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Prey  By  cover art

Prey

By: Michael Crichton
Narrated by: George Wilson
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Publisher's summary

In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles (micro-robots) has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive.

It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.

Every attempt to destroy it has failed.

And we are the prey.

As fresh as today's headlines, Michael Crichton's most compelling novel yet tells the story of a mechanical plague and the desperate efforts of a handful of scientists to stop it. Drawing on up-to-the-minute scientific fact, Prey takes us into the emerging realms of nanotechnology and artificial distributed intelligence in a story of breathtaking suspense.

Prey is a novel you can't pause.

Because time is running out.

©2002 Michael Crichton (P)2002 HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc.; 16 9; 2002 Recorded Books, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Crichton is the master of the sci-tech thriller, and nowhere is that more evident than in his latest page-turner, a scary, wild ride that is, without a doubt, his best in years." (Booklist)

"From the opening pages of Crichton's electrifying new thriller...readers will know they are in the hands of a master storyteller." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Prey

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2,912
  • 4 Stars
    1,837
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    222
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    124
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2,683
  • 4 Stars
    1,251
  • 3 Stars
    483
  • 2 Stars
    109
  • 1 Stars
    65
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,444
  • 4 Stars
    1,280
  • 3 Stars
    632
  • 2 Stars
    171
  • 1 Stars
    81

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

A Disappointment

Loaded with Crichton's trademark technobabble, but this time the characters are flat, dull, and behave like plot devices instead of human beings. The protagonist is a bore, and his marriage is an afterthought. He has no discernible attachment to his wife other than to serve the plot. His kids are annoying and superfluous to the story, interrupting the plot flow to whine over the phone every few chapters. The technohorror element is derivative and the protagonist ignores major clues to the mystery ala the "Idiot Plot" syndrome. A major disappointment considering how much I have enjoyed other books by Crichton.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Long in the tooth

To state this book was “Long in the Tooth” is an understatement! I am a computer programmer and consider myself a “techie” but this got ridicules in the continued mumbo jumbo techie talk about computer programming. I am not talking about the beginning forward which spends 20 minutes+ explaining the technology behind the plot. That would have been fine, if the author had not re-explained it ever 10 to 15 minutes during the book!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

What a disappointement

I feel one of Michael Crichton's greatest talents is that he presents things in a way that makes you really believe that something impossible is possible. I read Jurassic Park in 6th grade, and again many years later. I still love it. As I got my degree in Biology I realized where the holes in the science were, but it was still very inventive. In State of Fear, the science was extremely unlikely, but somehow he made it believable.

This book did not do that however. This book was a complete assault to my intelligence, (as little as that may be). The story about nano particles was someone interesting at first. The dialogue about him being a stay-at-home father was interesting and even compelling as he belives his wife is having an affair. But once he starts off on the adventure it is just ridiculous. Completely unbelievable. He tries to make connections between computer programming, robot behavior and biology which are beyond absurd.

Did you ever see that awful movie A.I.? Imagine somebody reading you that as a book on tape, and here you are.
Can't recommend it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Pretty good book for Michael

The big thing that Michael is great with is plot lines but he's weakest at character development. This book, however, was alot better! He's actually starting to create some depth with his characters. It had me on edge in a couple of scenes and made me contemplate of the dangerous possibilities that are in store for nano-technology.

While alot of the book seemed outlandish and the characters a bit flat (but alot better!), it kept me very entertained. If you liked the saterday afternoon sci-fi thrillers, you'll like this:)

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book.

I must say that I really enjoyed this audio book. The reader is very, very good and I love the story. I always love that Crichton, like in timeline, really makes things like NANO technologies really easy to understand. If you live in the BAY AREA, you will like this book even more, because many of the places are familiar and especially the characters are very life like. Great book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Eh...not worth wasting a book balance credit on

Never EVER will I get another audio book read by George Wilson. Imagine if you had to listen to a conversation where there was a five second pause after each person finishes his/her statements. It felt like I was hitting every red light in San Francisco! Plus, he didn't have enough distinct voices to seperate the different characters. I felt that the reader read too slow, as if he were reading a children's story to some kindergarteners.

Now for the story...I read and loved Jurrasic Park. But in this book the author felt it was necessary to explain fairly simple technical bits in five minute narratives, often repeating many of his ideas throughout the book in five or more places. There were suspense "scenes" that were drawn out too long where you knew the author was just trying to prolong the uncomfortable suspense simply for the purpose of increasing the length of the book. Couple that with the slow pace or the reader and you end up with suspense scenes that seem to go on for hours, with very little progression of the story. Finally, there were WAY too many "[character] said" clauses at the end of converstation phrases.

"Bla bla bla bla", (2 sec pause) May said (2 sec pause).
"Ble ble ble ble", (2 sec pause) Ricky said (2 sec pause).
"Bli bli bli bli", (2 sec pause) I said (2 sec pause).
"Blo blo blo blo", (2 sec pause) Ricky said (2 sec pause).
"Blu Blu Blu Blu", (2 sec pause) I said (2 sec pause).

Oh the humanity!

It's not 1 star because the story was at least interesting, and the ending was slightly better written (and read), though as predictable as any action-disaster movie you've seen.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Mediocre

I fell asleep several times listening to "Prey." The plot and characters are predictable. The only interesting aspect was the use of nano technology running amuck.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Lots of Fiction, Not Much Science

After some very good science and good plot and character writing, (Andromeda Strain, Jurrasic Park) you would think that Crichton would get better at writing science fiction, not worse.

This book starts out well, with a plausible plot and believable, but unlikable characters. However, it quickly progresses to the quite ludicrous plot that computer programmers are trapped at a remote desert facility and being attacked by swarms of intelligent nano-robots of their own making. Predictibly they are killed off one by one, and predictably at least one of the programmers is really a fake person working against the rest and was created by the swarm of evil nanorobots. OK, right. This is a plot that has been used over and over again.

This is a mediocre listen, and there are better ones you can download.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Weak plot, weak characters, strong saliva glands

This audiobook features weak pseudo-science, an infuriatingly milquetoast main protaganist, and a narrator with overactive saliva glands. If that's your bag, this one's a winner. I barely managed to get through this one... it was the first Audible book that I very nearly abandoned.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

PRAY for the end.

This book drones on and on. The main man is really slow minded but he is ahead of the pace of the book. The narrator slips up in voice changes, the 'time line' of events is not reasonable and the tech facts are slightly a skewed. It seems to be written as a screenplay, too many background (useless) details. I cannot recommend this book.

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