"I have a ringing in my ears, which is a bad sign. And I feel a vibrating in my chest and abdomen. The baby is spitting up, not really vomiting. I am feeling dizzy. I hope I don't lose consciousness. The kids need me, especially the little one. They're frightened. I don't blame them. I am too." (Crichton, Prologue)
"At first, it was hard to understand what I was seeing--it looked like an enormous glowing octopus rising above me, with glinting, faceted arms extending outward in all directions,, throwing complex reflections and bands of color onto the outer walls." (Crichton p.130) "They didn't understand what they were doing. I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race. I hope it's not. We might get lucky." (Crichton p.364) |
Published: November 25th, 2002
Prey by Michael Crichton is a spectacular science-fiction novel for anyone intrigued by the possibility of technology that could endanger the lives of humanity. Through every passing page there are a set of new surprises, plot twists, and cliffhangers awaiting the reader. The story creates a unique atmosphere of tension, and manages to create situations that seem unsolvable, but yet continues to break through. Though some elements may appear to be confusing, the author does an excellent job with visualizing the environment and explains ideas to where almost anyone could understand. Michael Crichton puts nano science, programming theory, and much more on a level that is easily understandable. I personally enjoyed the amount of suspense that is present throughout this story, as well as the types of technology represented in this book (especially given the time that it was written). I had originally selected this book because I found its summary to be quite intriguing, as well as the fact that I knew that Michael Crichton has written other well-reviewed books as well. It is a book that I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in science-fiction novels, or those who are simply looking for a genuinely intriguing and suspenseful read.
About the Author
Born - October 23rd, 1942; Chicago, Illinois
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|\\SPOILERS BELOW//|
Meta-cognitive Reader
"I have ringing in my ears, which is a bad sign. And I feel a vibrating in my chest and abdomen. The baby is spitting up, not really vomiting. I am feeling dizzy. I hope I don't lose consciousness. The kids need me, especially the little one. They're frightened. I don't blame them.
I am, too." (Crichton, Prologue Paragraph 4)
I was given a false preconception upon reading the prologue. The wording made it seem like everything was coming to shambles; I was under the intention that the main character and his family were dying from some source. I surmised that this event would occur towards the end of the book given its nature, but I had no true idea of what exactly would end up happening--nor did I know how it would have come to that in the first place until I read on. This was one of the many ways that the author manipulates the story. The background of the main character, Jack Forman, is decently interesting. He used to be a team lead manager at a company called MediaTronics which worked to develop multi-agent systems. One of the programs referenced throughout the book is his creation called "PREDPREY" which allows digital micro-agents to take on the characteristics of a predator, and for it to follow its defined goals as such. When the book began, Jack is no longer working and is essentially a stay-at-home dad. Jack's wife, Julia Forman, is the vice president of Xymos Technology. Their job status shifts the stereotypical roles for a husband and wife; Jack is the one who is taking care of the kids, while Julia is working. Julia works a lot of hours, and as the story begins to progress she disappears for longer amounts of time. This is what first built suspicion in the story, and eventually let Jack to his future investigation of the whole operation at the Xymos fabrication facility in the middle of the Great Basin Desert. There were of course a few other things that inspired curiosity and suspicion before he leaves the house, such as when his baby all of a sudden gets a mysterious rash and painful condition without any fever, only for it to be seemingly cured by going through an MRI (which is explained towards the end of the book). Also, various occurrences such as finding a strange box under the baby's bed, Jack's son Eric saying that he saw strange men walking about the house at night, Jack seeing a lurid man in Julia's car, and many other things. Each event seemed to build on another, and the occurrences grew in their severity over time. This is what made me want to keep reading, as I wanted to know what was causing all of these strange things.
