Review of "Prey" by Michael Crichton

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PREY ★★★★★

by Michael Crichton

"If they were all concerned, why didn't they do something about it? But of course that's human nature. Nobody does anything until its too late."

Whoa. That was such an incredibly amazing read, I don't know what to say. Trust Crichton to make you read a book in one sitting. The longest will most probably take you two days. Most of his books (and I've read quite a lot of him already) I read in only a span of less than a day because it was just so damn hard to put them down.

For the first ten pages, Michael Crichton already got me hooked. He had this amazing skill of being able to transport you at once to the world of his characters, and this being a first-person narration, it made everything all the more powerful. As far as I know, he had never employed family ties as an important element in a story; at least, not like in Prey. It started out as a seemingly trivial episode of Jack's life as he tried to perform his daily activities as a "househusband". Then there was the usual dilemmas family encountered - siblings quarreling, misunderstanding between the couple, and so on. It was a nice change, since Crichton usually made his introduction dramatic and climactic. This time, he was trying to make everything mundane and let us have a feel first of the world the narrator lived in. And the thing is, it was very realistically portrayed, so much so that you'd think only someone who had firsthand experience of familial problems would manage to pull off something like that.

You couldn't complain about the suspense, either, because you'll be getting all the thrill you can possibly want. The whole time I had a difficult time forcing myself not to look at the bottom of the page to know what would happen to the characters.

"We looked at the world around us as a snapshot when it was really a movie, constantly changing. If course we knew it was changing, but we behaved as if it wasn't. We denied the reality of change. So change always surprised us."

I consider Michael Crichton at his best when he wrote about science, especially biology, his expertise. In fact, I'd admit he was one of my inspirations because he proved that science and creative writing could come together. Anyway, usually, I preferred it when he wrote in third-person limited, but I suppose Prey is an exception. The fact that the events could only be seen through the eyes of one person made everything more thrilling; and in the context of this story, it worked well.

Honestly, I can't find anything wrong with this novel. It wasn't too technical, as compared to the others. The details were being discussed in a conversational way that I didn't feel bored. And trust me when I say I really learned a lot of stuff while I was reading this.

I liked the characters because they were believable (not necessarily because they were likable), and I had witnessed their development, despite the short span of time. Although I'd admit, Jack also has one of the faults I found in Crichton's other characters: he was too heroic and brave, to the point of stupidity. But maybe that's what made him human.

Another comment is that some things were predictable. The moment Ricky appeared, I immediately knew that he might be the guy Jack's wife was having an affair with. And although it seemed to be true, Crichton used that seemingly disadvantage to weave something that was entirely unexpected. And because he still managed to impress me, I maintained the five-stars I was intending to give.

Classic Crichton. What more could I say? Definitely something I'd recommend to someone who hadn't read anything yet from this author. It really isn't surprising why this guy is one of my favorite writers of all time.