Yes, another Crichton book (2002). And yes, as most, this one is fast paced, engaging and highly enjoyable techno-corporate-thriller. One that is most difficult to put down. Assuming, of course, you actually decided to pick it up, which is a hard decision to make in a world filled with such a wealth of great literature. But read the first page or so and you are sucked into it.
Prey will probably not bring Crichton much closer to the Nobel Price for Literature for brilliance of style or powerful character development amidst sociopolitical turmoil. Still, this certainly belongs in the list of recommended reads.
In style, Prey is reminiscent of The Andromeda Strain, anther one of Crichton's classics, but with a much faster clock and a lot more twists and turns in the story line. It mixes in a spoonful of gender conflict and office hocus-pocus, some charade and extramarital affairs as well as some of the archetypical good guys against bad guys motif. All this in the context of the rapidly evolving nanotechnology industry.
The story - no worries, I will not kill it for you - begins with the scenario that if we and our all-powerful machinery have physical limitations in building extremely small gadgets, such as a bunch of molecules put together for a certain task, then why don't we turn to those natural factories, that have been doing exactly this type of manufacturing for millions of years: bacteria. And of course, this, the beginning of a strikingly elegant solution, is exactly where the deadly problem also begins. Since H. G. Wells we know microbes are fatal allies. They may serve and survive by killing. But of course, they themselves may have their greatest enemies in the world of microbes.
Such experimentation brings with itself the inherent serious risks. This is the usual warning of techno-thrillers. Messing with technologies, if not controlled properly, can and will lead to serious environmental hazard, even to destruction of life.
Crichton knows perfectly how to play this theme. In Prey this danger is represented the runaway experiment of the nanotech company Xymos. In The Andromeda Strain this danger came from outside the planet, in Timeline death comes in the face of the time machine, in Jurassic Park and The Lost World, another runaway experiment with recreating a long-gone era causes disaster, and in Crichton's latest, State of Fear it's the 'environmentalists' themselves messing with our understanding of our own planet who bring massive trouble.
Chris Phoenix has an interesting overview of the "exaggerations and mistakes in science" and the reality of the nanotechnology capabilities as related to Prey:
http://www.nanotech-now.com/Chris-Phoenix/prey-critique.htm
Prey will probably not bring Crichton much closer to the Nobel Price for Literature for brilliance of style or powerful character development amidst sociopolitical turmoil. Still, this certainly belongs in the list of recommended reads.
In style, Prey is reminiscent of The Andromeda Strain, anther one of Crichton's classics, but with a much faster clock and a lot more twists and turns in the story line. It mixes in a spoonful of gender conflict and office hocus-pocus, some charade and extramarital affairs as well as some of the archetypical good guys against bad guys motif. All this in the context of the rapidly evolving nanotechnology industry.
The story - no worries, I will not kill it for you - begins with the scenario that if we and our all-powerful machinery have physical limitations in building extremely small gadgets, such as a bunch of molecules put together for a certain task, then why don't we turn to those natural factories, that have been doing exactly this type of manufacturing for millions of years: bacteria. And of course, this, the beginning of a strikingly elegant solution, is exactly where the deadly problem also begins. Since H. G. Wells we know microbes are fatal allies. They may serve and survive by killing. But of course, they themselves may have their greatest enemies in the world of microbes.
Such experimentation brings with itself the inherent serious risks. This is the usual warning of techno-thrillers. Messing with technologies, if not controlled properly, can and will lead to serious environmental hazard, even to destruction of life.
Crichton knows perfectly how to play this theme. In Prey this danger is represented the runaway experiment of the nanotech company Xymos. In The Andromeda Strain this danger came from outside the planet, in Timeline death comes in the face of the time machine, in Jurassic Park and The Lost World, another runaway experiment with recreating a long-gone era causes disaster, and in Crichton's latest, State of Fear it's the 'environmentalists' themselves messing with our understanding of our own planet who bring massive trouble.
Chris Phoenix has an interesting overview of the "exaggerations and mistakes in science" and the reality of the nanotechnology capabilities as related to Prey:
http://www.nanotech-now.com/Chris-Phoenix/prey-critique.htm
Rating (out of 5): ***
No comments:
Post a Comment