A review by midwifereading
State of Fear by Michael Crichton

4.0

After reading A Skeleton In God's Closet, I needed a really good thriller to make up for it. State of Fear worked quite well, and did just that.

I wish I had taken notes as I read this book, since there was so much in it that I found intriguing. I loved the footnotes and real information included throughout the book.

While Michael Crichton may be a little formulaic, he is often great at his formula. His books (in my opinion) tend to be hit or miss. When he hits, he HITS, and this book is one of those for me.

I could never decide if I liked the main character, Peter Evens, much. Up until the very end, I kept wondering if he would be the first to die when the adventure came to a head. I'll leave you to wonder that for yourself. The fact that I didn't quite know what would happen at any one point kept me intrigued, and the farther I got into the book, the less I could put it down.

The issue of global warming and abrupt climate change are both addressed in a head-on, unafraid, and honest way in this book. I appreciated the candid treatment of the issue, and how politics and the media play a role in the way our culture treats our "issue-of-the-day." I found it refreshingly unbiased.

In short, if you like books like Jurassic Park, you'll enjoy this one.

Some caveats:
~There is cursing in this book, as there is in all of Crichton's works.
~There are some violent scenes, but nothing beyond what you would see in an episode of Fringe.
~There is some PG-13 sexuality suggested, but never shown. Only hinted at.