Review: State of Fear (crichton)

[Pyser]

i've been meaning to post about this book (and hopefully not get into an argument about global warming).

i finished it a while ago....and i've read every single book crichton has ever written.

This may have been his worst.

It was just plain sloppy. So much didn't add up or fit in right.

SPOILERS:































First off, what was the deal with the physist or scientist or whoever that was killed? so, he worked in a wave research place. big deal. was he killed just so they could run tests on his equipment? it was never explained, or come back to.

for that matter, the girl and her arguing football boyfriend...whats up with them? i get that they go around killing people with this routine. and they tried to kill....um....i forget who. morton maybe? at the outdoor cafe in LA. and then they are gone. never heard from again.

also, there is a love triangle set up. we go through a great many references to how conflicted the main character is between the 2 women, who he alternatingly likes. then the book ends. its never resolved.

i dont know if im too familiar with crichtons style, but i never thought for a second the rich guy was dead. not for a second. in fact, crichton pulled this EXACT stunt in "rising sun".










END SPOILER





there was more that stuck out to me that im just simply forgetting. all in all, not his best. i dont even think there is a film in it, really (which isnt a bad thing. im not a huge fan of people writing with a movie in mind already).

for as long as the book was, i just thought it was sloppily tied up. anyone else?

[Pyser]

anyone else read it?

[Desnudo]

I was going to wait for it to come out in paperback. If it's a movie script, maybe I'll just wait for the movie instead.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Pyser

anyone else read it?

I'm going to read it when I can get it from the library or when it comes out on paperback if I never get around to it Crichton has long been my favorite author but Prey was very disappointing to me, I am hoping this will be better.

[Dutch]

It's on my nightstand....but I haven't read it.

[Pyser]

bump.

now that the other state of fear thread is going strong, i was wondering if anyone shared my views on the book.

[Draft Dodger]

as my sig says, I'm reading it now, so I skipped over your review.

I'm a big Crichton fan, and generally his books tend to completely suck me in and I can't wait to finish. This one's a chore so far, and I'm well over halfway into it. I have a lot of issues with it...but I'll hold off until I'm finished to post.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

as my sig says, I'm reading it now, so I skipped over your review.

I'm a big Crichton fan, and generally his books tend to completely suck me in and I can't wait to finish. This one's a chore so far, and I'm well over halfway into it. I have a lot of issues with it...but I'll hold off until I'm finished to post.

I am just starting the second section of the book... usually i read a Crichton book in a night or two, this has taken weeks to get this far, i haven't been sucked in yet either.

[gstelmack]

I will agree that it is a poor example of his usual fiction writing.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Pyser

First off, what was the deal with the physist or scientist or whoever that was killed? so, he worked in a wave research place. big deal. was he killed just so they could run tests on his equipment? it was never explained, or come back to.

Didn't think about it until you said it. You're right, why kill him?

Originally Posted by Pyser

for that matter, the girl and her arguing football boyfriend...whats up with them? i get that they go around killing people with this routine. and they tried to kill....um....i forget who. morton maybe? at the outdoor cafe in LA. and then they are gone. never heard from again.

I thought they were hired to kill people. Why so elaborate? I don't know.

Originally Posted by Pyser

also, there is a love triangle set up. we go through a great many references to how conflicted the main character is between the 2 women, who he alternatingly likes. then the book ends. its never resolved.

I agree completely. If I had to write the end of the book, he ends up with both of them....at the same time.

Originally Posted by Psyer

ithere was more that stuck out to me that im just simply forgetting. all in all, not his best. i dont even think there is a film in it, really (which isnt a bad thing. im not a huge fan of people writing with a movie in mind already).
for as long as the book was, i just thought it was sloppily tied up. anyone else?

I agree with this as well. It ended rather suddenly. It was still an entertaining read (partially because I dislike treehuggers), but there were a lot of flaws in it. I'd give it a C.

[Draft Dodger]

well, finished tonight, and was pretty disappointed. Crichton is one of my favorite authors, so this was quite a letdown.

So many things wrong with it - not the least of which was a story that was beyond implausible. Most of the dialogue seemed to exist to reveal Crichton's research - it felt like I was reading a textbook. It also didn't help that I didn't like most of the characters - Evans was kind of a whiny bitch, and Kenner and Jennifer were like these know-it-all dicks who looked down on everyone else. Had a hard time rooting for any of them.


*Spoilers*




I agree with all of Pysers criticisms (I mean, come on, were we REALLY not supposed to know that Morton was dead), and have a few of my own.

-like, what's the story of this Jennifer chick, who's a lawyer...but seemed to be trained like some sort of gov't agent. and yeah, the whole love triangle thing that went nowhere was kind of strange - why bother?
-and WHY use Evans? how realistic is it to think that a lawyer for a huge firm is going to up and go on a global scavenger hunt to track down the terrorists. it's not like he had any particular SKILL to do that. they kept hinting that Morton/Kenner "needed" Evans...but they would have been better served to just leave him in LA doing lawyer stuff.
- Kenner & Sanjong seem to pull all sorts of strings to cut red tape...but can't arrange to get a couple spare CIA agents to help, so that they don't need to rely on civilians like Morton, Evans and Sarah (and Jennifer...if she is what she is). For that matter, why would Morton be the one to send to a remote jungle location to spy on the operation...and how is it that this Beverly Hills jetsetter manages to survive 2 weeks in the jungle without getting caught/killed?
-and, why do Kenner need Morton to provide the information (in code, no less) to where the catastrophes are going to be? Morton's collection of private detectives is better than Kenner's resources? We see Sanjong get all sorts of information with his PC, but they need Morton to give them the initial start?
-why introduce the Ann character to follow around Sarah, only to have her disappear after a chapter or two? or the cop that's after Evans and then totally disappears?

I like what Crichton was trying to do - it gave me some food for thought. but, as a book, it was pretty much crap.

[Ryche]

Just finished reading this myself and I pretty much echo the previous sentiments. Not an impressive read definitely not as good as the previous two of his I have read (Great Train Robbery and Thirteenth Warrior).

My biggest huh? in the book is the whole tidal wave thing. Why exactly was a tidal wave which has absolutely nothing to do with weather going to be used to prove the impact of global warming?