State of Fear

by Michael Crichton, George Wilson (Reader)

New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton delivers another action-packed techo-thriller in State of Fear .

When a group of eco-terrorists engage in a global conspiracy to generate weather-related natural disasters, its up to environmental lawyer Peter Evans and his team to uncover the subterfuge.
 
From Tokyo to Los Angeles, from Antarctica to the Solomon Islands, Michael Crichton mixes cutting edge science and action-packed adventure, leading readers on an edge-of-your-seat ride while offering up a thought-provoking commentary on the issue of global warming. A deftly-crafted novel, in true Crichton style, State of Fear is an exciting, stunning tale that not only entertains and educates, but will make you think.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Adventure

6 pages, Audio Cassette

First published December 7, 2004

About the author

John Michael Crichton was an American author, screenwriter, and filmmaker whose prolific career left an indelible mark on popular culture and speculative fiction. Raised on Long Island, he displayed a precocious talent for writing, publishing an article in The New York Times at sixteen. Initially enrolling at Harvard as an English major, he switched to biological anthropology after discovering a preference for scientific study over literature. He graduated summa cum laude and received a fellowship to lecture in anthropology at Cambridge. Later attending Harvard Medical School, he earned his MD but chose not to practice, dedicating himself to writing instead. His medical background profoundly influenced his novels, providing authentic scientific and technical underpinnings that became a hallmark of his work. Crichton began writing under pseudonyms, producing suspenseful thrillers as John Lange, including Odds On, Scratch One, and Easy Go, and as Jeffrey Hudson with A Case of Need, earning him an Edgar Award. His first major success under his own name, The Andromeda Strain, established his signature blend of scientific authenticity, tension, and exploration of technological hazards, leading to its film adaptation. Over his career, he wrote 25 novels, including The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, and Next, several adapted into major films, with four additional works published posthumously. Crichton also made significant contributions to film and television. He wrote and directed Westworld, pioneering the use of 2D computer-generated imagery, and later directed Coma, The First Great Train Robbery, Looker, and Runaway. He created the influential medical drama ER, which he executive produced and developed with Steven Spielberg, achieving critical and commercial success. Many of his novels, most famously Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, became cultural phenomena, combining imaginative adventure with grounded scientific speculation, often exploring humanity’s overreach in genetics, biotechnology, and complex systems. His literary style was notable for integrating meticulous scientific detail, suspense, and moral cautionary themes. His works frequently addressed the failure of complex systems—biological, technological, or organizational—demonstrating the unpredictable consequences of human hubris. Employing techniques such as first-person narratives, false documents, fictionalized scientific reports, and assembling expert teams to tackle crises, Crichton created immersive stories appealing to both popular and scholarly audiences. His exploration of genetics, paleontology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence revealed both fascination and caution about humanity’s technological ambitions, while his early non-fiction, such as Five Patients and Electronic Life, reflected his scientific insight and forward-thinking approach to computers and programming. Standing 6 feet 9 inches tall, Crichton experienced social isolation in adolescence and later pursued meditation and consultations with psychics, cultivating a lifelong interest in human consciousness and alternative experiences. A workaholic, he approached writing with disciplined ritualistic methodology, often retreating entirely to complete a novel in six or seven weeks. He was married five times, fathered two children, and maintained a wide-ranging collection of 20th-century American art. Crichton engaged in political and scientific discourse, particularly regarding global warming, where he was an outspoken skeptic and testified before the U.S. Senate. He contributed significantly to the discussion of intellectual property, technology, and environmental policy, coining concepts such as the Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Throughout his life, he received numerous awards, including Edgar Awards, a Peabody Award for ER, an Aca

Reviews

[Federico DN · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remain scared.

A physicist murdered in strange circumstances in Paris, a deadly innovative technology changing hands in Malaysia, an uncommon type of submarine released in the waters in Vancouver; everything points to an underground eco-terrorist organization and a massive worldwide conspiracy brewing from the shadows. Peter Evans, a lawyer investigating NERF, and Sarah Jones, a billionaire’s assistant, and a few others, the only people on earth that may be able to uncover the whole truth behind it and, if possible, stop it, before the world is torn asunder.

From Paris to Iceland and Antarctica, from Arizona desert to Los Angeles and the jungles of Solomon Islands. A massively scoped techno-thriller, blending science and fiction, like only a consummated author can deliver. Truth be told the protagonists are barely memorable at all, but the story more than certainly is, and by a longshot. This was my first and only Crichton so far and at first glance you can easily tell why the author has amassed such fan base and cult following. This was more than a decade ago and the chills of it still resonating strong with me.

This was a never ending nail-biting global rollercoaster from beginning to end, without stops. A globe spanning adventure and thought-provoking novel about the unavoidable dangers of global warming. Truly fantastic. Looking forward to reading much more of the author, someday.

*** WHA? No movie?! I need my movie, dang it!



-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1987] [672p] [Thriller] [Almost Recommendable] [3.5] [I want dinosaurs man!]
-----------------------------------------------

Sigo teniendo miedo.

Un físico asesinado en extrañas circunstancias en París, una mortífera innovadora tecnología cambiando de manos en Malasia, una especie rara de submarino suelto en las aguas de Vancouver; todo apunta hacia una clandestina organización eco-terrorista y una masiva conspiración global cerniéndose desde las sombras. Peter Evans, un abogado investigando a NERF, y Sarah Jones, la asistente de un billonario, y otros pocos, las únicas personas en la tierra capaz de llegar a descubrir la verdad detrás de todo, y, si es posible, detenerlo, antes de que el mundo sea despedazado.

Desde Paris hasta Islandia y la Antártida, desde el desierto de Arizona hasta Los Angeles y las junglas de las Islas Salomón. Un tecno- thriller de alcance masivo, mezclando ciencia y ficción, como sólo un autor consumado podría entregar. La verdad que es que los protagonistas son bastante olvidables, pero la historia es ciertamente más que memorable, y por mucho. Este fue mi primer y único Crichton hasta el momento y a primera vista se puede apreciar fácilmente por qué el autor amasó semejante cantidad de fans y calidad de culto. Esto fue más de una década atrás y los escalofríos todavía siguen resonando fuerte en mí.

Esto fue una interminable montaña rusa para morderse las uñas desde el principio hasta el final, sin paradas. Una aventura de alcance global y novela provocadoramente reflexiva sobre los peligros inevitables del calentamiento global. Verdaderamente fantástica. Con grandes ansías de leer mucho más del autor, algún día.

*** ¿QUE? ¡¿No hay película?! Necesito mi película, ¡diantres!



-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1987] [672p] [Thriller] [Casi Recomendable] [¡Quiero dinosaurios hombre!]
-----------------------------------------------

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chrichton is superficially playing with ethical and political ideas in one of his worst novels. Others weren´t really good too, but at least he avoided showing that he didn´t do his homework when dealing with an important topic.

