December 12, 2010

Book review- State of Fear by Michael Crichton



I was thinking the other day that all of reviews – books and movies have been very positive. Well that’s the way to kill that Karma, isn’t it? Let me start off by saying that overall I did not enjoy this book very much. So let me tell you why.

As always, Crichton comes to the writing process well prepared and topical. This novel is about global warming, eco-terrorists, mass murder plots and various conspiracies on both sides of the issue. The science seems solid, the plot lines interesting, the politics enlightening, its world wide reach ginormous. So what is the problem you ask? Well I thought there were two.

First off, the characters are like Teflon coated titanium – nothing sticks to them and they are indestructible. Good deeds, bad deeds, horrible intentions, nothing matters. Plus they survive that which no mortal man should as wave upon wave of mass destruction confronts them and they always seem to win. They are like superman without the capes.

Secondly it is the author’s notes at the end of the book, some 20 pages worth. If you have to provide that much explanation of things after the fact, you probably didn’t do a good enough job in the first 400 pages. Plus he spends the whole book proving how each side so totally believes what they are saying, quoting all types of statistics and then in his end notes tells us one cannot believe the hype and siding with those that are skeptical about the issue.

I give this book 2 penguins



I like Michael Crichton, I really do. I think he was on the cutting edge of most of the issues he had written about. However I think he missed the boat on this one. If he wanted to feel a certain way about a topic then support it in the novel. From the very start this one felt like it was a screen play for the next Stephen Spielberg movie rather than a great thriller. It just seemed like Crichton just was trying to play both sides of the fence, and I think he toppled off of it in the process.


No comments: