Goodreads Book Review: Prey

Prey by Michael Crichton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've always loved Michael Crichton. He was the first "adult" author I ever read when I picked up Jurassic Park for the first time back in the fifth or sixth grade, and I went on a Crichton tear after that, devouring The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, Congo, Sphere, Rising Sun, the Lost World, and Travels within months. Prey is the first book of his I've read in a very long time, and it still has the fun characters (although most of the ones introduced here are redshirts) and gripping narrative I've always remembered his writing to have. The problem with this book is that it very often abandons the narrative, sometimes in the middle of a conversation between two characters, to go on tangents that last for multiple paragraphs to explain the science behind what is going on. I realize that is an unfortunate necessity when dealing with a topic like sentient, evolving, nanotechnology, but it still distracted from the story, especially in the first half. Once most of that is out of the way, with the exception of short asides here and there, the book really picks up in the second half. When I picked it up yesterday I had read the first 39% of the book; once the technical stuff was out of the way, the narrative pulled me along and I finished it it one day. So overall, if you can push through the dry spots, it's a good read.



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Seventeen books in, I'd have to say the Recommended Reading Challenge is definitely a success so far; I'm reading things I wouldn't have read before, enjoying new authors and new styles and genres. Let's keep it going, we've got til the end of April to meet the year-long goal I set. Keep the recommendations coming!