The State of Fear by Michael Crichton

I’ve read several books by Michael Crichton in the past, but it has been a while since my last one and I had forgotten how amazingly talented Mr. Crichton is at writing. As I described it to my wife, he is not so much of a science fiction writer as he is a science nonfiction writer. What I mean by that is that he takes real situations (not unrealistic things) and puts them into play in a fiction story line.

State of Fear is about global warming. Gosh, I know how boring that sounds, but leave it to Michael Crichton to take a boring overplayed topic and put it in a new exciting light. Before I read this novel had no interest nor did I have any previous knowledge of the huge debate centered around global warming. So many of the topics covered were completely new to me, but Mr. Crichton has taken a huge amount of boring information and put it in a form that is not only easy to understand, but actually fun to read about!

With some of the same surprising twists as found in Prey and Airframe, I devoured this 600 page novel in only 4 days. I couldn’t put the book down, not because it was a fast moving thriller (I wouldn’t go that far), but rather because the topic is so engaging and informative I found myself heavily connected to the story line. Overall, I say highly recommend this book. It’s a great book for people looking for an exciting story to read or if you are interested in learning more about global warming. It can really help clear up all the muddy details surrounding the topic.

Rating: 8 out of 10