About this title: In the middle of the Nevada desert, scientists work on the development of nanotechnologies to help all of mankind. But when an accident unleashes the microscopic machines into the outside world, humans find themselves facing an enemy that is not only smaller than any previously seen, but smarter....
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
"Jack Forman was fired from his job at MediaTronics, and ends up becoming a stay at home dad. Right as he manages to get used to his new responsibilities he is pulled into a situation unlike any other involving his wife's work.
This book was pretty good, nothing that spectacular about it, but a good solid read. It had a rather used concept, but in a new way that I could have never thought of, and I doubt anyone would in 2002 when the book was published. The plot is insane, yet interesting, and kept me reading this book. This book showed how Nanotechnology, or technology in very small sizes, might affect human life. Although this stayed on a rather small scale in terms of location, if the Nanobots managed to have more time to multiply, it could have very well meant the end of organic life. Although Crichton foreshadowed very well, and I hadn't realized until later exactly what he had done with the beginning of the book. This book was entertaining because of the insane plot, and the characters. Although the characters were put into a tough situation, it didn't turn into a case of everyone suddenly transforming into some form of war hero and saving the day, which greatly helped this book. If all the characters co-operated it would lose a large amount of realism that made this book what it was. Although the book was somewhat of a slow pace, it had a lot of action in it, which suited this authors writing style very well.
This book would appeal to those who like to know what could happen, and those who want to understand the extremely improbable."
"Prey by Michael Crichton is an extremely well written novel. It has suspense, mystery, horror, and science. This novel is obviously of the science fiction nature, and is very well researched, and is told in such a way that almost anyone can understand it. The characters of this book include Jack, the main character; Julia, the wife and unexpected villain; Mae, the ex-field analogist; and Ricky, the strange one. Jack is the main scientist, and has been chosen to work for his wife's lab, because a stray experiment has gone terribly wrong. Ricky is one of Jack's past colleagues, who is now working with Julia in a desert in Nevada. Mai is also a past colleague, and is also working with Julia. The lab is secluded in Nevada, where the scientists are building nanobots, meant for medical uses, but the military has requested that they build a camera that could fly in the air but could not be shot down. A small group of particles has escaped and there are dead animals appearing around the lab in the desert. Now Jack must come in and fix the scientists' mistakes. My favorite character would have to be either Jack or Mai, because Jack is extremely smart and very brave, and Mai is quite, observant, and is also extremely smart. My least favorite characters are Ricky and Julia. Ricky is just that kind of guy that naturally annoys you with his jumpiness and edge. Julia is the classic wife, cheating on her husband, while she is actually not doing anything wrong. The part of the book that kept my attention would have to be the parts where the swarms are chasing the group of scientists, and when Jack and Julia are in the magnetic room. That part was very touching. Julia was infested with a swarm, and has been nearly eaten away. The magnets take the swarm away from her body, and reveals that she is nothing but a shell. What kept me reading was the fact that I could never tell what would happen. I sometimes thought that Jack would actually die. The ending was actually much unexpected, and well written. The actors I would choose would have to be Brad Pitt for Jack, Leonardo DeCaprio for Ricky, Angelina Jolie for Julia, and Cindy Choo for Mae. I would recommend this book to my mom and Chase (he has this issue with the government, I don't know) The emotions I felt while reading this book would be anticipation, anger, and annoyance. My favorite line is "And within the hangar stood a structure of immense complexity that seemed to hang in midair, glowing like a jewel.""
"Prey was not what I expected, nor was Michael Crichton what I remembered.
I loved Jurassic Park and thought I would be equally enchanted by Prey but was very disappointed. The scientific basis for the story was interesting but it reeled out of control toward the end of the book and became "hokey." What began as a believable scientific advancement of molecules and their emergent behavior gone wrong turned into a silly unbelievable outcome. The characters lacked substance and emotion (when I can't actually visualize a character, that is a bad sign) and it was written ever so simplistically, with the exception of the science explanations--as if they were inserted by someone else.
Not to sound like a literature snob, but perhaps I have grown beyond the page turner and expect more from a novel. It was almost like Crichton had a checklist of weird things he made happen and at the very end, he went through and checked each one off as he explained them. The fact that the main character (what was his name??) had to kill his wife, and GEE, how will he explain THAT to his bratty kids was just goofy. (Way too much bickering and bad language by the kids with absolutely no parent correction--I wanted to reach into the book and smack both kids and parents!!) Characters showed no emotion or surprise when people died, etc., almost like a bad Hollywood movie.
Gave this book an A for effort on the main idea, but overall the writing and story deserved a D. Sorry Dick!"
"There are very few things I've read of Michael Crichton (basically this and Timeline) but I loved them both. I really like his writing style and I like that (as far as I can tell from the two books of his I've read) he hasn't fallen into a predictable pattern. The ending of both books were different and unexpected.
I liked the idea of the human race finding a way to kill off themselves from sheer stupidity. Honestly, I think that's how the world is going to end. No divine intervention, no aliens from another planet, just somewhere someone does something completely idiotic and BAM! Bye, bye, humans. That's what made this book all the more believable. Crichton brought about the apocalypse in a way that was completely believable.
There were only two things that I didn't really like. One, the computer jargon got to be a little overwhelming, especially when he put lines of code in there. I'm not a computer expert (by far) but I know at least the basic premise of code and programs and how they work. There were still times that it took a lot of concentration to follow what he was saying.
The other thing is that the big plot point that he was alluding to throughout the book wasn't hard to figure out. I knew what was happening with Julia and Ricky, from pretty much the time Jack got there and Ricky was showing him around the facility. I don't know if that's just because I'm good at figuring that kind of stuff out or if Crichton made it THAT obvious but I would have liked a little more mystery in that department because, honestly, it kind of ruined most of the ending."
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