Michael Crichton's Prey

While attending a lecture at the University of Michigan on dendrimers and advances toward curing cancer (also see PEBBLEs ), I was introduced to Michael Crichton's Prey. I figured if it were in a scientific talk, I should see what the book was all about.

A Summary:
The story revolves around a character that is a stay at home Dad who recently lost his job. However, his wife is working at a company developing nanotechnology. She starts acting strange and the next thing you know the story is in the desert with the main character killing swarms of nanocritters. The plot thickens further when you realize the swarms envelope people and basically control them (maybe that is the highest example of everyday nanotechnology!). Thus, eliminating the desert swarms was not the end of it. All-in-all, some people die, there is a large explosion, a helicopter flies away, and the story is over.

The Good:
My favorite part of the book was the introduction. It seemed that Crichton had a good handle on nanotechnology. He gave some nice statistics and a good overview. The book was an easy (and enjoyable) read that will make a nice movie.

The Bad:
At a couple points in the read, I felt like Crichton had actually written the book to be a good movie rather than a good book. I read somewhere online that he had sold the movie rights to the book for 10 million before he had even written it. Thus, contributing to the fact that the book seemed a pre-planned movie.

I had trouble accepting the science he put forth. There are even a couple points where his size scales are off. Being a scientist, I can't help but notice these types of errors. But - as when watching a scifi film - you sometimes have to turn off your science brain.

The book spins nano in a negative way.

Overall View:
Weak on the science. Strong on the story. Read the intro!