Over the holiday, my friend George Savage and I both devoured Michael Crichton’s new novel, State of Fear. Below, George’s mini-review (in which, for what it’s worth, yours truly concurs).
The characters are thinly drawn.
Standard Crichton
The inventions are preposterous.
For example, an electronic circuit that effectively turns a thunderstorm into a targeted death-ray generator? C’mon. Why not generate non-polluting, renewable thunderstorm power with this device and have the characters all go home?
Too many medical miracles.
Crichton thrillers always feature a small band engaged in a race against time, but this time the resilience of our heroes is unbelievable. For example, Sarah and Evan are nearly frozen in Antarctica but back in action within hours. Evan is paralyzed and nearly dies, only to attend a conference the next day. Most incredibly, Sarah survives cardiac arrest and isn’t even kept in hospital overnight.
Redemption
Yes, it’s a crummy novel but, as a public service, the book is fantastic. Thanks to Crichton, millions of members of the general public are going to learn their first-ever facts about “global warming.” This is only possible because the key data are presented within the context of an entertaining story. As a bonus, Crichton, in Appendix I, picks apart the eugenics movement and appropriately cites Margaret Sanger for opprobrium. (Unfortunately, he omits describing her founding role in Planned Parenthood and the abortion movement generally. But I suppose you can’t have everything.)