Michael Crichton’s latest novel, STATE OF FEAR – just out in paperback – supposes that radical environmental groups help aid their causes by spreading fear. They accomplish this by becoming terrorists who control the weather with complicated technology, all to create “natural” disasters to make the public think global warming is happening far faster than reality has it.
So they create an earthquake here and a flash flood there. They can even assassinate people by causing a lightning storm to track intended victims through their cell phones. A lawyer and a government agent head up a small group of people out to thwart the group’s plans, which leads them on a dangerous adventure around the globe, culminating – and this is timely – in one mother of a tsunami.
Somehow, all the science talk (and this is a book riddled with factual footnotes and charts) proves fascinating, forming a bridge between the fast-paced action scenes in which Crichton excels. Treading on TWISTER territory with its focus on extreme weather (but minus the goofy cheese, thankfully), STATE OF FEAR is not his best, but it is rather enjoyable.
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