My Monthly Post
Movie Event
Your Comments
Polychrome Interest
A LarcMuseHolic, Cillianiac, Onepiece-Addict, Bookworm, Moviegoer and Turtle-lover Blog
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Posted by on January 11, 2013
Is it a science text book or a novel?
Out of all Crichton’s books I have read, state of fear id the one that feels so much like reading a science text book. There are TOO many scientific explanation involved in the story. I do believe that the long explanation can make people bored with the book but NOT ME though…I always enjoy reading all the scientific insert that Crichton wrote in ALL his books, it’s like reading a science text book in a fun way.
The story begins with some people stealing a machine that can create big wave. Then it moved to a man trying to set a deal to buy cavitation unit. The last epilogue is when a man bought half a million feet of wire. These three events connected to what would happen next in the plot.
George Morton was a very rich man who loved to support environmental organizations. NERF is one of the organizations where he shared his money the most. He trusted the man who controlled NERF, Nick Drake. But one phone call made him distrust Drake. He only trusted his lawyer, Peter Evans, and his assistant, Sarah Jones.
When Morton met John Kenner and Sanjong Thapa, he started behaving unlike himself. His unusual behaviour led him to a fatal accident that caused his life. But the story didn’t stop there. Kenner asked Evans and Jones to follow him stopping events that will lead to some kind of natural disasters, but there’s nothing natural about them because the disasters were caused by extreme environmental activists.
Basically, the plot is about stopping disasters that will cause a lot of people’s life. But what makes the book more interesting for me is the facts connected to environmental which Crichton shared to support his story. John Kenner (one of the main characters in the story) kept saying that global warming is not a threat at all. There is no evident that can support the fact that CO2 and global temperature are rising. There is no abrupt climate change at all. He didn’t say it without facts, he provided many fact and charts.
“The threat of global warming is essentially nonexistent. Even if it were a real phenomenon, it would probably result in a net benefit to most of the world.”
page 407
Michael Crichton always makes me amaze with all his scientific facts, he never tells a story without facts. I always wonder how long does it take for him to research all the data before he finishes his book.
However, I know that Crichton’s style of writing can easily bored people who don’t like science. He chooses a risky genre, in my opinion. I don’t know whether I have shared it here in my blog or not, Crichton’s The Lost Word was my first English novel…can you imagine the difficulty I faced at that time? My first non-native novel is so full of extinction theories and facts on dinosaurs (@.@)
State of Fear is not his best book, in my opinion. The suspense in this book is not as thrilling as his other books. I also think that there are too many coincidences and there are moments where I feel like Crichton is forcing them to be all happy and merry. I think he can do better than that.
Anyway, I look forward to another Crichton’s book 
he is the only author who can make me enjoy a story and gain knowledge at the same time.
Book Details:
Title: State of Fear
Author: Michael Crichton
Language: English
Pages: 603 pages (including bibliography)
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Rating: 
10 Responses to State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Would love to read what you think about this post :)
Books featuring a bit of my writing :)
My Turtle’s Blog
- 3rd Blogoversary: A Thank You Post xoxoWhoaaa….our blog is now 3 year old!!! Who would have thought we could keep this up for that long and hoping we will still continue it for many years to come Within a year, we have many things to be proud of and to be grateful of We are in the Mischief Master Class, a […]
Celoteh Siswa
- Squidward = Anggota TanjidorKmren mrd g kelar blajar PLBJ bab Tanjidor Murid: ‘Bu, brarti si Squidward itu membantu kebudayaan Jakarta ya bu?’ Guru: ‘Hah?’ Murid: ‘Kan dia pniup klarinet, dia anggota Tanjidor kan???’ Guru: ‘ahyaterserahkamudeh…….’ *mecahin bisul di muka spongebob* Dicopy dari Status Ajeng Puri Palupi.
Goodreads
No data found
Don’t Steal my Content!
This work by Novroz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Excellent review, Novia! I think I’d enjoy the attention to scientific detail, too. I’ve never read anything by this author, though I’ve always heard great things about his books. I should rectify that soon.
Thank you Steph
If you like science, you should really try reading his book. All I have read always contain interesting scientific fact.
Your first English book–that does sound like a difficult task to take on. I have’t read much Crichton–did he write Jurassic Park? If so, that’s the one I read.
I know….it was REALLY difficult. yup Jurassic Park was his, my first English book was the sequel of Jurassic Park and it has more science fact than Jurassic park. Lucky I discover Stephen King first (at that time it was in Indonesian), otherwise I might have made Crichton my number one fav author. I love all the facts he put in his books
Did he write Congo? If so, I thought that was very well done but I’m not sure I would enjoy this.
I wonder if you would like Schätzing’s “The Swarm”. He did a lot of research. Some found it boring, I thought it was amazing.
Yes, that’s his book. I love the bits of ape and monkey he had written in that book.
I have never heard of that book before…but I can understand when people get bored with too much science in a book. What is that book about?
The world – or rather nature – goes crazy and seesm to revolt against humanity. there is a lot of marine biology in it, and on earthquakes and volcanoes. A terrific ending.
I gotta wonder about his facts with respect to global warming. Although from where I’m sitting right now, there’s no warming going on at all. But there is a lot of climate destabilization, which is much worse.
I also wondered about that…but he did give reference to all the research by real scientist. He also mentioned that it is up to you readers which one you want to believe, he has given the fact not simply from his imagination but from real scientist.
That doesn’t surprise me. Science isn’t this big, monolithic thing that text books would have you believe. There is always research that contradicts other research. That’s why the professional journals work the way they do.