Anyone read Michael Crichton's "State of Fear"?

Question

What are your thoughts? I felt more like I was reading a text book than a novel. If he had put any more scientific crap in there I think I would have fell over from boredom. I finally stopped reading the scientific crap. Once I start a book I try to finish no matter how bad it is. I read until he went into one of his ten page spills about nothing and then skipped ahead until he got back to the story line.

Answer 1

The good part of the book was the scientific stuff. Crichton's extensive research into the global warming "fear" was really what the book was about. Not the goofy fictionalized characters. Everyone should read that book.

Answer 2

I thought it was a neat book too. True there wasn't as much action as some of his other books, but I don't think that was his point. I believe he is showing how you can use science and selective evidence to prove anything. In one part they are showing temperature graphs in several different places over the course of a hundred years or so. In some the temperature went up, in some it went down, and in others it stayed the same. If you are trying to prove global warming you only show the first group, if you are trying to disprove it you only show the second group. That is what people do for just about any argument.

I bet I could show you evidence that living in a city that start with a vowel will put you at greater risk of cancer. I simply look at cancer rates for a bunch of different cities, select ones that start with vowel and have a high cancer rate, and compare them to ones the don't start with vowels and have low cancer rates. It sounds stupid, but I bet if I hid the idea that they were chosen based on what letter each city started with people would look at the difference in the percentages and decide that I had found some important cause of cancer. Sounds like a good idea for someone's science fair.

I don't remember all the details in the book (it's been awhile since I read it) but I do remember that that was one of the things that I found really . . . curious. So yeah, I would agree that he is trying to show how people can be easily stirred up to fear anything with only a little push. (Shoot, I better warn my friends that live in Atlanta and Indianapolis.)