Prey by Michael CrichtonMy rating: 5 of 10 stars
It was an interesting read about something that goes beyond my capacity. The all idea of Artificial Intelligence plus nanoparticles made by cells, bacteria and such are completely unknown to me. Of course I can get the grasp of it BUT the idea behind is really strange.
The book itself is very fast paced which made me read in only one week BUT at times it was a bit boring and predictable. What I don't enjoy in most "normal" books is that it ends always with a good note... it seems the writers (specially Crichton) can't envision a loose end.
Basically the story is this. A man (Computer kind of guy) is unemployed and keeps at the house taking care of 3 children. Meanwhile is wife works at the company where they are making a breakthrough. In 6 days (that's the length of the time-frame of the novel) the wife becomes more and more stuck at work, begins to be a bad wife and mother. After getting an accident (the wife), the man is hired as off-guy to try to help where the wife works. He then discovers they were doing some high-tech stuff that went out of the window and they created a IA life micro-organism that moves like a swarm using some software the man created some months, years before.
There were some fighting and very informative ideas thrown around and the man and newfound woman (a ex-college) find out that IA as evolved so far that had taken control of several people (including his wife and one of his best friends - to whom his wife was cheating with (I don't know if this phrase is written in the correct form...)
In the end the man and the new-found woman defeated the IA and return home.
Well, while I appreciate and enjoy the pace of the novel (I even learn some things) I couldn't care less for the end of the novel. The depiction of the wife; the treason and then the happy ending.
In 6 days the man has to endure his wife new "way"; learns that his wife is cheating on him; he saves the world, gets the new girl and their children are happy because their mother is gone... not hurting or anything like that (she was working hard and had less time to be at home... - that's a new reality guys Mr Author) - this last part is not told but the way the book ends really sure looks like it...
I don't like characters that are either "LIGHT" or "DARK". There is no grey... Most people are Grey. Very few are Light or Dark. In novels, strangely in thrillers, there are a lof of "perfect" characters where they sick my heart out. I would enjoy more if the characters weren't made so "perfect". That's why I like Walking Dead or Warhammer 40K novels.
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