The events get much more intriguing upon Jack's arrival at the Xymos fabrication plant. The whole building struck my interest. The buildings were described as being "[...] interlocked, featureless concrete blocks, all whitewashed". This description made me think of it as something like a biological hazard research facility, or some other kind of technologically advanced building. I became even more intrigued by this facility upon learning about the things that lay inside the oddly white walls. As Jack walked into the decontamination chamber, a burly maintenance engineer makes the comment that it "Looks like a [...] toaster, don't it?"(Crichton 110). The decontamination chambers and elaborate hallways soon became the lesser of my interests when the book introduces the primary production system for making the microscopic agents that were used to make "nano-swarms". Jack describes the contraption as looking like "[...]an enormous glowing octopus rising above [him], with glinting, faceted arms extending outward in all directions, throwing complex reflections and bands of color onto the outer walls", which is a huge change from the otherwise monotone-colored facility. This is where the book explains the whole production process of these micro swarms, as well as introducing the reader to the primary issue. As it turns out, the facility had vented many kilograms of "contaminants", which included the Theta-d 5972 strain of E. coli which acted as the micro-assemblers, the raw materials for the nano agents, and the nano agents themselves. Towards the end of the book the reader finds out that this was no accident, and this was all a part of a plan devised by members of the Xymos team who have actually been taken over by a benign from of the nano swarms. But for a large chunk of this section of the novel, the contamination is seen simply as an accident.
Now Jack realizes the issue that they are currently dealing with, and that is that there are runaway swarms out in the desert. These swarms were evolving, and were doing so fast. This built up a lot of suspense as the swarms became much more powerful and were exhibiting strange behavior. They becoming larger, stronger, faster, and more deadly. It gives the reader this feeling of fear that wasn't really present before. It transitioned from a vague suspicion all the way to a feeling of anxiousness for the characters, as they were now subject to a deadly swarm of particles that they had no control of. In the process of trying to get materials to kill the swarms, two of the characters (Rosie and David) are killed by the swarms. Two others, including the main character, are nearly killed, but managed to get back into the primary facility. The author used this situation, as well as the ones coming up in future events to show just how powerful the swarm really was for nothing more than a bunch of single agents working together in a sort of hive mind, and how little Jack or anyone else could do about it. After much complaining from the character Rick, Jack and a team of several others set out to destroy the hive that housed the volatile swarm. The atmosphere was dark, and somewhat disturbing when they ran into what is left of the bodies of Rosie and David (which at this point were just vague outlines of their previous features; their body was decaying into a whitish goo substance which the nano agents used to harvest the E. coli strain), as well as seeing the malevolent structure of a naturally made assembling facility. The tension builds even after they destroy the production nest, and it is only relieved after they are practically launched out of the cave after using a great deal of thermite, and one of their team members sending down an ATV with a lit towel in its gas tank. This accomplishment served to give the reader a false sense of security, making them think that it was all over. The truth was that the conflict ran much deeper than that.
The origin of the conflict had arisen after a few events, though its exponential growth had come from when Julia interacted with one of the first swarms that was tested outside. The idea was to get them used to the wind, but they evolved much quicker in a different direction. Julia had essentially "played" with the swarm like it was a child. Ricky says that "It was Julia's idea to treat it like a child. She went outside with bright blocks, toys. Things a kid would like. And the swarm seemed to be responding to her" (Crichton 179) which shows how she was originally exposed to the swarms, as well as how they had begun to learn. It shows the contrast between how the swarm used to be a simple benign conglomerate of nano particles, and how it later evolved into an incredibly fast thinking predator. The final section of the story revolves around Jack and Mae (the two of them being the only "non-infected" people left at the Xymos plant) attempting to defeat the remaining nano agents that had taken control of the other characters. This is where I had felt like it would be nearly impossible for them to escape. The others were catching on, and their only hope was to infect the others with a bacteriophage that kills the Theta-d strain of E. coli. He sends Mae out with a false plan towards the others in an attempt to distract them, while he carries a jug of fluid contaminated with the phage towards the fire sprinkler system pump. Hearing them coming, he throws the jug into a room where they were not likely to find it. He is intercepted not too long after, and is brought to a room with a very large electromagnet. Ricky puts the magnet into its startup phase, and releases a safeguard that would allow the magnet to essentially rip itself apart and kill Jack. Jack manages to bargain them by saying that he would only give them the location. of the container of phage if Julia would come in. Upon her entry, he remembers how the MRI had killed off the nano particle swarm that had harmed his child, and realized that it would most likely do the same to Julia. Ricky had forgotten at that moment that the magnet could be activated from the inside, so he triggers it on and the particle swarm temporarily separates from Julia. After it had left her body, what was left of her was in a dangerously critical state. Both her and Jack knew that she wouldn't live, and that the swarm would continue to consume her. With her dying breath she tells him to save their family, and then the swarm retracts back to her.
