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Review Summaries
"Jack Forman works for Xymos, a large 2009 corporation involved in programming biological processes in new life forms. He clashes with the CEO and is fired. He's called back and sent to a plant in Nevada. A project involving the microscopic life forms is out of control and some have escaped. The new life forms are behaving in ways not programmed and living in swarms outside the plant. They are barely visible but large swarms are evolving. They beome carnivorous and are multiplying at a tremendous rate of speed. There is no choice but to kill them. Armed with a toxic spray Jack and three others go out but two of them are killed and the body of one of them seems to be crawling. The swarm is dragging it into the desert. Jack and the other survivor barely make it back into the plant. They are now locked in a battle for their own surival and that of mankind."
Jackie Griffey, Resident Michael Crichton Scholar
"Jack used to be a very successful computer programmer until he discovered a secret about the company that could make them the next Enron. After threatening to go public, Jack was fired and became a stay-at-home father, taking care of his three children. As he starts settling down, Jack notices his wife starts acting very peculiar and comes to the conclussion that she is having an affair.
His wife, unbeknown of her husbands speculations, shows him a tape of what she has been working on at a lab out in the Nevada desert. This project is a revolutionary new camera that can actually go inside of a human's blood stream because it is made up of millions of nano particles. After Jack's wife is brutally injured in an auto accident, Jack goes to the lab where his wife worked as a consultant. What he finds is that these particles, that travel in swarms, have not only gotton loose in the desert, but they are also reproducing and hunting.
After Jack and some employees of the lab are successful in destroying the nest of the wild particle swarms, they learn that the particles can infect a human and not only eat away at them but impair their ability to control their own actions. The particles have not only infected the project leaders, they have infected everyone at the lab except for Jack and another woman named Mae. The only solution they can find to destroying these parasites is to spray everyone with a phage that is used to control the particles. "
Timothy Gilman, Resident Michael Crichton Scholar
"Jack Foreman is a stay at home dad, who was fired from his script writing job. His wife, Julia, is an important employee at Xymos laboratories. Jack suspects that Julia is having an affair, but he is sidetracked when he is offered a consulting job at the Xymos desert laboratory. The people at Xymos explain that he was called in to help destroy the deadly swarm of nanoparticles that Xymos created as a spy camera for the military.
Jack discovers a deadly secret reguarding the swarm, and must destroy it in time.
"
Ben Noonan, Resident Michael Crichton Scholar
"Jack Forman was a computer programmer working on codes for nanotechnology. Now he is a stay-at-home dad while his wife is at work on the technology. When a weird events occur and Jack becomes involved he must discover the truth on how far this nanotechnology is. He must save himself and the world from a smart, evolving cloud of nanoparticles and its creators. Crichton identifies the growing fear of out-of-control technology in this smart science fiction novel."
David M. Weiss, Resident Michael Crichton Scholar
"
HarperCollins, Nov 2002, 26.95, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0066214122
Having lost his job at a high tech firm, forty year-old Jack Foreman has become a househusband while his wife is now the breadwinner, working on a top secret Defense Department project. Jack raises their three children, while wondering how everything could collapse so fast. He even believes that his wife is having an affair while working an experimental design nanotechnology project at the Xymos Corporation in the Nevada desert.
Suddenly, their baby becomes extremely ill, but just as abruptly the infant recovers. Jack is stunned by both related events that have no explanation. However, before he can ponder what occurred, Xymos hires Jack as a consultant on his spouse's project that has problems leading to the Pentagon ready to shut the funding. Something goes wrong leaving Jack and a few others trapped in a war of survival against a highly evolved deadly nanotechnical swarm that he believes his wife released.
Perhaps the leading modern day cautionary tale author, Michael Crichton provides readers with his latest alarm that focuses on nanotechnical research. The story line is standard Crichton lamenting runaway science conducting experiments in areas in which consequences are ignored as funding only is considered. As usual, work occurs inside an isolated facility that leads to individuals heroically struggling to survive humanity's latest blunder. Fans of the author or just solid science fiction readers centering on a modern day controversy will appreciate Mr. Crichton who is at his masterly, but formulaic (at least its his own DNA) best.
Harriet Klausner
"
Harriet Klausner, Resident Michael Crichton Scholar
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Overall Review
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Plot
Composition of Book Descript. of chases or violence - 14% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 28% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 16% Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 42%
Tone of book
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Tech./$$$/Info hunt
Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying
- nano technology
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- computer programmer
Age:
- 20's-30's
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- An "It".
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Genius (really!)
Setting
Terrain
- Desert
Earth setting:
- near future (later in 21st century)
- current (early 21st century)
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How much dialogue?
- significantly more dialog than descript
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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