Michael Crichton is a great pick it up and read it any where kind of writer - to me anyway. I know he did a lot of research for many of his books and he seems to write like he knows what he is talking about. However, in this book he got too political and totally missed the mark - at least as far as the science goes.
Plot
Eco-Terrorists are to blame for global warming and the "fear" of climate change. Climate change, according to the world of State of Fear are a big business, a business of raising funds for climate change supporters who are basically ripping off Government and well meaning philanthropic mega rich.
While for most of Crichton's books I can look aside from the "science for the stories sake" in this book it was too hard to not get the political agenda. Crichton clearly manipulated real scientific data to suit the needs of his story - which if you read the Wikipedia article - upset some leading scientists who's work was mentioned in the book.
Leaving aside my personal views on climate change and natural preservation, the story is fast paced and has some thriller aspects when you don't know who to trust and what the "truth" really is. Crichton is a very easy read, in that the story takes you along you don't have to fight it, and he does create some good characters and situations.
All and all I feel that this book was let down by the politics of the topic - if you replaced the core idea with something (hell anything) else I think the story would have benefited.
2.5/5
1 comment:
A shame it didn't work for you, thanks for sharing your review!
Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out
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