I don´t know why Chrichton integrated climate change activists as a key element without doing his research and invited in this way much true criticism of that one shouldn´t so superficially deal with a very complex and controversial context to boost the sales of a book, especially when writing techno thrillers with a so called scientific background and not unilateral, biased propaganda pieces.

That´s especially ironic because Chrichtons´ intent was to show how good and bad science works, but he didn´t just fail in demonstrating, but used bad and wrong science himself in the book and the discussion around it as an extra.

Without that problem and the chronic weak spots of Chrichtons writing, that are strong in this one, it could have really been an entry point to a more and more important discussion and an entertaining, mind-boggling read. So it´s less than average, nothing I would recommend and I have hardly seen such a bumbling and inept integration of bias and agenda in a fictional work, he didn´t even try to be subtle or manipulative, just, bam, in your face, communist witch hunt style.

If I want my brain to be washed I would at least wish to be ensnared and a bit courted before getting; pseudo, unsatisfyingly, and terribly performed; mind penetrated.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

[Robert McDonald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never expected to read this book. But my mom left a copy of Michael Crichton’s book State of Fear at my house, and I found myself reading it. The book is an odd mix of fiction and pseudo-scientific argument.
As a fiction piece, it’s actually okay. For reasons that are irrelevant to the plot, evil villains are trying to shear a big iceberg off into the ocean, create a flash flood in a canyon, and make a tidal wave hit LA. The good guys are of course trying to stop them, and manage to stop them just in time. Crichton’s a good writer, and this book is fun to read. For a Crichton book, though, it is one of his worst, and nowhere near as entertaining as Andromeda Strain. Mostly this is because his rhetorical goal for the novel continually gets in the way of the plot.
The central argument of the book seems to be: “It’s not clear global warming is caused by people, and even if it is it’s not clear how bad it’ll be, therefore we should do nothing.” The evil villain of the book is a cabal of environmental groups determined to scare the populace to maintain funding for the military-industrial complex in the post- Cold War world. Global warming is thus fundamentally a hoax perpetrated by tens of thousands of people, in Crichton’s view. Even better, they all manage to keep the hoax secret. Apart from errors of fact, of which there are several, the book also makes several serious errors in its reasoning.
First is the widespread use of anecdotal reasoning. For instance (and yes, I see the irony here), Crichton makes a big deal about how the warmest year on record in the US was 1934. Whether of not this is true depends on how you calculate average temperature, but it doesn’t really matter- 1934 was really warm. But, fifteen out of the 25 warmest yeats since records started being kept in 1895 have occurred after 1981. Globally, the trend toward warmness is even stronger. Particular anecdotes are irrelevant; in a large enough body of data or a large enough collection of papers you can find a factoid to support almost anything.
Second is the intentional misrepresentation of scientific uncertainty by Crichton. For example, he talks about how global circulation models are uncertain about how increases in temperature will affect cloud cover and hence albedo. This is true, there is uncertainty on this point, but it doesn’t necessarily follow logically that everything about the model is wrong. When I estimate that a townhouse in Cambridge costs $350,000 to $500,000, I have some uncertainty in my estimate, but that does not imply the true value if zero. When the IPCC says the net radiative forcing of human activities on climate is +0.6 to +2.4 W/m2, there is some uncertainty in that estimate, but that does not imply the true value is zero.
Finally, Crichton has misunderstood how science works. The process of peer review is a blind review of the facts cited in a paper, exactly the opposite of how Crichton portrays it. There is intense competition in science, with multiple groups analyzing the same data, exactly what Crichton calls for. Sadly, Crichton’s book of fiction was not peer reviewed, nor did he face any competition from competing scientific interpretations of the literature about global warming, which allowed this travesty of a rant to be published.
-The Cosmopolitian Ecologist

[Kiersten · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to write an essay on your opinion of global warming, Mikey, do so. Don't disguise it as a novel when you've only got 10 pages of plot.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

State of Fear is centered around a plot by eco-terrorists to bring world attention to global warming by, you guessed it, blowing up half the world. Yes, the nonsensical plot that makes up the spine of this book leaves the rest of this skeletal narrative in the hands of a man we've rarely seen: Michael Crichton, political philosopher. First of all, the book, released in 2004, asks you to believe that there is a "state of fear" being pushed on the public in order to "scare" them into belief of Global Warming so as to wreck the US economy and maintain elitist academia's stranglehold on the world. I.F.O.N.L.Y. The premise, that politicians, journalists and celebrities use fear tactics to control the population is as old as time itself. It is a practice that has been used in the history of every society on the face of the planet at some point, throughout human history. That Crichton presents this as a supposedly revolutionary idea is just the start of this novel's problems. What's more striking is that despite coming out in 2004, in an age where (until 2006) Republicans won election after election based on fear tactics (whether it's Fear of Gay Marriage or Fear of Terrorism), no mention is made anywhere in the novel of the modern state of fear we are all really, genuinely, disturbingly living in. It is telling that Crichton has good friends in the oil industry, won an award for "journalism" for this book from oil producers in the US (the first award of its type, created specifically for him), and that Crichton was one of a handful of people who got a private audience with George W. Bush to "advise" him on Global Warming. There's an old saying that people often accuse others of what they're most likely to do themselves. One has to wonder how much of Crichton's "state of fear" is really the result of his own work. (Beware those powerful, evil climatologists and academics!) I'd love to live in a country where the only real "fear" was a "fear" of liberal pacifists who were worried about the weather, rather than a country where I'm told daily to fear everything about the world, and told to fear my own gut instincts, and told that questioning my government was a form of aiding terrorism. If that's not a controlling state of fear, I don't know what is. That "state of fear" is mentioned nowhere in Crichton's love letter to his friends in the oil Industry and the White House. Crichton's State of Fear, instead, follows bumbling environmentalist Peter Evans, a basically good-hearted but naive, brainwashed liberal. Over the course of the story, he receives his "education" on the evils of the climate change lobby by John Kenner. Kenner is a rogue agent of some mysterious government detective agency, because it could only be, obviously, a shadowy CIA-like agency that would have the courage to stand up to the vicious tree huggers. The character of Kenner is about as filled out as a picture tube, and it is clear from the beginning that Kenner is actually Michael Crichton himself, or rather, a mouthpiece for Crichton's views. Nowhere in the novel is the action as heavy as the dialog, and Kenner takes up most of the space with his self-indulgent rants. Consequently half the novel reads more like a transcript of an O'Reilly Factor episode than a fiction novel. The characters are flat, lifeless and dull, and nothing in this book is as intelligent, quirky or interesting as the plot devices and concepts Crichton has come up with in his other works. Disappointing as a fan of his imaginative fiction, disappointing as someone smart enough to pick up on being lectured to (an even cursory examination of his "sources" reveals how dodgy they are, hence he clearly didn't intend the novel to be of interest to anyone with one year of college under their belt), and disappointing to anyone who thinks the agenda of a work of literature should be better hidden behind solid writing (though arguably that last group would include those evil academics).

