State of Fear by Michael Crichton Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of State of Fear
Book Review: Excrutiating
Summary: 1 Stars
The only reason I finished listening to it was because I was driving across Massachusetts and needed something to listen to.
Spoilers.
The character of Kenner was one of the most unlikable protagonists ever presented in fiction...a arrogand know it all.
Why don't the bad guys just use guns instead of poisoning people with miniture octupuses...wayyyy to elaborate?
What do Tsunamis and earthquakes have to do with global warming?
The fate of Ted Bradly was just TOO vicious and the characters didn't evem show any remorse of sympathy.
What's the deal with Jen...is she a secret agent posing as a lawyer?
Why are so many loose ends left up in the air.
And the worse offense of all...it was just deadly DULL with all the repetative lecuturing whether you belive in global warming or not.
I had the abridged audio...I CANNOT imagine how boring the unabridged would be.
It doesn't seem this could be the same author of JURASSIC PARK.
Book Review: Fascinating data - unbelievable plot
Summary: 3 Stars
It is clear from the outset that Michael Crichton spent a lot of time and energy researching this book. It's a pity he didn't put as much effort into writing it. The data and its presentation in State of Fear is very good and worth reading if nothing else, but the plot really seems only a poorly conceived framework upon which to hang the data. A publisher's deadline might be to blame but a writer of Crichton's stature should know better than to push out a book that is not ready, no matter how much they may be beating him up for it!
The main character, Peter Evans, (a lawyer) is too bungling and stupid to be believable and would probably not survive five minutes were he a real person in an actual, similar, situation. The only really good character is that of Kenner although he is not thoroughly developed. The parts where the ELF members bite the dust were enjoyable though. A major complaint for me is that the murderers you meet in the first chapter and several times later are never dealt with. What's up with that? A possible sequel? Not likely based on the quality of first book.
There are flashes of the Michael Crichton of old late in the book where we are reminded that we humans are but a smudge of life on a insignificant rock hurling through a hostile universe and no matter how much we would like to pretend to be in charge of our destiny, we are in fact helpless in the face of the universe which could snuff us out in the blink of a cosmic eye, should it choose to. For this message alone the book is worth reading. If you would like to hear something other than the herd mentality spin on global warming you should pick it up as well. I do recommend reading this book but don't expect too much from the plot.
Reviewed by Hugh Mannfield [...].
Book Review: Forget about the global warming debate, it's just not a good novel.
Summary: 2 Stars
My dislike of this novel has little to do with the debate that rages within about the causes of climate change. My first problem is the borderline hypocricy. The author harshly targets the supposed propagandists on the other side of the debate he sets up, while at the same time prosthelitizing about his side. Perhaps most readers already understand what they are getting into when they start this book. I picked up the book in the airport and took at face value the dust jacket blurbs like "techno-thriller," and "pulse-pounding fiction." I did not expect a thin story acting as a fig leaf to barely conceal the lecture I was about to receive. And that really is my problem with the book -- the author works so hard to convince us of what he's apparently convinced himself that stuff like plot, dialogue, character development and the like simply are not given the attention they deserve. If you're looking for a counterpoint to current climate change theories, there is a wealth of information out there for you. A poorly constructed novel with an almost-obsessively shrill way to get the message across seems like a decidedly poor vehicle.Book Review: Forum for Crichton's personal bias
Summary: 1 Stars
I was given this book as a Christmas gift and, having enjoyed many of Crichton's books in the past, was looking forward to reading it. The plot was confusing at first and the more I read the more I realized that this book was really just a platform for Crichton to smear environmentalists in general, and to convince people that Global Warming is not a serious concern (or at least not caused by man, or......)The plot suffered greatly by his desire to convince people of his view point. It was not well-balanced at all.
I am no expert on Global Warming, but I can sense when someone is trying to manipulate me. While complaining about environmental groups not being objective, this book has the same problem.
The characters were not well developed and were very stereotypical.
I can not recommend this book to anyone.
Book Review: Global Warming Bogeyman
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is a must read for anyone who is concerned about environment and has taken an extreme position on either side of global warming based on media misrepresentation of facts masked as scientific certainty about an entity as little understood as mother nature.
Global Warming has become a catch-all bogeyman to label every natural event as catastrophe that would have passed off nothing more than natural phenomena earlier. For eons there have been flash floods, earthquake, twisters, drought and other phenomena in the world. However, now everything is being pinned to global warming by the eco-over zealots. Unfortunately, big and mighty fund studies with the objective to prove global warming at any cost. I am not suggesting that we should not be environmentally conscious; however environmental extremism is not the way. Thank God, dinosaurs died millions of years ago, otherwise their death surely would have been blamed on global warming by the eco-extremists.
Michael Crichton rightly points our many fallacies in the so-called scientific studies and extremism of the environmental organizations. This book is a great fiction that entertains as well as educates on the perils of excesses masked as eco-friendliness.