An outing to an estate sale yesterday resulted in the purchase of four books, among them Michael Crichton’s Prey. It was so good that I read through the entire thing yesterday and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
As I was starting it, though, I couldn’t help but wonder which Michael Crichton wrote this book. It sounds like an odd question, but it’s funny because it seems as though he will write in one of two distinct styles. The first, seen in books like Disclosure, Airframe, or A Case of Need, is one in which the scenarios are totally possible and grounded in real life. They are things that could happen in our current society and probably do happen. They are suspenseful but could easily sit in the non-fiction section with minimal changes.
The other Michael Crichton is something of a sci-fi writer, evidenced by books such as Jurassic Park, Timeline, orSphere, all of which were made into movies. These are much more fictional scenarios, at least at this point in time. We haven’t yet cloned dinosaurs, traveled to a parallel universe, or discovered a spaceship from the future under the sea, but they are admittedly things that *could* be scientifically possible. That’s where Prey fits in as well – I guess you’d classify that and all of these as near-future sci-fi movies, because unlike I, Robot or Minority Report the world is exactly as it is now and the only thing that prevents these events from unfolding is that we don’t have the specific technology.
What’s really impressive though, is that for me both of the Crichtons’ styles are equally enjoyable. As a matter of fact, it’s almost more interesting to see how the real-world scenarios unfold because they have to remain grounded in reality.
You’ll also notice at the right I’ve debuted the “Intake” section, listing recent media consumption.