Given his past fame and inevitable success of any new book he writes, it is quite surprising that Michael Crichton would boldly change from his typical third-person perspective to first-person for his latest book, \Prey.""
His first release in three years, ""Prey"" shows that Crichton is surprisingly much more adept with a first-person perspective; his usually verbose and expository prose fits protagonist Jack Forman well.
""Prey"" deals with the emerging subject of nanotechnology and thus requires a large amount of scientific explanation; despite these segments which often play as science lessons, the book illustrates that Crichton is capable of producing a thriller plot like no other.
As a former computer programmer, Jack Forman used computers to mimic animalistic behaviors in order to solve a multitude of problems. Having lost his job, he has quickly adjusted to living at home and taking care of his children. His wife, a researcher at Xymos Technology, has been working long hours and acting erratically.
Suspicions plague him that she is having an affair. Eventually he is invited to help her on a long running top secret project; hoping to find the truth regarding her mysterious behavior, he discovers a whole different type of trouble. Xymos Technology has created self-sustaining nanotechnology.
This swarm of microscopic artificial life replicates and evolves on its own--and has escaped the control of Xymos scientists. The scientists and Jack race against the unforgiving clock, trying to bring the tiny machines under control.
Like any other work of science fiction, ""Prey"" contains logical steps that are not likely to be taken seriously by an unforgiving reader. A few coincidences are a bit too much to swallow; but, for the most part, ""Prey"" moves along at Crichton's lightning-fast pace. There are few writers who move the plot along as blindingly as Crichton. However, in the past, he has been hampered by a third-person perspective.
His last novel, ""Timeline,"" was subject to numerous storylines that were often told with focus on information and description. While ""Timeline"" illustrated Crichton's standard style, emotional connection to the main characters was drowned in descriptions and information, and the novel thus moved very slowly.
In ""Prey,"" there is no such contrast between character development and plot speed; we get to know Forman just as fast as we get dropped into the action of the book.
If any major flaw can be found, it is Crichton's penchant for the dramatic. Considering any Crichton book will inevitably be optioned for a movie deal, critics have wondered about his increasingly complex and imposing dangers. While one can't help but feel that he may be erring on the side of sensationalism, it does not fail him in ""Prey.""
Even when using scenes that have become both literary and film cliches, Crichton manages to fill them with intrigue and interest. A drastic change from his well-known ""Jurassic Park,"" Crichton has moved from massive dinosaurs to unseen machines. Despite the immense differences between the two dangers, the science behind the fiction is so well fleshed-out by Crichton that ""Prey"" is possibly his scariest novel to date.
However, readers have serious cause to be concerned with the future of Crichton's written product, as well as the present of the cinema equivalent. ""Timeline,"" which featured an interesting theoretical form of time travel, is due to be released in theaters soon. While moderately suitable for a film adaptation, ""Timeline"" as a film will certainly do worse than ""Jurassic Park;"" ""Prey,"" focusing on impossibly small mechanical beings, will likely translate even worse onto the screen.
If Crichton continues to drift toward books with increasingly complex scientific concepts while simultaneously attempting to write with a film adaptation in mind, his books will slowly devolve into more and more ludicrous cliches.
Despite it being called an ""updated 'Andromeda Strain',"" ""Prey"" stands on its own as another warning of technology that has yet to be examined or regulated. Whether interested in biotechnology or just in a good thriller, ""Prey"" will grip a reader's attention until the last page.