After a lengthy action sequence where Jack almost meets his end many times, he manages to get the phage liquid into the sprinkler system. It was another victory, but was yet again overcome by another conflict. They had shut down the safety system, which means that the sprinklers would not function. He was eventually surrounded by the group, left contemplating his next move. It was then that he remembered that the production line would rise in temperature to the point of explosion if the safety system was shut down, so now it was the infected characters who had their fate hanging by a thread. The safety system is turned on in the infected members' last effort to save themselves, but the phage in the liquid immediately begins to make them deteriorate. This is was a very satisfying victory for the main character, as he had been brought down so many times before and now he was finally winning. Jack and Mae leave the facility by helicopter, and as they are flying away, the building explodes. The Xymos plant was gone, and also were the nano particles inside.
At the very end the reader is met with the same few paragraphs that were present in the prologue, but now there is a correct understanding that ties all of the occurrences together. It turns out that his family is not dying, but rather just sick from the phage that they had to ingest in order to keep themselves from succumbing to the remaining nano particles. Their house is cleaned, and they finally find victory through what had seemed to be an impossible circumstance. What I found to be the most interesting about the end of the book was the last set of sentences. Jack contemplates about the whole situation, and thinks about the terrible mistake that the Xymos company had made. He says "But then it kept going, kept evolving. And they let it. They didn't understand what they were doing" (Crichton 364) which poses an interesting question: could this ever happen in real like? Will humans someday take technology too far? Unfortunately, we can only theorize--we can only prepare, hope, and pray. Only the future will tell.
Other questions
-How didn't the people of Xymos Technologies not see the danger in their plan?
-Do you think that we will ever be able to mass produce devices at a microscopic level?
-Why do you think that people take technology too far without realizing what they are getting into?
-Realistically, when do you think this kind of technology will be seen in the world?
-Do you think that people would be willing to pursue such a design, given its inherent danger?
-Would you be willing to be injected with nano agents for a medical procedure?
-Can you think of any other solution to produce a device that would fill the function that the nano agents in the book were supposed to?
Sources:
-"Biography - MichaelCrichton.com." MichaelCrichtoncom. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
-"Prey Quotes." By Michael Crichton. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
-Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
-"Books by Michael Crichton." (Author of The Andromeda Strain). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
-Crichton, Michael. Prey: Novel. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. Print.
I am, too." (Crichton, Prologue Paragraph 4)
I was given a false preconception upon reading the prologue. The wording made it seem like everything was coming to shambles; I was under the intention that the main character and his family were dying from some source. I surmised that this event would occur towards the end of the book given its nature, but I had no true idea of what exactly would end up happening--nor did I know how it would have come to that in the first place until I read on. This was one of the many ways that the author manipulates the story. The background of the main character, Jack Forman, is decently interesting. He used to be a team lead manager at a company called MediaTronics which worked to develop multi-agent systems. One of the programs referenced throughout the book is his creation called "PREDPREY" which allows digital micro-agents to take on the characteristics of a predator, and for it to follow its defined goals as such. When the book began, Jack is no longer working and is essentially a stay-at-home dad. Jack's wife, Julia Forman, is the vice president of Xymos Technology. Their job status shifts the stereotypical roles for a husband and wife; Jack is the one who is taking care of the kids, while Julia is working. Julia works a lot of hours, and as the story begins to progress she disappears for longer amounts of time. This is what first built suspicion in the story, and eventually let Jack to his future investigation of the whole operation at the Xymos fabrication facility in the middle of the Great Basin Desert. There were of course a few other things that inspired curiosity and suspicion before he leaves the house, such as when his baby all of a sudden gets a mysterious rash and painful condition without any fever, only for it to be seemingly cured by going through an MRI (which is explained towards the end of the book). Also, various occurrences such as finding a strange box under the baby's bed, Jack's son Eric saying that he saw strange men walking about the house at night, Jack seeing a lurid man in Julia's car, and many other things. Each event seemed to build on another, and the occurrences grew in their severity over time. This is what made me want to keep reading, as I wanted to know what was causing all of these strange things.