NC

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is propaganda written by an ultra-rich person. Utterly despicable. I just thought Crichton was mediocre until I read this. Now I think he's insidious. There're 2 basic thrusts: Global Warming is a myth & ecology activists are phenomenally stupid. I don't actually have much of an opinion about global warming one way or the other so I don't hate this novel so much b/c it's a threat to mass consciousness there. I hate it b/c it's so repulsively propagandistic (w/o any self-acknowledgement as such).

The basic plot is what you'd expect: a thriller about 'good' vs 'evil'. The 'evil' people are the ELF, the Earth Liberation Front - whose name, of course, is directly slanderous of the actual ELF & Earth First!. One of the 'good' guys is John Kenner. Strangely enuf, ELF is just a bunch of dumb hippies who somehow manage to have one of the most diabolically clever plots to technologically create eco-disasters ever conceived of. How such bumbling idiots have such genius for invention & planning is never explained. Of course, in formula-writing-world, the 'evil' plot HAS to be diabolical so that the 'hero''s genius for defeating it can be exciting.

Kenner, contrary to the dupes & imbeciles of the ecological activists, is a superhuman genius: you know, the guy who can recite an encyclopedic array of scientific 'facts' from memory & shoot machine guns while parachuting? The guy who makes 007 look like a kindergarten student? Highly intelligent but also w/ a perfectly honed killing machine body - one of these 'geniuses' that we know constitute the US ruling elites that justly run this world for the better of mankind? Right. Who on earth believes this crap anymore?! Apparently Crichton does & the extreme popularity of his bks might indicate that many people at least get off on such myths.

[Arah-Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I can’t believe that I am sitting here thinking about this review while Hurricane Sandy’s imminence is being trumpeted just outside my door.

Makes you think…..

The story itself is about global warming. It’s a cautionary tale really. On the one hand you have some radical environmentalists/ scientists who are not above manipulating the environment in order to support their fund raising goals. I mean people will dig deeper into their pockets if they have been personally impacted by global warming, right.

Attempting at every turn to stay ahead of these ecological terrorists is a filthy rich, environmental philanthropist, his lawyer and Kenner, a professor of geo-environmental engineering at MIT and secret agent for an unnamed national security organization.

And the chase is on; as we follow these groups around the world from the glaciers of Iceland and volcanoes of Antarctica, through the streets of Paris to a remote Pacific island crawling with cannibals.

As I read this story I really thought that it was Crichton’s voice I heard whenever Kenner was speaking, which he does a lot, while sharing his own views on global warming. It can get a little preachy, but for me the story was solid enough to get past that.

There is a chilling taste like people scene that quite effectively raised the hackles on the back of my neck.

A cogent theme throughout is the role of politics and fund raising in shaping scientific research.

Extremely well researched and hey I enjoyed it.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting book! I've read it 3 times now. Definitely read the author's message at the end, it's really interesting.

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread on Dec 01, 2014

Thought-provoking, controversial, action-packed, suspenseful, well-researched, outrageous, perhaps a science-fiction, as well as fictional science book?

The Plot:
A lawyer represents a wealthy client donating a large amount of money to various conservation causes and gets involved in the underworld of power, greed, and social manipulation. The discovery of a set of GPS points leads to action-packed adventures that become the main focus of the drama.

Comments:
"State of Fear" is a manuscript on the application of primal instincts to politics, industry, media, conservation, and more, highlighting the hypocritical aspects of it all. The author stresses the importance of exaggerating a concept to attract attention to a planet overrun by 7 billion people. This book is indeed one of those efforts in itself. Pro-industry, anti-NGOs.

At this point, I am not interested in the scientific data used in the book, which is the main focus of the anti-establishment opponents of the book. I think the author tries to expose the gross mismanagement of power, greed, and disinformation with which ideas are sold to the people on the planet as absolute truths by both sides of the scientific equation.

From personal experience gained over 35 years in conservation circles, dealing with scientists, dreamers, and schemers from the highest to the lowest order, as well as ordinary people living in the wilderness, I agree with most of the book! I was blown away, surprised, by the detailed 'insider' knowledge that he provided in the tale.

Another issue in the book that I agree with from experience is how the outcome of research is more often than not determined by who sponsored the research. The war between margarine and butter is a prime example. Remember?

He is accused of being a 'hand-horse' to the high and mighty industrial bullies, which is the typical reaction of similar big bullies in conservation. The pot is accusing the kettle of being black. Oh, the delight of being human! :-))

The endnotes in the book explain the author's approach to the information, as well as an interesting, informative discussion of Eugenics. The latter is such a well-kept 'secret' in the world that current generations will stagger in horror to learn more about it, more importantly, learn the origin of this social experiment.

This book's main purpose, in my humble opinion, is to shock and expose, encouraging equilibrium on the scale of sanity. Too many supporters feel offended and threatened to react sensibly.

The book did not change my idea of conservation at all, since we have been involved in the practical, on-the-ground, real implementation of the concepts with wards and all for 40 years. But I am so happy to know that someone had the guts to rip the hornet's nest open.

The author stresses the importance of conservation, which is an aspect of the book that is completely ignored by the opponents. He is not against the dream; he is against the implementation of ambitious schemes in the natural world.

There are several examples of conservation projects that went totally, horribly wrong, that I can add to his list, but for that, I need to write a book myself, and I am unable to do it as masterfully as the author. The point is that any human interaction with nature has dire consequences, even in conservation. It is not the industrial sector alone that makes the mistakes. And this is what this book is all about.

One of the most important points in the book, for me, is that office-bound intellectuals, the dreamers and schemers of life, living in cities, should stop building simulated worlds in laboratories and wearing expensive-labeled outdoor 'uniforms'. They should rather go live in the wild, listen to the indigenous people who lived with the natural world and observed it for thousands of years. "Unbowed," the autobiography of Dr. Wangari Maathai, is an excellent book to read in this regard.

The book is typical of the latest trend in writing: first, write the detailed non-fictional 'truths,' supported by 'scientific evidence' - the message/idea that should be promoted, and then, second, wind an adventurous tale with a multitude of characters into it. In this instance, it was done masterfully, keeping the action fast and furious, dramatic and devastating.

The book is more than 600 pages of relentless criticism of the modus operandi of the conservation world, even exposing the possibilities of terrorism, which is also a shocking fact in reality, to which I can attest. I dare to say that it was a much-needed effort to restore balance and thought, as previously mentioned. It left many 'Yay-Sayers' livid and 'Nay-Sayers jubilant.

