Should I get into book reviews?

[carl]

This review is for Michael Crichtons Prey


In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles-micro robots-has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive.

It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.
Every attempt to destroy it has failed.
And we are the prey.

You know I found myself pleasantly surprised with Prey, considering it was just something I had bought to pass those boring lunch breaks in my very tedious job. Yet this book had me hooked from start to finish; and sometimes I got so engrossed that I found myself losing track of time and having a few long lunches. (I can safely say that now as I quit my job after I finished this book, hehehe) It must be noted though that if your knowledge of Crichton is exclusive to the film adaption's such as Jurassic Park then the pace of this particular novel may prove a little slow for you. You'd be better off checking out some of his faster paced novels such as The Lost World or Time Line, because Prey is very much in the vein of The Andromeda Strain. A true science fiction novel with a claustrophobic atmosphere and tons of suspense.

It feels authentic in it's descriptions of the science, but thankfully I never recall a moment where it's explanations felt long winded, as has been the case of some of Crichton's other novels. Most of his explanation is found in a chapter unrelated to the story that explains the basics of nanotechnology. I sometimes find that the more Crichton explains himself the more implausible it starts to feel. Prey contains just enough Explanatory moments to make the events feel authentic, but not nearly enough to make him start contradicting himself. I say feels because that is how Crichton's best work always is for me, it feels authentic but I've heard people who will go on for hours about how his conclusions are impossible, so I don't want to make a fool of myself praising the books scientific authenticity if it's actually all totally wrong. If your not a physics major though, and just a regular Joe like me, then Crichton's explanations about the scientific aspects of the story will have you absorbed into believing that the story is plausible.

The story is pretty much what you'd expect from a Crichton novel though. I like his style but his themes are nearly always the same. Science gone wrong. It was that theme that drove the Jurassic Park novels, Timeline, The Andromeda Strain in fact nearly every Crichton novel I have read has dealt with these themes of Science gone wrong. I don't know what his particular stance is on the issue, but reading his novels gives off a definite feeling of mistrust for Science. The opening chapter that explains nanotechnology even goes on to explain how man is inherently arrogant and never approaches a particularly risky venture with caution, which is exactly what his books tell us. Prey is no different, it features a scientific invention having the potential to destroy the world, this time being tiny bacteria sized camera's that got too intelligent, and a group of scientists who inevitably have to use their brains to survive.

The secret to it's success is in it's main character Jack Forman. He doesn't really grow much throughout the film, character development was never Crichton's strong point, but his personality and actions are enough to make you care about the outcome. Jack narrates the story to the audience and you get to know pretty much every area of his life. He's a man who's lost his job and is forced to stay home and play the house husband while his wife goes out and earns the bread. He explains every aspect of his mundane life, allowing you to really relate to his frustrations. He explains about how he spends long periods of time choosing just the right place mats, and remembering fondly some of the things he used to do in his old job. His tone changes whenever he's around the kids though, he loves his family and is loving that he has time to spend with them. Everything he does in the book he does for the sake of his family, which is what makes the book so tense. You don't know anyone outside of that family, and even the other main characters are not really that important, but as long as this family is in danger then the world needs to be saved. Now I've never been a father (thankfully) but I guess I would like to be some day in the very distant future, and so I was sort of able to relate to this characters feelings for his children. He was annoyed by the teenagers frequent arguments but he looks back at them in a nostalgic way. His baby Amanda is the best developed child though. He spends long portions of time explaining the cute little things she does allowing you to really understand his feelings for her. That was why when she got sick I was horrified, the idea that this guy would be woken up by his crying baby only to find her covered head to toe in a painful rash seemed like a nightmare. After that everything comes down to finding out the truth in order to protect his children, and it made the inevitable revelations all the more chilling.

I am beginning to make it sound like a family drama, it's not though. It does feature a marriage on the brink of divorce but it's an important plot point. Needless to say, when Jack inevitably get's to go to the desert and find the truth, it get's very tense. It's definitely a science fiction thriller, not a family drama, but I don't want to reveal any of the books really chilling moments because I found the plot to be so great. Like I said though, all of the family moments in the book prove to amplify the suspense rather than downgrade it. The book deals with a possibly end of the world scenario, and these moments give you a glimpse into the world outside of the lab, causing you to care about the outcome.
*****

Please be gentle, it's my first book review.

[Gaumont]

nice read. Yea you should definatly do more. Actually more interesting than movie reviews as ive seen so many movies. Better ods of being a review of a book I havent read but might become interested in. Like in thas case. The only book ive read of Crichtons is Jurrasic Park, which I liked at the time (very long time ago now). Ive always liked the idees behind Crichtonss books. It tends to be the new science of the week gone bad, but he always make nice plots idees out of it.

Good job, keep em comming.

[Jake]

i didn't evenr ead what u wrote (not ime) but speaking of books I just finished a GREAT book - "It's not about the bike: My journey back to life" by Lance Armstrong

It's a book about his life and his battle or rather war with cancer (holy ****, he was basically written off it was so bad, they said he'd be VERY lucky if he lived and the absolute best case scenario was he would crawl out of hte hospital - instead he won the Tour de France (5X) - really inspirational great book