This is a story about nanotechnology. An experiment in the Nevada desert goes wrong and a swarm of very small particles designed to collectively form a lens with military applications is modified with unforeseen consequences. The swarm turns on it's human inventors, learns to reproduce, and becomes more sophisticated with each successive generation - and more numerous and dangerous.

Married couple Jack and Julia work together, with others at the lab, to destroy this swarm - or so it seems. There is nothing especially unique about this theme, but when put into the skilled hands of the late, great Michael Creighton, a truly spell-binding story unravels before your eyes. Few things are as they seem as the swarm learns, and kills. ( )

This book was f***ed up! Swarms of rogue, bio-engineered nano-particle cameras, that also harbor bacteria, kill things so they can reproduce AND it's a government funded project?! That's so messed up. Grant it, the "rogue" part wasn't anything that the Army knew about when they put money towards funding it, but still. It's really screwy.

I really enjoyed this story, despite some of the moments that really were... well, like I said, f***ed up. The only think keeping this from a 4 - 5 star review was what felt like an overabundance of technical mumbo-jumbo. I don't know anything about coding or programming or anything like that, so I could have done without some of the details about some of the programs. PREDPREY is based on predator and prey interactions. We get it. You're beating a dead horse going over the programming bits of it. Now, when you are explaining WHAT interactions you used or the swarm is exhibiting, ok. I Get that you may need to explain that part because not everyone is going to be familiar with stuff like that and it's important to what is immediately going on, but the technical aspect didn't need to be brought in to the extent that it was. It didn't add to the story, just served to over-explain parts of it.

This was the first of [a:Michael Crichton|5194|Michael Crichton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359042651p2/5194.jpg]'s work I've had the pleasure to dive into and, overall, I'd definitely recommend this book, as long as you're not one of those crazy, conspiracy-theorists. It could give you too many ideas then.

A few questions were left unanswered for me, and it just sort of bugs me more than anything. When were Vince and Bobby infected with the nanobots and why? Were they in on Xymos' plan the whole time like Ricky and Julia or were they promised some sort of package to keep quiet and just allow themselves to be infected? They were never mentioned in the wrap up chapters when Jack was going through Julia's e-mails. I also don't understand why Julia would put her family at risk like that. I mean, I'm glad it wasn't exactly a happy ending, don't get me wrong, I just would have liked a little more closure. The final question I have is more of a morbid curiosity than anything. If Ricky and the other men were able to be infected without too many inexplicable personality changes, why was Julia so severely affected by the presence of the bots in her body? ( )

I'm feeling a bit bloated right now because I read two Michael Crichton books in a row. He's an author I love to hate. The writing is so bad, it takes my breath away. But a fascination for nanotechnology drew me into this absurd tale, and as much as I wanted to blue pencil every page, I couldn't put it down. As with his other tales, the best part is the introduction. The rest is sheer nonsense. ( )

Not one of Crichton's best, but a good page turner. ( )

Pretty good thriller about nanotechnology gone amuck. Only fair SF.