The reactions to it are almost better than the book itself. Nobody wants to be caught and confronted red-handed in their ignorant bliss, after all. The aggressive, angry reactions to the book are almost comical. (I am aware of looking for big trouble here, but I am a good sprinter, so watch this space ;-)

Sometimes conservation has nothing to do with nature; sometimes it is about big money and big aspirations. This is the core message of this book, a secret that desperately needed to be aired in the open.

P.S. This is another reread for me.

[J.S. Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this novel was the scene on pages 499-506, which explains the title of the novel “State of Fear” & couldn’t be more true (& actually has nothing to do with global warming 😆).
Having worked for the media in the past, I can tell you that it is very true. They only wanted us to write stories that inspired feelings of hate, anger & fear in the reader. Why? Because the media is actually a business & that’s how money is made in that business. Advertisers pay for what sells, what most people read. And unfortunately, the stories that get shared the most, & therefore read the most, are those that make people scared or angry.
Our stories that did those things got millions of views. The feel good stories about the good in the world only got about 900 or less views.

So, yes, the media has us in a state of fear. But, that’s also the fault of the public. If the public focused more on the good stories, those would be the stories that paid & the media would then focus on that, instead of what spreads hate, fear & anger.

“Has it ever occurred to you how astonishing the culture of Western society really is? Industrialized nations provide their citizens with unprecedented safety, health, & comfort. Average life spans increased 50% in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear. They are afraid of strangers, of disease, of crime, of the environment. They are afraid of the homes they live in, the food they eat, the technology that surrounds them. They are in a particular panic over things they can’t even see — germs, chemicals, additives, pollutants. They are timid, nervous, fretful, and depressed...
How has this world view been instilled in everybody? Because although we imagine we live in different nations — France, Germany, Japan, the US — in fact, we inhabit exactly the same state, the State of Fear.”
Pages 500-501

Wanna change it? Change what you choose to put in your thoughts, what you share, what news you devour.
The media is a business. It sells what people buy.


June 2021 added note: I believe Mr. Steffen sums it up quite accurately in his 1929 article 'How I Created A Crime Wave,' which also explains various issues going on in our nation today. (highlights below)

“Every now and then there occurs the phenomenon called a crime wave. New York has such waves periodically; other cities have them; and they sweep over the public and nearly drown the lawyers, judges, preachers and other leading citizens who feel that they must explain and cure these extraordinary outbreaks of lawlessness. Their diagnoses and their remedies are always the same: the disease is lawlessness; the cure is more law, more arrests, swifter trials and harder penalties. The sociologists and other scientists go deeper into the wave; the trouble with them is they do not come up. I enjoy crime waves.
“I made one once; I was a reporter on the New York Evening Post. Jacob A. Riis helped; he was a reporter on the Evening Sun. Many other reporters joined in the uplift of that rising tide of crime, but it was my creation, that wave, and Theodore Roosevelt stopped it. He was the President of the Police Board. But even he had to get Riis and me to stop the wave. I feel, therefore, that I know something the wise men do not know about crime waves, and so get a certain sense of happy superiority out of reading editorials, sermons, and speeches on my specialty. It was this way:
“The basement of the old police headquarters was a cool place in summer, and detectives, prisoners and we reporters used to sit together down there and gossip or doze or play cards. Good stories of the underworld were told - true stories.”
“The morning papers not only rewrote ours, they had crimes of their own, which they grouped to show that there was a crime wave.
“It was indeed one of the worst crime waves I ever witnessed, and the explanations were embarrassing to the Reform Police Board which my paper and my friends were supporting in their difficult reform work. The opposition papers, Tammany and the unreformed police officers, rejoiced in the outbreak of crime, which showed that the reformed police, and especially the new detective service, could not deal with the criminals. The outbreak of crimes all over the city so alarmed Roosevelt that he was almost persuaded that the opposition was right in its criticism. He called a secret meeting of the Police Board and was making one of his picturesque harangues, when Commissioner Parker interrupted him. ‘Mr. President, you can stop this crime wave whenever you want to.’
‘I! How?’
“‘Call off your friends Riis and Steffens. They started it and - they’re sick of it. They’ll be glad to quit if you’ll ask them to.’
“Roosevelt was perplexed. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said.
“Parker explained that when the crime wave was running high he inquired into it, not as the editorial writers did: he asked for the police records of crimes and arrests. These showed no increase at all; on the contrary, the total crimes showed a diminution and the arrests an increase. It was only the newspaper reports of crimes that had increased; there was a wave of publicity only.”
“Riis told him about it: how I got him called down by printing a beat, and he had to get even. And did. ‘I beat the pot out of you,’ he boasted to me, his pride reviving. ‘And I can go right on doing it. I can get half-a-dozen crimes a day if I must, or a dozen. I can get all there are every day.’
“Thus the crime wave was ended. T.R. took pleasure in telling Parker that he had deleted not only the wave, but the source of the wave, which was in Parker’s department. He would not say what it was. Parker had to resolve that mystery by learning from the chief of detectives that the President had ordered the daily crime file removed from the public to his inner office.”
How I made a crime wave Lincoln Steffens in the Bookman 12/1928

[Patrick Mcginley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of wasting my time with. Not only are the politics deplorable (it's about a group of eco-terrorists who induce fake desasters to back up their false claims of global warming), it's also shoddily written. The characters are paper thin and idiotic, the hero is a dim-witted buffoon, and the plot consists of icreasingly boring action-scenes, interrupted by the preachings of an obnoxious Jack Bauer rip-off. The bad guys all drive Priuses and the good guys SUVs. And at the end Martin Sheen, or his lame-brained stand in, gets eaten by a horde of cannibals. Actually, it sounds quite funny when you think about it...

Stay away!

[Kon R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was torn between a 2 or 3, but decided to go with the former. There is so much ranting about global warming in this book that the plot takes a back seat majority of the time. For a while you kind of forget that this is supposed to be a thriller and not a debate. I think what ultimately led me to go with the 2 star rating is the afterword. Ok, we get it! You think global warming is a ruse. We got that point clearly about 20% in. This novel should have been edited down to about 50% of its size. Maybe I shouldn't have started with what is considered Crichton's worst, but it can only get better from here on out, right?

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've read many of my reviews you know it's not unusual for me to open a review with something like "This is an interesting book" or simply "Interesting".

That applies here also.

I looked through some of the other reviews of this book and I find that in many if not most cases the "number of stars in the rating" depends heavily on whether you agree with the stance of the main character (or one of the main characters, Kenner is the spokesman in most of the narratives but the protagonist is Evans).

Anyway...where was I? Oh, Yeah. The book's story telling isn't bad and while I've read better by Crichton, I've also read worse. I did get involved with the plot and liked the characters fairly well (though Peter did gripe me a bit for a while. The thing is he was supposed to so I really can't complain).

I found the objections raised by several other reviewers to be unfounded, the book is pretty good...and since I largely agree with it, I gave it a bump from 3.5 to 4 stars.

