Michael Crichton's PREY: What did you think?

Has anybody else read this yet? Since it’s so new, I’m not going to spoil anything unless it looks like a few others have read it besides me.

Technology? I think it was handled passably well, maybe possible in the next 5 to 10 years. A few things that were a bit off, but nothing that some minor suspension of disbelief can’t fix.

Writing? Well, here’s where my personal beef with Crichton comes in: He’s a good writer. He dreams up some great premises for a story, fleshes them out really well, makes them exciting, then…
Well, then the bottom drops out when it comes time for the story to end. Example: The Andromeda Strain. The story builds and builds, gets tense and exciting, then all of a sudden, Well, how about that? The disease just burned itself out and we’re all ok again! Gosh, wasn’t that lucky?
In PREY, though, I’m not bothered by the ending. It’s not all happy, but it’s a decent, maybe even a solid ending to a really enjoyable book.

Next - I’ve read Jurassic Park, Lost World, Andromeda Strain, Airframe, Terminal Man, Sphere, and (I forget the title) his autobiographical book talking about how he quit medical school, did this, did that, and basically lived a hell of a life. I’m really not what I’d call a fan (I only got this book because I saw it on a shelf and the premise grabbed me, not because the new book is out), but I do like his writing.

So any suggestions on what else of his is good and should be the next one I read?

Anyway, that’s sort of a hijack (in the OP, no less. that has to be a first). The real reason I posted this is to talk about Prey.

Your thoughts?

Blub…blub…

This thread is sinking fast, I’ll bump it once.

It came across to me as a typical Michael Crichton story. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s like the man only has one stock concept, and just plugs in the technology du jour. Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man, Westworld, Jurasic Park and Prey can all be summed up thus: Scientists fail to consider the possibility of emergent behavior arising from a complex system, and people die because of it.

Overall, I liked the story and could buy into it, it’s just that I’d like to see him strike off in a fresh direction like he did with Rising Sun or Disclosure.

The pacing of the “slice of life” section seemed, slow to me, but given the “house husband” nature of the protaganist, I guess that’s to be expected. My only problem with it is when Crichton tried to drop in his secret little plotpoints/clues to the later section of the novel, they stood out like a sore thumb. Then again that could just be because I’m familiar with the implications of the subject matter.

Overall, it’s no JP or Andromeda, but it’s still a good read for Crichton fans, I think.

On the obvious foreshadowing, did you mean the MRI thing with his daughter and consumed memory chips in the mp3 player? Yeah, I guess the foreshadowing was a little heavy. I think he did give away a little too much too early on. None of the developments surprised me.

I haven’t read the book; frankly I’d have to argue against the premise that Chrichton is a good writer. His style is clumsy and formulaic, his character development could be achieved equally well by a software program, and although he deals with fascinating ideas, they’re generally ideas that have already been thoroughly explored by other writers – it’s just that through the miracle of marketing Chrichton’s books are released as mainstream novels and not put in the “Science Fiction” section of bookstores, where they would fail to compete against those of more imaginative writers.

Otherwise, enjoy!

– Baldwin, green with envy about all those best-sellers.

I thought they all took it rather well when half the team was killed. “Oh, my team was killed. Carry on.”

Michael Crichton is the worst american writer of all time. Total mainstream hack.

Well, people don’t always read to be swept away by the writer’s artistry. Often it’s just to be entertained. Even when I read Lord Of The Rings or The Silmarillion, even though I’m impressed by the writing, I don’t read to be impressed. I read for the story.

When I read a MC book, I’m looking to be entertained. And since I enjoy “new technology run amok, outpacing our wisdom” stories, his books usually entertain me. Even if the premise has been done before, if it’s done in a manner that makes the book interesting and entertaining, then I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my time.

I haven’t read Prey yet (I’m not exactly a huge Crichton fan), but I rather liked one of his early novels, A Case of Need. Sort of fascinating from a historical perspective, and a pretty good read. Typically simplistic in many ways, but a decent book. It was originally published under a pseudonym, but damned if I can remember what it is… it’s out under his real name now.

Disclosure was somewhat interesting, but obviously an “issue” book more than a plot-driven story. I also sort of enjoyed Rising Sun.

