State of Fear

 

   

    Hello everyone, I'm back at it with another sci-fi review! Last month, I read State of Fear, by Michael Crichton.

    The book begins mysteriously, with environmental researchers calmly studying when a beautiful visitor comes and takes interest in their work. This visitor goes on to kill one of the researchers, sparking outrage in various environmental organizations. Meanwhile, Chris Evans, lawyer of the millionaire, philanthropist, and environmentalist George Morton, gets caught up in a high-stakes plot to bring attention to climate change and to subvert anti-environmentalist political agendas. 

    Let me clarify- the book's heroes are environmentalists that originally get caught in a lawsuit debating the validity of certain environmental claims and actions. As the book goes on, they encounter the plans of eco-terrorists, people who kill others to bring attention to climate change. As I read, I grew annoyed by many of the characters, spouting information I knew was outdated or incorrect. Normally, I'd ignore the details and move on, but this book revolves around the presented "facts" that undermine many of the commonly held principals of climate science today.

    By the end of the book, I wasn't interested anymore, for multiple reasons. The "science" just didn't interest me, and the story became increasingly scattered and random as it went on, undermining any sense of cohesion. In my opinion, this book wasn't "Edge-of-your-seat storytelling," but rather a jumbled collection of scenes and jargon. 

    State of Fear clearly criticizes climate science, and expresses Crichton's concern over global warming being a fad or a trend propagated as part of some elaborate political scheme. His point is to separate climate science with politics, which I think is important in the opposite way of Crichton. Especially after writing my group's "Environmentalist Manifesto" (much of which was obviously satire, we don't actually think wind power should go to hell), I really think Crichton blurred the line of fictional exaggeration in this book.

    Overall, I'm disappointed by him in this book, but still wholeheartedly recommend Prey to anyone who still appreciates gripping sci-fi. Thanks for reading!

-Sam