The book itself deals with the global warming controversy. The main character is a lawyer (sorry attorney) working for a large environmental organization. During the course of the book buried (or scattered) amidst the book's plot are dialogs and discussions about said controversy. AND YES the book's point is that much that is assumed about global warming is just that, assumed. While it is the case that if an author wants to make a point and he's writing both sides of a conversation the cards are a bit stacked in his favor, here Crichton does a fairly credible job of offering objections. (though from the other reviews I've read some disagree with me.) I've run on many of the things said here and I've experience situations like the ones pictured in the book. It would have been easy for Crichton to have indulged in Straw Man arguing, mostly he avoids this.

The picture of these debates (and the people who try to prove the unprovable and when they can't mostly refuse to acknowledge reality is real. I know some of them) sets the backdrop for a story of environmental terrorists who set out to engineer environmental disasters. From this they will establish credibility...and get money from donors.

In retrospect I can see why reviewers in sympathy with said position might not care for the book.

So, be aware and if you're basically a global warming zealot maybe you give this one a pass. If on the other hand you think the evidence for human caused global warming may have been somewhat overstated (like Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ivar Giaever who "quit" the America Physics Society over their stance that the evidence was "incontrovertible" with which he "strongly" disagreed) or if you consider yourself to still be undecided, maybe you try the book.

Hey the story's pretty good. The arguments aren't bad (though I see some who disagree with me there...wonder why?) In other words, not a bad read and at times pretty good. There's a nice unusual murder weapon and some satisfying action to go with the debates. Enjoy...if it's your cup of tea.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap. First of all, a good, solid Crichton novel. Second, you will never think about global warming or science in general the same way again... I don't know how much of the information about global warming presented in the book is true, but it sure does make you wonder about a lot of things. What the book is really about is the politicization of science and the manipulation (even if unintentional) of scientific information. And all of this is presented in the form of an exciting, well-told, well-developed story about a young lawyer caught in the middle of a conspiracy concocted by a non-profit environmental organization to draw attention (and thus money) to the issue of global warming. And we think only industry tries to pull the wool over our eyes... Although a work of fiction, it raises some very interesting, and important, questions. Don't miss Crichton's own comments at the end of the novel- especially about eugenics in the U.S.

[Patrick Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

24 Sept. 2017
What an amazing book. A great action thriller by one of the best in the business PLUS dialog based on timely and crucial factual issues of science, politics, economics, psychology and culture. And backing up that dialog are non-fiction footnotes, an appendix and an "Author's Message" listing his particular assessments of the crucial facts and opinion as to what needs to be done. The integration of the fiction and non-fiction in the book was quite unusual but well done.

I enjoyed the twists and turns, mysteries, conflicts, characterizations, and various settings very much. The basic plot line was a little bit over the top, somewhat like other Crichton novels I am familiar with: Prey and Jurassic Park and possibly even Andromeda Strain, though my memories of that were that he only made a few leaps of technology/faith to deliver that otherwise very tight SF nail-biter.

The reaction to this book by folks in the media and Hollywood - that is, the non-reaction - was quite predictable, considering the book's attack on the AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) PC (politically correct) point of view.

I highly recommend this book on both levels - fiction and nonfiction.
I don't agree with the Author on all his points in the story or the Author's Message, but he makes so many good points that are just not known or discussed generally and need to be, that I urge you to give it a shot.

The Appendix is absolutely one of the most important parts of the book and should be major part of the debate on AGW. The fact that it is not, speaks volumes.

----------
Can hardly put this down. Really enjoying it.
Great nonfiction footnotes backing up the dialog on the wild ride story.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Crichton continues to impress with both his story telling and with his researching capabilities. State of Fear, on its surface, is a novel about the global warming debate. But the issues it touches upon go deeper than just whether or not global warming is a phenomenon we should be concerned about.

A particularly cogent theme of the book is the role of politics in shaping scientific research. In particular, Crichton delves into how global warming research is shaped by political agendas (both by opponents and proponents) in calculating, reporting and releasing results. A striking moment in the novel occurs when a leading environmental advocate is willing to fabricate scientific evidence for his cause.

Perhaps one the more enjoyable themes is the hypocrisy of major environmental advocates who rely on faulty research while flying around on private jets and running up enormous energy bills.

In his afterword, Crichton states that he believes global warming is a real concern. State of Fear is meant to push the reader to consider that his or her position on global warming may be based on faulty research and political ideology rather than scientific fact. And that, above all, is a real cause for concern.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

The deck is stacked here. The lefty environmentalists are dimwitted TV actors who nearly rape women who don't desire their advances, or cynical ideologues, if not actual murderers. The climate change denialists are clear-thinking, evidence-admiring McGyvers. When the good guys are being followed by the bad guys, the bad guys are driving Priuses. The characters are puppets who recite talking points. They often refer to climate change (nonchange) graphs, which Crichton inserts in the text. They elucidate the points of books which Crichton includes in his bibliography. In defiance of the thriller genre, this book is not merely tendentious but deeply boring.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, despite being a tree-hugger and one of the main themes of the book being that it questioned the entire concept of global warming. It was a very compelling page-turner, and I think Crichton does an excellent job of conveying the message not that global warming is necessarily false or that there aren't things we could all be doing differently in our lives, but that every news headline (and every study too) should be taken with a grain of salt and the data behind it should be scrutinized more strongly by people in general as well as the media before it becomes dogma. I have also come to the decided conclusion after reading about these people's lives that I would not do well in any extreme situations personally...Antarctic ice shelves, Pacific jungles thick with cannibals & crocodiles...day after Christmas shopping is extreme enough for me...

[Ruth E. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balanced perspective on the issues of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (aka "climate change"), politicized science, romanticized environmentalism, poorly informed decisions, and media bias.

Exciting! Provocative. From the brilliant mind of Michael Crichton, M.D. Like all of his books, he describes scientific concepts, and the new directions they may take, in the context of a dramatic story.

Extensively researched, contains footnotes and a bibliography, including his personal opinions, of books and resources that he read either before or during the writing of his novel. Unfortunately a lot of the sources are from more than ten years ago (brand new at the time Crichton was novelizing), and some of the statistics and data are hard to find. If you persevere in drawing your own conclusions via studying the science (as Crichton hopes), and if you determine to think beyond your usual biases, you will uncover the facts so you can leave behind the fantasy, just as he did. The data is not a secret; it is merely ignored.

Crichton also defends his position in a personal message after the book's conclusion. His reasoning for his position and his hopes for the future are explained in detail. He outlines the scientifically relevant attention we need to give to the environment and real hazards, to remember the past and what we can learn from it, rather than succumb to wasteful computer-calculated regulations based on pseudo-science that give increasing power to elites while inciting poverty and death to human populations.

