Prey

I've read some of Crichton's early work like Andromeda Strain and Terminal Man as well as his recent novels like Next and Micro. In my opinion Prey was written at the peak of his career. And boy does it show... The first part is the setup for the rest of the book. It contains the perfect amount of mystery and character development to make you feel like you are right in the story. It's amazing to me how Crichton is able to make characters so relatable and so, dare I say, human. Things move slowly in the first part but with just enough bread crumbs relating to the bigger storyline that is developing. That storyline, and the science involved in it, are flushed out more in the second part. Part two is definitely more fast-paced but still keeps you in suspense. The science and technology explanations in this portion were a little harder to follow but you are able to still grasp the basic idea, at least enough to stay in the story. Crichton starts to present more of the ugly side of this technology, as well as the unsettling and disturbing power it holds. But that also sets up the plot even further as you can begin to see the roles that the main characters are meant to play out. The climax of the book is appropriately in the last part of the novel. You can feel the wheels of the story spinning faster and faster here. And yet the suspense keeps building and building. The climax finally happens and won't soon be forgotten. A great read with the trademark aspects of Crichton novels: suspense, thrills, the perfect dose of horror, and science and technology run amok by well-intended but largely flawed people.

Mr. Crichton has developed a habit of taking current technologic challenges and submitting them to flights of fancy. Such is the case with his latest novel. Here is the thesis: increasingly complex systems become increasingly uncontrolable, and at some point may develop behaviors beyond those intended or anticipated by the designers. In a sense these behaviors may mimic evolution, at some point the creatures imitating if not in fact becoming sentient creatures. Of course these creatures would not be worth a novel if they didn't do Really Bad Things, and couldn't be contained or controlled in a conventional way. The creatures in this case are microscopic machines manufactured (bred?) to act as collectively as a camera, that take on the characterists of a predatory algorithm conveniently built into its programming by its designers. They attack things, multiply, threaten to take over the earth; well, you get the idea. The subplot concerns the marital relationship between an unemployed programmer who just happened to design the algorithm, and his wife, who just happens to be an executive in the company who inadvisedly included his algorithm into the microbots. Did she cheat on him or not? Does the world end? What unswered questions will we have at the last page? Sticky sweet melodrama to be sure, but worth an afternoon to read. The thought came to me as I read another of Mr. Crichton's books (Airframe) that he had written it with the movie rights in mind. No deep character development, thank you, and evenly paced, if not contrived, action. The same happened as I read this book. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing. If you want a little more meat with your starch, maybe try Stephen King. A lot more energy could have been given to what the principals felt and though along the whole way. Narrated by a man who on the one hand is troubled by his wife's (possibly unfaithful) behavior, and on the other by the technology he spawned that threatens mankind, I would have liked a better image of what made him tick, and a little less stereotype. Being part geek by nature I didn't mind all the techno stuff, but it may be off-putting to some. These reservations aside, Prey is worth the time to read it, or as in this case, to hear while on the way to work. Keep your literary expecations in check, though, and try not to lose any sleep over the thought that there may be nanobots in your soup.

Published in 2002 but relevant today as we hurtle into the AI era. Fast, frightening, and educational read with all the M. Crichton quirks and research mixed in. Loved Jack. Great protagonist. Loved the story.

Imaginative story with protagonist named Jack…they use the protagonist’s name well over a thousand times. It’s the most unrealistic dialogue ever. I bought this as an audiobook and the cringey dialogue with the non-stop “Jacks” was almost un-listenable.

This was a fantastic book about nanotechnology. Hard to believe it was published in 2009, it is very much relevant today. It starts out as a family book, a stay at home father, Jack, with a hard working wife and three kids including a baby. Dad is quite capable and is better at taking care of the kids than mom is, and she is upset about it. Her high stress job keeps her busy. Jack was forced into unemployment and has been searching for work. He is offered a consulting job at his wife's company. He learns the horrifying details of what they were working on and it has gotten out of hand. I really liked how the story flowed, you were introduced to the family first, then to the disaster. Very thrilling and horrifying in the complications. For the audiobook, the author reads the introduction, his voice weak. The narrator was excellent. It needed an epilogue that we didn't get. Fantastic book, very enjoyable.

This is a story that will make you think about how the events in this plot could happen in the real world. The plot was a little slow to get started, but once it got going,it was fantastic. Loved the ending.

Put me in my chair for the weekend. Love the this could happens maybe. I was exhausted by the end of the book!!

I thought I had read all of Michael Crichton’s books, I don’t know how I missed this one. Fantastic, believable story. Excellent book, highly recommended!

驚嘆の一言です。ハーヴァード大学医学部卒の俊才であることを実証するような小説です．勿論，彼の才能はアンドロメダ病原体などの初期の作品にもその片鱗を見ることが出来ますが，ジュラシック・パーク以降その完成度は他の追随を許さないと言えます． ジュラシック・パークでは遺伝子工学がテーマであったのに対し，今回のそれはナノテクノロジー，遺伝アルゴリズム，進化論です．彼が大学で学んだ医学に関係しそうなのは，進化論だけで前２者は工学技術，コンピュータープログラム理論で，いままさに最先端の話題です．小説の最後にbibliographyがありますが，圧巻です．彼は，これらの最先端技術の詳細が書かれた書物を参照し，その技術の持つ問題点を理解し，それに想像力を加えてこの小説を書き上げたことになります．この手法はジュラシック・パークのそれと同じですが，基礎から先端技術を勉強し，問題点を指摘し小説にするという作業は，容易くできるものではありません．詳しい物語の説明はこれからこの小説を読もうとされている方に失礼になると思いますので，敢えて触れません．是非，原文で楽しんでください．科学論文のような平易な文章で，手に汗を握るシーンをスマートに描出しています．

A real page turner as you can expect from michael crichton

Sadly Underrated book from a legendary sci-fi horror Author. Excellent read, keeps you Guessing and wanting to know more.

Recommandé lors d'une conférence sur le sujet des nanotechnologies, l'écriture reste je pense accessible à ceux qui n'y connaissent rien. Ceux-ci n'en connaîtront d'ailleurs pas plus à la fin, l'oeuvre étant tout de même de la fiction et ce n'est de toute façon pas le but de l'auteur! Il y a cependant une bonne bibliographie en annexe pour ceux qui voudraient aller plus loin (fiction certes, mais pas de la fantasy non plus).

Book keeps you glued. Takes some time to build its story, goes around and around for awhile, but once it hits the core is amazing. The author keeps you up there continuously. Very entertaining