERE but was still very suspensefull and the pace was the fastest of all his books.
Though this review, on a second reading, seems unsatisfied partly. I did enjoy the book and I will be reading it again. And believe me Im already eagerly awaiting his next release.

Amazing thriller. Reading this book was the best way to bring me up to speed on NANOTECHNOLOGY and see a futuristic perspective of the consequences of the use of such a technology in our day-to-day lives. It is a page turner, great suspence, slightly futuristic, this book takes us to what life could be 10-20 years from now. Each time I am in a conversation on nanotechnology, I can't but remember this book. This is why it is on the list of books I recommend to my friends (see my list at [...]

This refers to the unabridged Audio book. The premise is great. The research and tech updates are first rate, thorough and easy to follow. The story dissapoints with literally too much action packed into too few days for any believability. One hair raising escape after another. The lead character, a middle aged, Mr Mom, out of work programmer with three small children who doesn't exercise has no less than 6 death defying escapes from the nano's and their henchmen in one day - each causing wounds, bruising, etc... he just keeps on going. The reader's style is slow and tired - I guess because he's dictating all this first person the night of the final day. The tapes have way too many 10-15 second pauses that are irritating. I've read or listened to everything Crichton has published. This is not his best work... it could have been.

Michael Crichton has made a career out of scientific cautionary tales, some of which are significantly better than others. Unfortunately, _Prey_ is one of those others.
You already know the drill, right? A small army of sci-fi/horror works have used it by now -- including _The Thing_, more than a few episodes of _The X-Files_, the _Alien_ series, and a good half-dozen of Crichton's previous books. A small group of scientists, trapped in a remote location and unable to summon help, must fight for their lives against a deadly new species that they don't understand -- even if they've given rise to it themselves. As always, the good guys have to venture out of their temporary refuge on various missions, only to be stranded and picked off due to unforeseen circumstances. As always, there's a guy who wants to protect the enemy species out of greed. And as always, just about everyone except for Our Hero winds up dead. (Anyone who considers any of this to be a spoiler probably doesn't get out much.)
Unfortunately, _Prey_ takes this time-tested formula and manages to make it singularly unconvincing. For one thing, the good guys *aren't* unable to summon help until very late in the game. While the full extent of the enemy's capabilities isn't immediately apparent, Our Hero has plenty of time after realizing that the team is in big trouble to find a darn phone and call in the big guns. (If we're really supposed to believe that he doesn't do so because of company loyalty and/or a non-disclosure agreement, Crichton needed to make a much stronger case.) Nor would the big guns find the enemy difficult to dispatch, because it's got more vulnerabilities than Achilles had heels. In other words, humankind is never in any real danger: about the worst that's going to happen here is that a few eggheads get iced, and half of them had it coming.
If _Prey_ has a redeeming quality, it lies in Crichton's highlighting of the very real risks of nanotechnology research. Yet Dean Koontz's _Midnight_ covered the same territory over a decade ago on a much wider (and much scarier) scale.
It's hard to deny that Crichton's work was a lot more enjoyable back when he actually had to work to sell a jillion copies. Will he ever again write anything half as good as _The Andromeda Strain_? Time will tell, but it's not looking likely.

Jack Forman used to run a program division at MediaTronics, supervising a group of young and talented computer programmers. After Jack's division's source code had been stolen, his boss Don Gross put him in charge of security. But then Jack found out that certain "irregularities" took place at MediaTronics and, advised by his attorney Gary Marder, resigned from his job and became a "househusband". Now he is coping with all the chores at home, looking after his three children.
Jack's wife Julia works for Xymos Technology, developing technology in what the company calls "molecular manufacturing" or nanotechnology. Since she is the vice president, she is not often present at home.
The plot starts picking up when Julia is severely injured in a car accident, the circumstances of which seem rather mysterious. At the same time, Jack is asked by Tim Bergman to take a consulting job with Xymos. But when Jack joins Xymos at an isolated, sate-of-the-art facility in Nevada, he soon discovers that the technology the company is doing research on is far from flawless...
Perfect suspense combined with lots of technology, this is one of Mr Crichton's most entertaining novels.
George Wilson reading "Prey" is a remarkable performance. I highly recommend this audiobook.

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 not 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

Well, Michael Crichton makes another interesting technical story that only seems plausible because of his exausting explanations that seem to appear in every chapter. It always seems his explanations are meant to convince himself as well as the audience. Like Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Sphere and most Crichton works, he likes to deal with small group dynamics and avoids the global effects of the crisis at hand. Still, it made for an interesting 13 hours. I "read" the audio version, which infuses a little of the reader's acting into the read, but it seems the only way I can read these days.