Crichton books are generally quick reads for me. Somewhat forgettable but fun while they last. He’s my one-night stand author. blush

Joe_Cool: For me it was even earlier than that, I saw foreshadowing in:

The mention of Julia’s recent changes, such as weight loss, taking showers as she got home, that sort of thing. Crichton goes a long way as to trying to pass them off as signs of an affair, but he tries toohard I think, which calls attention to them. That and the speed at which the rash spread on the baby. By the time I got to the MP3 player and the MRI, those were merely confirmation.

And I have to agree with Avalonian, Crichton’s books are usually a one night read for me.

Silentgoldfish: Compare to Jurassic Park at about the same point in the storyline. Same author, same level of character reaction.

Haven’t read Prey yet, but The Great Train Robbery is a great read about Victorian English society…None of the science; Crichton turns his research towards the historical/sociological…a very well-paced book.

I can’t wait to pick this up. Unlike many of you, it seems, I’m a huge Chrichton fan. I’ve read just about every one of his books. He writes books destined to be action movies that practically read themselves. I remember finishing Timeline the same night I started reading it. I haven’t read anything but nonfiction for pleasure for several years now, Chrichton is my only guilty pleasure.

If anyone is interested in the man behind the books his autobiography, “Travels” is an interesting read. He graduated med school, but choose not to practice medicine because of reservations he had with the western inclination to treat only the body and not the soul as well. When he started getting rich and famous he spent time traveling the world trying to debunk unproven phenomenon like auras, charkas, and the like. Interesting guy.

Another vote here for “The Great Train Robbery”. A superb book that i passed around my friends in one of those “Here read this it’s great” things you do when you’ve discovered a good book.

This book was absolute crap! Crichton’s worst by far…

My problems:

[ul]
[li]·Why didn’t Jack call for help after a swarm killed the first person?[/li][li]·Why go searching for elaborate ways to kill the things when all they needed was a damn makeshift leaf blower?! Herd the little bastards together and toss in the thermite. At the very least never leave the building without a portable fan to blow them away when they attack.[/li][li]·The ending was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, nothing more. “Don’t resist Jack, it’s better this way.” How bloody unoriginal can he be?[/li][li]·Not nearly as suspenseful as his previous books.[/li][li]·The main character was annoyingly dense, he second-guessed himself every step of the way[/li][li]·Predictable![/li][/ul]

I kept waiting for some sense to surface in this book and it never did.

Yeah, I see all that too, but somehow I still enjoyed it. But, all those things you mentioned, taken together, are the reason why I don’t consider myself a Crichton fan, even though I read his books. They’re mindless fun, but not something I strive for, you know?

Even if it is just a 30 year update/rehash of Andromeda Strain, at least it has a better ending than AS had - that one sucked! Build, build, build, build, all of a sudden - BANG! Problem is over, not even solved. Like his typewriter was being repossessed, and he had to finish up quick.

But again, I still enjoy reading his stuff.

Sorry; can’t believe I kept typing “Chrichton” instead of “Crichton”. Whether I like a writer or not, he deserves to have his name spelled correctly.

The ending of Andromeda Strain was typical; he opens with a great premise for suspense, but doesn’t really know how to deal with it, and instead throws in artificial crises. In this case, that included having one of the scientists have an epileptic seizure at a crucial moment, causing him to miss vital information (in the movie, this character was changed to a woman), and having the suspense at the end shift from the incredibly lethal alien virus, which conveniently mutates into a nonlethal form, to the race to deactivate the lab’s self-destruct mechanism.

Just finished this up last night. Entertaining.

No one will ever mistake this book for great literature, but nonetheless it’s a fun read.

This isn’t his best, but no doubt most Crichton fans out there will enjoy it (like me). Personally I thought his other two recent releases (Airframe and Timeline) were both better than this, but this was better than some of his books.

As long as you go in expecting Crichton, it’s a quick and enjoyable read.

Prey is a good summer/beach read. Enjoyable, but not too deep.
However the premise is extremely interesting.
I thought he could’ve done a lot more with it, but why make a summer/beach read into some philosophical tristise?

The only story problem I had was the end part where the mechanisms invaded people. He didn’t explain well enough what that really entailed. It would’ve been more scary if some sort of plan, even vaguely, was revealed about where the mechanisms were going with it. In Andromeda Strain, there was the threat of a world-wide plague that would exterminate everyone. That horror wasn’t apparent in Prey.