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Prey

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.

As fresh as today's headlines, Michael Crichton's most compelling novel yet tells the story of a mechanical plague and the desperate efforts of a handful of scientists to stop it. Drawing on up-to-the-minute scientific fact, Prey takes us into the emerging realms of nanotechnology and artificial distributed intelligence-in a story of breathtaking suspense.

Prey is a novel you can't put down. Because time is running out.

Manufacturer: HarperAudio

Price: $5.99

Prey

User Reviews

Okay
rating: 4

This book is pretty good. Since anything "nano" is all the rage these days in science, this book was pretty much inevitable. A good read.

Great story line, but poor character development
rating: 3

I'm a fairly new Michael Chrichton reader, so I'm not familiar with his earlier classics such as "The Andromedia Strain". I didn't go in expecting much when I began to read "Prey" and I don't think I got to much out of it either. The storyline is great, the fear provoked by those miniscule self-evolving technical monsters is something I think Stephen King would admire, but the reason why I couldn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would is due to the fact that his character development is TERRIBLE. This is the second Michael Chrichton book I read where I care nothing for the characters. I liked the main character enough, Jack, but everyone else seemed like a cardboard cut out. And the way he was easily able to get over his wife's sudden change into some techno-zombie is unbelievable.

A bit of smartly done, high-tech adventure
rating: 5

Michael Crichton is re-visiting some old stomping grounds in this one. The 1970s sci-fi movie classic Westworld was written and directed by Crichton and it features technology run amok and set loose on a killing spree. Jurassic Park features the dangers of tampering with the gene pool with an ensuing killing spree.

Prey, in many ways, is a combination of the two - the dangers of nanotechnology, specifically the dangers of using bacteria in combination with tiny, tiny bits of technology to create something new. The problem is, of course, the same problem that he pointed out in "Westworld" and "Jurassic Park": Things never turn out the way you think they will.

Is this a Pulitzer Prize winner? Hardly. But, it is a creepy thriller with some good points about science, the dangers of unintended consequences and some good thrills and chills. I enjoyed this one thoroughly.

Must have been enduring a divorce when he wrote this one!
rating: 2

While the science and the 'this could happen' ethos is a lot of fun, the book's start is astoundingly mysogynystic. His protagonist goes on AT LENGTH describing the normal day hundreds of millions of mothers world wide endure as if it's something novel. His male character whines about taking care of kids, how his wife doesn't call home when she's late, how it's hard to run into former pals who still make a paycheck. Honestly, no female author could ever have gotten such tripe published, but because our protagonist is a male, this is fodder for narrative. My husband and I howled at the beginning, and simply skipped entire chapters to get to the part he's good at: telling a scary story using potentially real science. But the guy sure was ticked off at some woman when he wrote this thing.

Will the real Michael Crichton stand up?
rating: 1

For the third straight book from Michael Crichton that I've been disappointed. He really needs to re-read his earlier novels to capture that magic again.

This book was predictable and the characters were so flaw that it was hard to root for them instead you rooted against them. It reminded me a lot of a book I just finished, Mount Dragon, but that one was a lot better. I've been a fan of Crichton for a long time and hopes he get his act together.

To sum it up, this was plain awful and if you need a good Crichton fix, read Congo, Jurassic Park, or Sphere. Maybe next time, the real Michael Crichton will stand up.

Prey