An interesting concept. I read this back before I had really begun to develop my distrust of agri-corporations and chemical/biological tinkering with life in general, so it's hard for me to give a straight review. It does make one think about today's "medical" industry, though.

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Subtly frightening... Crichton constructs a suspenseful tale of technology and the unpredicable twists of Nature (or are they predicable? Hmmm...). Crichton is always a good read.

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It's one of those stories, after your finished you think "oh, this should totally be made into a movie!" The charcters were believable, and you found yourself really rooting for the hero. Crichton brought the swarm alive!

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This book at a little too much technical blah blah blahing about the aspects/workings of nanotechnology and "swarm" software programming. BUT--it was easy to skim/skip these sections... and the story when not focused on the technology but on the characters (and their fight with the nonotechnology) was really good... Easy to read/follow and very interesting. Skipping the technology and programming mumbo jumbo didn't detract from the story at all.. once you get the gist of both you don't need the additional detail the author piles on to follow the story. However.. if you're someone who needs to read every word (or who would feel 'ripped off' because you had to skip long sections/big portions of the chapters) avoid this story.

The story in summary... nanotech starts out as a possible medical revolution... however in a remote facility the technology goes bad as the 'swarm' programming turns the nanotechs violent... and the trapped scientists fight to find a way to stop them.

Some nice turns and suspense throughout.. an overall great read despite the propensity to overdo the 'jargon'.

A page turner that at the end keeps you on the edge of your seat... I gave it 4 stars.

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Exciting and imaginative.

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A chilling glimpse into what our technology could do! Wonderful read!

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Love Michael Chrichton.

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In Prey, bestselling author Michael Crichton introduces bad guys that are too small to be seen with the naked eye but no less deadly or intriguing than the runaway dinosaurs that made 1990's Jurassic Park such a blockbuster success.
High-tech whistle-blower Jack Forman used to specialize in programming computers to solve problems by mimicking the behavior of efficient wild animals--swarming bees or hunting hyena packs, for example. Now he's unemployed and is finally starting to enjoy his new role as stay-at-home dad. All would be domestic bliss if it were not for Jack's suspicions that his wife, who's been behaving strangely and working long hours at the top-secret research labs of Xymos Technology, is having an affair. When he's called in to help with her hush-hush project, it seems like the perfect opportunity to see what his wife's been doing, but Jack quickly finds there's a lot more going on in the lab than an illicit affair. Within hours of his arrival at the remote testing center, Jack discovers his wife's firm has created self-replicating nanotechnology--a literal swarm of microscopic machines. Originally meant to serve as a military eye in the sky, the swarm has now escaped into the environment and is seemingly intent on killing the scientists trapped in the facility. The reader realizes early, however, that Jack, his wife, and fellow scientists have more to fear from the hidden dangers within the lab than from the predators without.

The monsters may be smaller in this book, but Crichton's skill for suspense has grown, making Prey a scary read that's hard to set aside, though not without its minor flaws. The science in this novel requires more explanation than did the cloning of dinosaurs, leading to lengthy and sometimes dry academic lessons. And while the coincidence of Xymos's new technology running on the same program Jack created at his previous job keeps the plot moving, it may be more than some readers can swallow. But, thanks in part to a sobering foreword in which Crichton warns of the real dangers of technology that continues to evolve more quickly than common sense, Prey succeeds in gripping readers with a tense and frightening tale of scientific suspense

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awesome book - really well done!

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This is a hilarious and wonderful book. I rarely laugh out loud, but this book tickled me. Crichton was a great story-teller.

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I am a big fan of Michael Crichton's novels. This is another really good one. I didn't want to put it down. I really like the fact that he goes in depth to research the science behind all of his novels even if he uses it as a source for fiction. It really makes his novels seem like they could be possible. This one is about a company researching nano-technology using genetics that end up creating "smart" robots. They end up evolving just like any other creature. This put pulled me into it's world and I was so engrossed in the story that I had to keep reading it.

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Action packed throughout the book. Something to really think about since nanotechnology is here and being developed.

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Wow!! very exciting with a great ending.

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Having read many other books by this author I must say I was a bit disappointed. The artistic license with cutting edge science in nanomechanics, computer programming, and biosciences was not unusual for Crichton; but, the suspending of belief required to accept human beings being "infected" and brought entirely under control of non-living "organisms" sent this plot back to Saturday afternoon matinees like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (which this story resembles.) It stopped me wondering "could this happen?" and sent me straight to "it's just another sci-fi fantasy." Perhaps the reality of Covid-19 makes this story seem trivial, but I found it hard to finish reading the last twenty pages.

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Nano technology and a "what if"

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It is a thriller and was scary.

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