State of Fear by Michael Crichton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A Facebook friend strongly recommended this book and since he doesn't often recommend books I thought I'd take a look at it. I tell people what to read all the time so it behooves me to listen to others when they tell me what I should be reading.
And I am glad I read it. I had my doubts when I found I needed to spend more than two hours reading the back matter: appendices, note from the author, sources for statistics, graphs, and illustrations, and no less than 21 pages of annotated bibliography. But once I got into the story I enjoyed it.
This is the sort of book you read for the information it imparts rather than for the plot, which was more than a bit farfetched. It reminded me in a way of Michener, whose books we used to read for the spoon-fed history rather than for the characters or fine writing. It is structured sort of like the Labors of Hercules, with the major characters facing four seemingly impossible tasks complicated by the need to figure out where these problems are going to arise. The scene changes from Iceland to Malaya to Los Angeles to Antarctica to the Arizona desert to New Guinea to . . . well, the characters move around a lot. And there are some exciting and unusual scenes that had even me holding my breath as I turned the pages.
I learned some things from Crichton’s book about climate statistics and the difficulty of creating valid computer models of anything, much less future climate change. He demonstrates the politicization of an issue that should be argued in scientific journals but instead is discussed in the media with a maximum of emotional stimulation and a minimum of reference to facts. He makes a convincing comparison of global warming to the eugenics movement of the early 20th century.
The main character, Cardboard Evans, who is a lawyer working for a wealthy philanthropist of the George Soros type, is naïve, uninformed, and stubborn. I was going to see he was too dumb and recalcitrant to be believed but in truth one encounters people like that all the time, just not as the hero of an adventure book. Also what is the likelihood that a crack team of government intelligence men would haul a brain-dead lawyer and a secretary along on their six-day mission to save the world? Ah, well, we are suspending a lot of belief here.
So why did I like the book? There are a couple of really interesting characters, like the frantic and enraged environmentalist who is clearly modeled on Ralph Nader. And the smart secretary whose bravery and ingenuity helps them out in tight spots. There is a Boris and Natasha couple that pops up a couple of times and I enjoyed watching them play their con. The Nepalese army officer was a sidekick in the classic computer-master manner. Also classic was the MIT scientist-lawyer-Indiana Jones savior of the day (obviously destined to be played by George Clooney in the movie.)
Altogether a delightful book, if you delight in books like this, and perhaps even if you don't, with a reasonably clever basis for the plot and a bit of a thrill here and there. A book I’m glad I read. But 21 pages of bibliography in a novel?
2011 No 131
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