State of Fear

After a long time I got an oppurtunity to read a Michael Crichton book. I became a fan of Crichton after his famous Jurassick Park. I enjoyed his book Prey, Andromda strain, The Lost world, Eaters of the Dead, Rising sun, Congo, Sphere. I didnt like Timeline.

This book State of Fear was involved in controversies for the subject that was used. This book talks about Global warming. As a fiction the book failed to generate interest as the other books I mentioned above. I have a feeling when writing this book Crichton was thinking about making this into a motion picture so the book looks more like a screenplay than a novel.

The book has a very thin plot but goes all aroung the world. The characters are very shallow. For a book of 600 pages we expect some interesting characters which the book fails to create.

As a book which makes us think, this book does succeed. As always Crichton puts across points with references which points out that Global warming is not such a threat as it is claimed today. I did learn lot of interesting facts from this book. Crichton takes a hard stand against people who talk for global warming and are not willing to change their mindset. One example is a chatacter in the book who believes strongly in Global warming is eaten alive by Cannibals. This is a judgement given by Crichton and he accepts that in the appendix.

This book if made into a motion picture wont recover its costs. None of the scenes depicted by Crichton makes us sit on the seat edge. There is absolutely no suspense in scenes where Crichton expects us to be surprised.

Except for the quotes and arguments Crichton gives in this book, this book is not good in entertainment.