Prey

cybrpnk2 writes with the review below of Michael Crichton's latest book, Prey, which he says is "classic Crichton." Only your thoughts on Crichton can determine whether that's an endorsement or a warning. Read on for the review. Update: 12/07 15:29 GMT by T : The link I originally placed to the movie Them "is some 1996 made-for-TV junk, not the 1950s classic." The link has been updated. Prey author Michael Crichton pages 367 publisher Harper Collins rating Excellent - Among his best reviewer cybrpnk2 ISBN 0066214122 summary The latest sci-fi on nanotechnology from the author of Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park Michael Crichton has gone full circle and done it again, effectively updating his original sci-fi novel The Andromeda Strain for the 21st century. In his latest book Prey, he has gone from using gigantic T. Rex dinosaurs as the big bad back down to microscopic agents once more. All the classic Crichton trademarks are here -- the race against time, the super-hi tech, the twists in plot and theme. It's his best and in some ways most original novel since Jurassic Park and just as likely to be made into a smash motion picture now that morphing animation is well established. In fact, several scenes in the book almost seem gratuitously tacked on to ultimately make use of some special video effect rather than advance the plot, but that's a minor criticism. Overall this is a great, fun read that's destined to be a SF classic.

In some ways willing suspension of disbelief has to be applied less to the technology depicted and more to the relationships between our protagonists Jake and Julia. They're the typical Silicon Valley couple, all right, but oh how conveniently their relationship advances the plot. He's the between-jobs programming team manager who's specialized in code that models distributed processing and genetic algorithms. She's the cute PR talking head who is lining up funding for the revolutionary Xymos nanobots. He's the cool, loving house-dad that takes care of the cute kids. She's the always-working cold bitch who's having an affair -- isn't she? With the tanned surfing god Xymos exec we hiss at as soon as we meet him? Or is this whole plot line perhaps a little too obvious after being set up by page 18? Maybe Crichton has something a little more twisted in mind for the 350 pages that follow ...

Yep, he sure does, and as fast as helicopters can fly we're at the secretive Xymos desert lab in Nevada where nothing is as it seems. Those swirling little dust devils out there on the parking lot security cameras are considerably more menacing than Taz in a Loony Tunes cartoon, but damned if anybody will give Jack a straight answer about just how ... or especially why. Seems the escaped particles that make up the clouds have been programmed with distributed computing algorithms Jack came up with in his last job -- Xymos wants HIM to tell THEM what's going on. Uh, oh -- Jack used the concept of predator / prey stalking dynamics to keep distributed agents focused on a concrete goal.

Jack's subsequent experiences, experiments, thought processes, and realizations lead the reader into a fascinating exploration of the concept of hive mind. In one sense this is a book about prejudice -- people are the most evolved social mammals on Earth, and as such are always misinterpreting the capabilities, actions and behaviors of a swarm that has neither leaders or followers, only members. As such, Prey is a rare SF book that truly does explore a uniquely alien life form with some very interesting twists. It's also a thought-provoking possible example of Vernor Vinge's technological singularity concept.

It's a good book and it's going to make a great movie. If you just can't wait for the movie, though, no problem. Crichton's three-act structure for Prey follows the well-trod path of a trio of 50s-style sci-fi movie classics: Tremors , Them! , and Invasion of the Body Snatchers . Check 'em out and watch 'em in order after you read Prey for a fun follow-up. To include the tension of Jack and Julia's romantic triangle, watch Casablanca first ... and remember, a kiss is just a kiss, as time goes by.

You can purchase Prey from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

I used to love his stuff

[AssFace]

My uncle got me one of his books when I was in middle school. I then proceeded to read everything he ever had published that I could get my hands on.

Now I don't enjoy his books at all and I find him to be sort of behind the curve (but in terms of what the general public knows, he is still ahead of the curve).

I'd much rather read Neal Stephenson in terms of books that have a technical backing to the story. And NS wrote about nano way before MC. MC is just jumping on the bandwagon - and will likely cause a "stir" with it simply because more people read his stuff.
Generally speaking, if a lot of people read and like an author, I'm finding that I don't tend to like it.
Maybe I'm just a dick, or an elitist snob. But if a book makes the NYT bestseller list, or Oprah's list, then I steer clear of it.
(that said, I did enjoy Cold Mountain)

Crichton isn't really an SF author

[Johnzo]

The New Yorker had this criticism of Crichton:

[Crichton is] forever describing things that could change the world--but don't. The Andromeda strain of space germs mutates into harmlessness and goes away; the lost city of the Congo is wiped from the map by lava; in Sphere, the discoverers of the extraterrestrial artifact of untold power use that power to wish it into retroactive nonexistence. The fact that Crichton has no interest in showing what might have happened is what makes him a writer of suspense fiction, rather than of science fiction. A science-fiction writer would naturally want to see what would happen if the technologies stayed out of control (as most do), and might even want to ask whether the consequences would be all bad (as they often aren't). Might not free-range dinosaurs make Costa Rica an even more interesting place than it is today? What if nanoswarms offered promise as well as peril? Prey, with its kill-them-all-and-get-out approach, is neither as frightening nor as fascinating as Greg Bear's novelette of twenty years ago, "Blood Music," in which the characters, transformed by the nanotechnology within them, become both far more and much less than human.

I think they're pretty much dead-on. I've always been unsatisfied with Crichton's stuff. His books read like kinda like Star Trek episodes: when they end, the genies are always jammed back into their bottles. (taken from Patrick Nielsen Hayden's blog)

Re:Crichton isn't really an SF author

[HyperbolicParabaloid]

I agree with the review, but don't consider it a bad thing. So what if he isn't a Sci-Fi writer? He is a good suspense writer. He succesfully explores social and scientific issues in a thought-provoking way. Some of the technology is a little over-the-top (including the scenes in Prey that are tailor-made for a film), but if you didn't read Jurassic Park (sp?) and come away with an appreciation for how arrogent engineers (and particularly programmers) can be, then you missed the point. And if you read Prey and don't get that it is as much a commentary on the notion of industry self-regulation and corporate governance as it is about nanotechnology, then you missed the point.
So there.

Re:Crichton isn't really an SF author

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

if you didn't read Jurassic Park (sp?) and come away with an appreciation for how arrogent engineers (and particularly programmers) can be

Funny, I read Jurassic Park and came away an appreciation of how lame an author can be when he picks up a buzzword (chaos, in JP and nanotech here) but doesn't really have a clue what it means.

BTW, I mean lame in many senses: uncool and "marked by stiffness" and "lacking needful or desirable substance".

Women in Crichton Books

[the_rev_matt]

>She's the always-working cold bitch

That sums up pretty much every female in every one of his books. Crichton is like Lucas, he has some great ideas, interesting twists, and generally strong plots. His character development, particularly of women, barely qualifies as one dimensional. His dialogue is laughable at best. He should come up with the ideas and let other people who can actually write do the writing part.

Another hate-filled, bigoted book about our kind!

[Tsar]

The ants in Them.
The rats in Willard.
The bees in The Swarm.
The Borg in Star Trek.
And now the nanites in Prey.

As a Slashdotter, I am grossly offended by hive-minds being consistently portrayed as the bad guys. I hereby call subliminally to all my fellow /.'ers to avoid this book like the Plagu^H^H^H^H^H trash that it is. A civilized society has no place for hivophobia!

Respectfully,
536185 of 630000