The events get much more intriguing upon Jack's arrival at the Xymos fabrication plant. The whole building struck my interest. The buildings were described as being "[...] interlocked, featureless concrete blocks, all whitewashed". This description made me think of it as something like a biological hazard research facility, or some other kind of technologically advanced building. I became even more intrigued by this facility upon learning about the things that lay inside the oddly white walls. As Jack walked into the decontamination chamber, a burly maintenance engineer makes the comment that it "Looks like a [...] toaster, don't it?"(Crichton 110). The decontamination chambers and elaborate hallways soon became the lesser of my interests when the book introduces the primary production system for making the microscopic agents that were used to make "nano-swarms". Jack describes the contraption as looking like "[...]an enormous glowing octopus rising above [him], with glinting, faceted arms extending outward in all directions, throwing complex reflections and bands of color onto the outer walls", which is a huge change from the otherwise monotone-colored facility. This is where the book explains the whole production process of these micro swarms, as well as introducing the reader to the primary issue. As it turns out, the facility had vented many kilograms of "contaminants", which included the Theta-d 5972 strain of E. coli which acted as the micro-assemblers, the raw materials for the nano agents, and the nano agents themselves. Towards the end of the book the reader finds out that this was no accident, and this was all a part of a plan devised by members of the Xymos team who have actually been taken over by a benign from of the nano swarms. But for a large chunk of this section of the novel, the contamination is seen simply as an accident.
Now Jack realizes the issue that they are currently dealing with, and that is that there are runaway swarms out in the desert. These swarms were evolving, and were doing so fast. This built up a lot of suspense as the swarms became much more powerful and were exhibiting strange behavior. They becoming larger, stronger, faster, and more deadly. It gives the reader this feeling of fear that wasn't really present before. It transitioned from a vague suspicion all the way to a feeling of anxiousness for the characters, as they were now subject to a deadly swarm of particles that they had no control of. In the process of trying to get materials to kill the swarms, two of the characters (Rosie and David) are killed by the swarms. Two others, including the main character, are nearly killed, but managed to get back into the primary facility. The author used this situation, as well as the ones coming up in future events to show just how powerful the swarm really was for nothing more than a bunch of single agents working together in a sort of hive mind, and how little Jack or anyone else could do about it. After much complaining from the character Rick, Jack and a team of several others set out to destroy the hive that housed the volatile swarm. The atmosphere was dark, and somewhat disturbing when they ran into what is left of the bodies of Rosie and David (which at this point were just vague outlines of their previous features; their body was decaying into a whitish goo substance which the nano agents used to harvest the E. coli strain), as well as seeing the malevolent structure of a naturally made assembling facility. The tension builds even after they destroy the production nest, and it is only relieved after they are practically launched out of the cave after using a great deal of thermite, and one of their team members sending down an ATV with a lit towel in its gas tank. This accomplishment served to give the reader a false sense of security, making them think that it was all over. The truth was that the conflict ran much deeper than that.