Prior to reading the novel I had arrived at a similar outlook as Crichton's, which is the skepticism that continues to grow as time reveals the errors of previous decades, but remains far from fashionable. He handled multiple points of view while taking a clear position, which may not be pleasant for many readers. Meaning, you may find Crichton's position to be "unacceptable." As for me, I found it to be refreshing in every way! I highly recommend this book.

http://my-wunderkammer.tumblr.com/ima...

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you enjoy seeing pompous, self-righteous jerks get their rightful comeuppance? Then you will like this book. Dr Crichton delivers his usual competent tour through a scientific realm, mixing a decent amount of action and suspense with actual facts. Global warming zealots are the target here and he hits the bull’s eye, judging from the reaction about this book. The book reads exceptionally fast for all the science and background explanation necessary. For the average person with a little common sense, this story is a great read that will leave you shaking your head as you ponder the far-left fanatics of the environmental movement.

The story revolves around a lawyer and his rich client who donates money and dabbles in the environment advocacy arena. On the other side is the Earth Liberation Force and associated fellow travelers, like the front group “NERF” who seek to control the political agenda. The problem is the science is not working out for the global warmers. So the more radical elements decide to kind of push Mother Nature along with a few “natural” disasters, aided by technology. Some of the selected disasters are more believable than others. They are all timed to reinforce the outcome of a conference on global warming and a “call to action”.

Things pick up at the beginning as a shadowy MIT professor and a friend come into the picture to warn the rich guy off because his money is going to support terrorist activity. The rest of the book is essentially discovering what the terror targets are and trying to stop the attacks. I thought the book was weak in a few areas. Many of the characters are caricatures, the wimpy lawyer, the drunken big-shot Hollywood actor (who has a delicious part), the strong silent government agent, the hyperactive, crazed global warming activists, the ditzy wife of rich LA guy, etc. Frankly, there needed to be more activity by some of the real official organizations charged with investigating and stopping terrorist activities and less freelancing by the hodgepodge team that comes together to stop the bad guys. It would still have made a great story and more realistic.

Global warming advocates are on a religious crusade, faith in rapid heat rise and world collapse replacing the more conventional religious doctrines. This book does great service by giving facts and references to seek out more knowledge on the topic. The idea that the earth’s status was somehow at a perfect temperature state in the recent past and shouldn’t change seems pretty arrogant and childish.

Crichton skewers the people behind the global warming hysteria. The actors with their 15,000 sq. ft. homes, SUV’s, private jets, vacation homes, etc want everyone else to live frugally but not them. As if to punctuate the buffoonery on the enviro side, an article by Andrew Ross Sorkin, published 20 Mar 08, details a gathering of business and political guys to discuss saving the world and getting rich. Google it: “At island retreat, Branson and friends seek to save a world 'on fire' “

[Tippy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Alright, I've waited to review this book long enough. The fact is, I waited so long because I could never find enough hate filled words to accurately describe my opinion of this book. However I don't think I'll ever find them, so here it goes.

A new goodreads friend asked me why I hate Michael Crichton. I decided I'll post my response here as my review:

As for Crichton, well it's kind of a long story. I'll tell you, but I'll understand if you choose to skip it. You'll notice that Jurassic Park and Time Line are still some of my favorite books, but he really lost me with his "State of Fear." It's not just that he is a climate change denier, but more that he completely and totally misrepresents and LIES about science in the process, then claims that he is the only person without an agenda. And even though it is a work of fiction, he makes sure to emphasize that he is writing about the truth in an afterward.

I'll give you a specific example. In State of Fear he calls out a lot of "real" research on climate change. One of the arguments he makes is that climate models are not even close to accurate and then he shows a graph from a peer reviewed publication from several years ago that modeled current climate and was grossly incorrect. Then he basically said "see, climate models are inaccurate." But, if you look at the publication he supposedly took it from, the author had 3 possible climate models-one that shows predicted climate if there was a dramatic decrease in carbon emissions, one, the most likely one, shows predicted climate if there was no change in carbon emissions and one that showed what the climate would look like if there was a dramatic increase in carbon emissions. The author stated that this model was incredibly unlikely. Still, this is the only graph Michael Crichton put in his book, claiming that the author exaggerated the effects of climate change. The most likely graph was actually incredibly accurate.

Further, his entire shitty book is one straw man argument after another, with a ridiculous plot and characters. Every person in his book that believes climate change is happening is a caricature. He has a naive grad student, who learns better once someone explains to her the "truth," a hypocrite actor that preaches for environmental causes but rides in a private jet and has a huge house, a greedy lawyer and environmental groups that profit from the belief in climate change. The characters that don't believe in climate change are suave government agents in nice suits that basically go around and school everyone about how climate change is a farce.

The "plot" is that the environmental groups (terrorists, of course) are going to blow things up (like a piece of Antarctica and glaciers) and create fake tsunamis and such in order to prove that climate change is real so that they can get protection and money from the government. That's right, they are going to destroy the environment and alter the weather so that they can get money and support to stop the destruction of the environment and a changing climate. ????

What finally got me though was his claim that stopping DDT use ended up causing more cases of malaria and implied that Rachael Carson (he never said her name, but you knew who it was) was responsible for the death of thousands of children. This hit home because now he's in MY field. Climate science is not my area of expertise, but biology IS.

As Rachael Carson points out in "Silent Spring" (I noticed it's in your to-read list-yay!) using DDT just selects for DDT resistant mosquitoes, who reproduce and have immunity against our pesticide. Plus, since the chemical kills other animals as well, it kills off the natural predators of the mosquitoes, and since prey items always reproduce faster than their predator counterparts, populations of mosquitoes actually greatly increased in areas where DDT was used after a period of 2-3 years. Rachael Carson cites REAL studies. Not to mention in "The Coming Plague" the author explains in detail the work of scientists in Bolivia, where using DDT killed off the birds of prey and many cats, causing an increase in rat populations that allowed the deadly spread of a hemorrhagic disease.

This type of misinformation is what I'm constantly fighting against on a daily basis (through my job). I have heard many of Crichton's arguments repeated back to me and it drives me insane. I've even heard people talking about it on the bus. Look at the reviews for this book! How many people have been taken in and feel as if they're more informed because they've read it. It's disgusting. What worse is that everything he says has a hint of truth in it. It's believable. It makes sense, on the surface, that ending the use of a pesticide that kills mosquitoes would increase malaria. It's so easy to believe if you don't know more about it.

Anyway, if you doubt anything I just said, just pick up the book. You'll be shocked at what you read. I don't know that you'll be able to stomach it long enough to finish it (I read over 600 pages of it, but stopped 70 pages before the end. I just couldn't go on; it was making me sick.)I don't know what happened to Crichton, but it was an incredible disappointment. I used to like his writing, too. But I can't forgive this pack of lies that has aided in ignorance on such a grand scale.

End of Michael Crichton rant. On to a happier place with better books.

[K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: violence, gore, cannibalism (seriously), car accident, murder. I think that's all, apart from offensive abuse of science.

