Prey Mass Market Paperback – Nintendo, October 28, 2008

Crichton delivers and grabs your attention immediately. They have got to make a movie it if this book. I could not put it down.

Come for the science and philosophy… put up with the characters and plot. As I stated above, I think Prey might have worked better as a non-fiction book. The plot goes nowhere for long stretches, and the characters are at best pedestrian. Longtime readers will know that I am a soft touch when it comes to nature gone wild thrillers. Even I was bored.Still a fascinating read overall. Certainly not Crichton’s best, but if you go in looking to be educated rather than entertained, you are bound to have a good time. It is a cautionary recommend as if my comparing the plot of Prey to The Happening was not enough of a clue.

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.

As somebody who hasnt done much preliminary research on molecular biology manufacturing or nanotechnology, michael always does a good job in explaining the science in a generally clear and easy to understand format. This is only the third novel i have read from him and im happy i read it, has a splash of excitment that doesnt leave when you read chapter after chapter It truly opens your mind about how molecular manufacturing combined with business models and medine open the doors to innovative, yet horrorific ordeals that can one day happen, but this novel is a little bit scientifically out of its league for its time. But so were his genetical engineering novels; but for all entertaining purposes it has done justice to crave the sense of a scientifical thriller with plot twists and conspiracy. The dialogue is a but dulled down and simplistic, but the story is braud and eerie that makes you want to always figure out how the author thinks. The text at most part can put you at the scene of the action and therfore make you feel like your actually part of the characters, wanting to be apart of the conversation. Most characters are a bit annoying lacking debth, but i would reccomend this to somebody who wants a quick few day read but you moreso have to like the authors ideas and stories to be truly compelled

Good value at a good proce

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.