The origin of the conflict had arisen after a few events, though its exponential growth had come from when Julia interacted with one of the first swarms that was tested outside. The idea was to get them used to the wind, but they evolved much quicker in a different direction. Julia had essentially "played" with the swarm like it was a child. Ricky says that "It was Julia's idea to treat it like a child. She went outside with bright blocks, toys. Things a kid would like. And the swarm seemed to be responding to her" (Crichton 179) which shows how she was originally exposed to the swarms, as well as how they had begun to learn. It shows the contrast between how the swarm used to be a simple benign conglomerate of nano particles, and how it later evolved into an incredibly fast thinking predator. The final section of the story revolves around Jack and Mae (the two of them being the only "non-infected" people left at the Xymos plant) attempting to defeat the remaining nano agents that had taken control of the other characters. This is where I had felt like it would be nearly impossible for them to escape. The others were catching on, and their only hope was to infect the others with a bacteriophage that kills the Theta-d strain of E. coli. He sends Mae out with a false plan towards the others in an attempt to distract them, while he carries a jug of fluid contaminated with the phage towards the fire sprinkler system pump. Hearing them coming, he throws the jug into a room where they were not likely to find it. He is intercepted not too long after, and is brought to a room with a very large electromagnet. Ricky puts the magnet into its startup phase, and releases a safeguard that would allow the magnet to essentially rip itself apart and kill Jack. Jack manages to bargain them by saying that he would only give them the location. of the container of phage if Julia would come in. Upon her entry, he remembers how the MRI had killed off the nano particle swarm that had harmed his child, and realized that it would most likely do the same to Julia. Ricky had forgotten at that moment that the magnet could be activated from the inside, so he triggers it on and the particle swarm temporarily separates from Julia. After it had left her body, what was left of her was in a dangerously critical state. Both her and Jack knew that she wouldn't live, and that the swarm would continue to consume her. With her dying breath she tells him to save their family, and then the swarm retracts back to her.
After a lengthy action sequence where Jack almost meets his end many times, he manages to get the phage liquid into the sprinkler system. It was another victory, but was yet again overcome by another conflict. They had shut down the safety system, which means that the sprinklers would not function. He was eventually surrounded by the group, left contemplating his next move. It was then that he remembered that the production line would rise in temperature to the point of explosion if the safety system was shut down, so now it was the infected characters who had their fate hanging by a thread. The safety system is turned on in the infected members' last effort to save themselves, but the phage in the liquid immediately begins to make them deteriorate. This is was a very satisfying victory for the main character, as he had been brought down so many times before and now he was finally winning. Jack and Mae leave the facility by helicopter, and as they are flying away, the building explodes. The Xymos plant was gone, and also were the nano particles inside.
At the very end the reader is met with the same few paragraphs that were present in the prologue, but now there is a correct understanding that ties all of the occurrences together. It turns out that his family is not dying, but rather just sick from the phage that they had to ingest in order to keep themselves from succumbing to the remaining nano particles. Their house is cleaned, and they finally find victory through what had seemed to be an impossible circumstance. What I found to be the most interesting about the end of the book was the last set of sentences. Jack contemplates about the whole situation, and thinks about the terrible mistake that the Xymos company had made. He says "But then it kept going, kept evolving. And they let it. They didn't understand what they were doing" (Crichton 364) which poses an interesting question: could this ever happen in real like? Will humans someday take technology too far? Unfortunately, we can only theorize--we can only prepare, hope, and pray. Only the future will tell.
Other questions
-How didn't the people of Xymos Technologies not see the danger in their plan?
-Do you think that we will ever be able to mass produce devices at a microscopic level?
-Why do you think that people take technology too far without realizing what they are getting into?
-Realistically, when do you think this kind of technology will be seen in the world?
-Do you think that people would be willing to pursue such a design, given its inherent danger?
-Would you be willing to be injected with nano agents for a medical procedure?
-Can you think of any other solution to produce a device that would fill the function that the nano agents in the book were supposed to?
Sources:
-"Biography - MichaelCrichton.com." MichaelCrichtoncom. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
-"Prey Quotes." By Michael Crichton. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
-Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
-"Books by Michael Crichton." (Author of The Andromeda Strain). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
-Crichton, Michael. Prey: Novel. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. Print.