So this was technically a reread for me. Except that considering I read it the year it came out, I'd forgotten literally everything that happens in the story. And I probably should have known that it would end very badly when my brother saw me grab it off the bookshelf the other day and said "Ooooh, that book is gonna make you REALLY mad..."

He was not wrong.

Here's the thing: the adventure-y side of the story? Was not terrible. It was full of action and creepiness and tension. The characters were...pretty generic, but otherwise fine. And I did manage to make it the whole way through.

HOWEVER.

This book can basically be summed up as "CLIMATE CHANGE IS A LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE". Admittedly, it's 14 years old now, so it's all about global warming. But still. Characters constantly say "I can show you the research" or "I can give you the references" solely so that Crichton can add a footnote providing bibliographic information to some article or other. He claims in the author's note that he spent three years reading environmental and climate change articles and studies.

The whole thing is basically "well meaning rich white people think climate change is real, lemme prove otherwise", and it's kind of exhausting. Like...after the first 200 pages? I GET IT, CRICHTON. YOU DON'T THINK CLIMATE CHANGE IS A THING. JFC. After the remaining 400 pages, I was ready to slam my head into a wall.

Add in the fact that there were random bits of the story that were never explained (Who was the mysterious woman who was talking to George and got pissed off when Sarah turned up? What was the deal with the blue-ringed octopus?? How the hell did George end up in PNG? Why did I have to sit through seven trillion pages of temperature graphs just for the end result that Evans is like "Huh. That seems like pretty conclusive evidence"?? Why did this shit get published in the first place when it's so clearly biased?

In summary: You can fuck right off, Michael Crichton.

[D'Ailleurs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ναι ρε λατρεύω τον Κράιτον! Ενδεχομένως να είναι ο αγαπημένος μου bestsellerάς και τον θεωρώ πολλές κλάσεις ανώτερο από άλλους του είδους. Όχι ότι η πρόζα του είναι πιο εκλεπτυσμένη ή ο ίδιος καταφέρνει να διεισδύσει σε κατηγορία λογοτεχνίας αξιώσεων. Αντίθετα από ξεκάθαρα λογοτεχνική άποψη τα βιβλία του είναι λίγο πιο πάνω από του σκουπίδι: τυπικές περιπέτειες της δεκάρας γεμάτες με στερεοτυπικούς για το είδος χαρακτήρες (οι κακοί είναι κακοί, οι καλοί πολύ καλοί και οι γυναίκες όλες κουκλάρες) ενώ ο κινηματογραφικός ρυθμός διήγησης δεν αφήνει περιθώρια για κάτι παραπάνω.
Παρόλα αυτά ο Κράιτον καταφέρνει σχεδόν σε όλα τα βιβλία του να δημιουργήσει έστω και ένα μικρό προβληματισμό. Η έρευνα που κάνει είναι εκπληκτική, ο ίδιος φαίνεται να φιλτράρει τα δεδομένα με αρκετά επιστημονικό τρόπο, δεν αναπαράγει πληροφορίες μόνο, βάζει τον αναγνώστη να σκεφτεί έστω και λίγο. Ακόμα και τα αστυνομικά του μυθηστορήματα εκπλήσουν με τον όγκο πληροφοριών και το πως αξιοποιούνται όλες αυτές μέσα στην πλοκή.
'Ετσι και εδώ σε αυτό το κινηματογραφικό τεχνοθρίλερ ο Κράιτον δημιουργεί διάφορα διλήμματα σχετικά με την κλιμματική αλλαγή, αμφισβητεί πολλά πράγματα που θεωρούνται δεδομένα και βάζει τον αναγνώστη έστω και λίγο να ψάξει πέντε πράγματα παραπάνω. Δεν ξέρω αν οι απόψεις του είναι ορθές η όχι αλλά σίγουρα είναι εμπεριστατωμένες. Ακόμα και η 20σέλιδη βιβλιογραφία μαζί με τα παραρτήματα με τις απόψεις του συγγραφέα είναι άκρως ενδιαφέροντα.
Σε γενικές γραμμές για όσους θέλουν κάτι παραπάνω από ένα διασκεδαστικό βιβλίο ο Κράιτον είναι ο άνθρωπος τους.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.0 stars. This book was somewhat of a disappointment for me as I have always been a Michael Crichton fan and the premise of the book (radical environmentalists as the bad guys) was intriguing. However, rather than letting the story or the various arguments make the case against "global warming", Crichton just beats the reader over the head with one-sided monologues. I was hoping for a more thoughful, and thus more powerful, expression of the premise. That said, it was an easy read and there were a few decent points. Okay, but not great.

[Miquel Reina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton novels and "State of Fear" isn't an exception. This is a book that you can read very easily because of it has a well written archetypal and blockbuster Hollywood style. If you want to read something entertaining and you love the thrillers that mix science, politics and conspiracy theories then this is your book! ;)

Espanish version:
Soy un gran fan de las novelas de Michael Crichton y "Estado de miedo" no es una excepción. Es un libro que se puede leer muy fácilmente debido a su estilo arquetípico y hollywodiense. Si quieres leer algo entretenido y te encantan los thillers que mezclan la ciencia, la política y las teorías de conspiración, entonces, éste es tu libro! ;)

