Review: Prey

Bio-techno-thriller involving "nano-technology" or "molecular circuitry". A software company develops and employs a mechanism to build medical "equipment" in the form of self organizing molecules. The objective is to have these tiny little molecular circuits organize into clumps to perform operations previously impossible because of the bulk of the equipment. For instance, this "swarm" can become a camera small enough to flow in the blood stream down to the capillary level and "transmit" back the images. The "self organizing" nature of the particles was necessary and beneficial to overcome some manufacturing problems and problems in practice. However, it was also a form of evolution and soon got out of hand and would loose sight of its programmed objective.

Like much from Crichton since, the beginning, actually, this is another "warning" to the general population in the form of a thriller. It warns of the evils of unchecked bio-research. But this time, it seemed to me, to be way outside plausible. I don't mean that the story was too incredible to sustain the suspense. I mean it was more like yellow journalism than the forecasting of real or nearby threat. A good majority of the problem in the story was the technology evolved way to fast for people to react to it. True, the swarms it did have a sort lifespan and quite prolific, which lends itself to evolutionary "progress". However, one of the tenets of evolution (and a fundamental one) is that changes in individuals must give it an advantage to survive long enough to procreate. Further, without this advantage, individuals will have problems reaching maturity or procreating once there. For a trait to become dominate within a population, it must be past on and most of those that do have the trait have to survive long enough to pass it on. If both those, with and with out this trait, make it to maturity, the next generation will have the same mix and the evolutionary "enhancement" isn't necessarily any more present than before. It appeared that Crichton was ignoring this part. In this story, it seemed that things were "evolving" within a single lifetime and this learned experienced was passed on.

Aside from that, it is a fun read and if you just accept the technology and the explanations provided, it maintains the plausibility and suspense level.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jeff Kreider - RAM

Book Review: Prey