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was intriguing to me. It is not what I would consider my normal genre, but the student I tutored last year did a report on Michael Crichton and this book was in a lot of the research we did. I had no idea Michael Chrichton was so multi-talented.
Anyway, my husband had listened to this book on CD while driving, and really enjoyed it, so I picked it off the shelf. Once I started reading, I had trouble stopping for food, drink, bathroom breaks, or even sleep. (This is the reason I can only read in the summer.)
State of Fear shows many viewpoints on global warming and the environmental movement. I got a little defensive at the beginning as the data and plotline seemed to go against environmentalists. However, as I read on, I struggled with how much of the book is fact and how much is fiction. The plot got a little over done for me in the end (like a John Wayne movie- every good guy dodging the bullets of machine guns and killing 10 of the bad guys singlehandedly without a weapon), but the book provoked some interesting discussions in my house. In the Author's Notes at the end:
"I have more respect for people who change their views after acquiring new information than for those who cling to views they held thirty years ago. The world changes. Ideologues and zealots don't." I am not sure this book should be anyone's only source of information on this topic, but it might spark your interest enough to have you look elsewhere.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was most definitely not the book for me. I’ve enjoyed other books by Crichton but this one just fell flat for me. I felt like I was reading a science text book and while I do enjoy learning new things when I read, I don’t want to feel like I’m in school being lectured and that’s what reading this book felt like to me. The story got buried beneath all the jargon and it just about bored me to tears!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Beginning with the mysterious death of a wave analyst in France, this book has its moments of action all around the world; though, the main setting is Los Angeles, California in 2004. It also takes place in Antarctica, the Solomon Islands, Iceland, and several other places throughout the world, all the while chasing after the relentlessly evil plot of the eco-terrorist group ELF.
The reason I really enjoyed this book was how you were just dropped in the middle of all the action, then you have to read on in the book to figure out what had just happened. But, this is the kind of book that keeps you guessing most of the time, but still gives you a few hints here and there.
The main plot begins when George Morton, a millionaire philanthropist, and Peter Evans, a junior associate from the law firm of Hassle and Black, arrive in Iceland. Nickolas Drake CEO of NERF (National Environmental Resource Fund) has come to persuade a local glacial geologist to fudge, if not lie outright, on a paper soon to be published.
George starts behaving oddly, to both Sarah (his assistant) and Evans; he goes out on seemingly random trips around the globe, alone. Until one night at the banquet in honor of George, he gets drunk and drives off. Evans and Sarah jump in Georges limousine and take off after him, they round a curve to find a crashed model 1972 365 GTS Daytona Spyder, the same make of Ferrari George was driving.
The story contains a diverse variety of characters; take, for instance, Nick Drake. He is always very melodramatic about anything and everything when it comes to the environment. That is a great contrast to John Kenner; he is part of the government the NSIA, or the National Security Intelligence Agency, “A part of the government that stays under the radar”, or so Kenner says.
I think the characters in the book are very believable, they have character flaws that most people have. This way I can see them as actual people instead of just characters in a book. They’re not the kind of characters that are too good or nice to be true, like little miss Polly Perfect.
I really liked the facts that were in the book, it has the most footnotes of any fiction book I’ve ever read. The references can be tracked down easily and further reading about one subject or another can be easily found.
This book has many strengths but in turn it has some pretty big weaknesses. One of these is the characters, they are so down to earth and seem like you could really get to know them. One such character like this is Peter Evans. He is a young man that has a lot of problems, just like any other person you would meet today. He has an absence of a relationship in his life that he can’t seem to over come, and is ignorant when it comes to the climate and the issue of global warming. According to John Kenner, Peter “is just too misinformed about the issue of global warming”. He doesn’t know much about it and what he has heard is from stand point of, more or less, eco-nazis. One character that goes against this is Nick Drake, he is an ex-litigator that turned into an eco-nut after he retired. He twists and contorts the information given from scientists to make it fit his purposes. Nick is just one of the not-so-original bad guys trying to “help make the world a better place”.
One, if not the only, weakness in this work are its excessive dry spells in the midst of action. One instance is when Evans is forced to keep professor Hoffman company. Hoffman goes on about all that is bad in the world, about how fear is controlling everyone, and while some of it was interesting most of it was very dry. That happened in a few places, but it did help explain a few things so it may have been a good thing, it was just very dry.
The theme of this book, I believe is that, things are not always what you are led to believe. Take the topics of global warming and climate change, they are found prevalently in the media and are almost screamed by some scientists. But, this book raises quite a few good points and provides a good view from the other side of the mirror. It’s not a book for people that think the world is going to end due to global warming for the simple reason that they will only gawk at it and deny all of the references and footnotes.
In closing I would I would like to say that I loved the book, it was a good eye opener that there are more than enough data disproving global warming. It was just refreshing to see where other people stand on that issue in a way that hasn’t been ran into the ground thousands of times.

Genre: Realistic Fiction/Eco-Fiction
Page count: 567

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not quite what I expected. I mean it's all there in the plot summary: environmental extremists are running around the globe trying to cause or amplify "natural" disasters. Peter Evans, lawyer for billionaire and environmental enthusiast George Morton, is unwittingly sucked into the race to expose the bad guys and foil their plans.

Usually climate fiction strives to warn people of the dangers of global warming. I read Kim Stanley Robinson's, New York 2140 this year, which imagined a New York underwater. In Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, the world outside the walls of a Navajo reservation is drowned in rising tides.

Crichton, interestingly enough, argues not that there is no such thing, but that it doesn't pose the dangers we think it does, and that even if it does, we have no idea how much of global warming is caused by human behavior and how much of it is caused by natural climate cycles. The media has put the civilized world into a "State of Fear" based on random, targeted, singular research studies, conducted perhaps by scientists whose funds are granted via organizations who have a stake in global warming.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree here, but I do think his argument is one worth examining. It is worth noting his bibliography is 27 pages long. 27 pages. In the author's note he claims he studied climatology for three years. He has footnotes, charts and graphs littered through out the text. Having read the book, it's really hard to just ignore that. Clearly- he knew more about the topic than I did.

As for the book itself- I won't lie. The plot felt pretty ludicrous, almost to the point of being comical. Poor Peter Evans is caught in life or death moments every five chapters. But it was a fun thrill ride, and the settings were awesome. We get to see the jungles of New Guinea, the desolate landscape of Antarctica, the majestic Sequoia forests of California. The conspiracy isn't exactly twisty turny. The one twist there is you do sort of see coming.

The characters were great. I have a lot of respect for the way Crichton wrote the women in his novels. I mean... I haven't by any means read all his work, but The Lost World gave us Sarah Harding, and here we get Jennifer Haynes and Sarah Jones. Neither ever plays the damsel in distress role, and spend a good deal of time being braver than the men. I absolutely love that about his female characters.

It wasn't a full five star read for me- I did think it was a little slow in places, too caught up in the details, and the ending was mildly unsatisfying. An epilogue would have fixed the ending right up.

I definitely recommend this for fans of Crichton, or anyone interested in climatology.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"So what [we:] need is to structure the information so that whatever kind of weather occurs, it always confirms your message. That's the virtue of shifting the focus to abrupt climate change. It enables [us:] to use everything that happens. There will always be floods, and freezing storms, and cyclones, and hurricanes. These events will always get airtime. And in every instance, [we:] can claim it is an example of global warming. So the message gets reinforced. The urgency is increased."

This from a PR person in the book that works for a large and mainstream environmentalist group. But it could have been spoken by any of the ideologues of the movement as they switch from just global warming to climate change, and try to capitalize on every disaster as a reason for their existence.

As I mentioned in one of my updates, this is my first try at a Michael Crichton book and I found it well-informed and fast-paced. The plot is plausible enough (at least until the end) and serves as a rebuttal to the claims of the power hungry environmentalist crowd. It is his case for skepticism on global warming in fictional form.

A key graph:

"Has it occurred to you how astonishing the culture of Western society really is? Industrialized nations provide their citizens with unprecedented safety, health, and comfort. Average life spans increased fifty percent in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear. They are afraid of strangers, of disease, of crime, of the environment. They are afraid of the homes they live in, the food they eat, the technology that surrounds them. They are in a particular panic over the things they can't even see--germs, chemicals, additives, pollutants. They are timid, nervous, fretful, and depressed. And even more amazingly, they are convinced that the environment of the entire plant is being destroyed around them. Remarkable!"