Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780066214139
ISBN: 0066214130
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 624
Publication Date: December 07, 2004
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: December 07, 2004
Studio: HarperCollins
Sales Rank: 58292

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Related Items:

• Next
• Prey
• A Case of Need
• Airframe
• Timeline
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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
The undisputed master of the techno-thriller has written his most riveting -- and entertaining -- book yet.

Once again Michael Crichton gives us his trademark combination of page-turning suspense, cutting-edge technology, and extraordinary research. State of Fear is a superb blend of edge-of-your-seat suspense and thought provoking commentary on how information is manipulated in the modern world. From the streets of Paris, to the glaciers of Antarctica to the exotic and dangerous Solomon Islands, State of Fear takes the reader on a rollercoaster thrill ride, all the while keeping the brain in high gear.

Amazon.com Review:

Amazon.com Exclusive Content

A Michael Crichton Timeline
Amazon.com reveals a few facts about the "father of the techno-thriller."

1942: John Michael Crichton is born in Chicago, Illinois on Oct. 23.

1960: Crichton graduates from Roslyn High School on Long Island, New York, with high marks and a reputation as a star basketball player. He decides to attend Harvard University to study English. During his studies, he rankles under his writing professors' criticism. As an act of rebellion, Crichton submits an essay by George Orwell as his own. The professor doesn’t catch the plagiarism and gives Orwell a B-. This experience convinces Crichton to change his field of study to anthropology.

1964: Crichton graduates summa cum laude from Harvard University in anthropology. After studying further as a visiting lecturer at Cambridge University and receiving the Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellowship, which allowed him to travel in Europe and North Africa, Crichton begins coursework at the Harvard School of Medicine. To help fund his medical endeavors, he writes spy thrillers under several pen names. One of these works, A Case of Need, wins the 1968 Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award.

1969: Crichton graduates from Harvard Medical school and is accepted as a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Science in La Jolla, Calif. However, his career in medicine is waylaid by the publication of the first novel under his own name, The Andromeda Strain. The novel, about an apocalyptic plague, climbs high on bestseller lists and is later made into a popular film. Crichton said of his decision to pursue writing full time: "To quit medicine to become a writer struck most people like quitting the Supreme Court to become a bail bondsman."

1972: Crichton's second novel under his own name The Terminal Man, is published. Also, two of Crichton's previous works under his pen names, Dealing and A Case of Need are made into movies. After watching the filming, Crichton decides to try his hand at directing. He will eventually direct seven films including the 1973 science-fiction hit Westworld, which was the first film ever to use computer-generated effects.

1980: Crichton draws on his anthropology background and fascination with new technology to create Congo, a best-selling novel about a search for industrial diamonds and a new race of gorillas. The novel, patterned after the adventure writings of H. Ryder Haggard, updates the genre with the inclusion of high-tech gadgets that, although may seem quaint 20 years later, serve to set Crichton's work apart and he begins to cement his reputation as "the father of the techno-thriller."

1990: After the 1980s, which saw the publication of the underwater adventure Sphere (1987) and an invitation to become a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1988), Crichton begins the new decade with a bang via the publication of his most popular novel, Jurassic Park. The book is a powerful example of Crichton's use of science and technology as the bedrock for his work. Heady discussion of genetic engineering, chaos theory, and paleontology run throughout the tightly-wound thriller that strands a crew of scientists on an island populated by cloned dinosaurs run amok. The novel inspires the 1993 Steven Spielberg film, and together book and film will re-ignite the world’s fascination with dinosaurs.

1995: Crichton resurrects an idea from his medical school days to create the Emmy-Award Winning television series ER. In this year, ER won eight Emmys and Crichton received an award from the Producers Guild of America in the category of outstanding multi-episodic series. Set in an insanely busy an often dangerous Chicago emergency room, the fast-paced drama is defined by Crichton's now trademark use of technical expertise and insider jargon. The year also saw the publication of The Lost World returning readers to the dinosaur-infested island.

2000: In recognition for Crichton's contribution in popularizing paleontology, a dinosaur discovered in southern China is named after him. "Crichton's ankylosaur" is a small, armored plant-eating dinosaur that dates to the early Jurassic Period, about 180 million years ago. "For a person like me, this is much better than an Academy Award," Crichton said of the honor.

2004: Crichton’s newest thriller State of Fear is published.


Amazon.com's Significant Seven
Michael Crichton kindly agreed to take the life quiz we like to give to all our authors: the Amazon.com Significant Seven.

Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: Prisoners of Childhood by Alice Miller

Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Witter Bynner version)
Symphony #2 in D Major by Johannes Brahms (Georg Solti)
Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa

Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: Surely you're joking.

Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: Small room. Shades down. No daylight. No disturbances. Macintosh with a big screen. Plenty of coffee. Quiet.

Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: I don't want an epitaph. If forced, I would say "Why Are You Here? Go Live Your Life."

Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: Benjamin Franklin

Q: If you could have one superpower what would it be?
A: Invisibility

Average Rating:

Rating: - Technically accurate - debunks man-made global warming
Crichton was great at word pictures. In an entertaining, action-packed way the story shows clearly the lunacy of the environmentalist religion called "Global Warming." Incredibly well researched. Read it!

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Rating: - A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
I am a fan of Michael Crichton's work. That said, this story is not one of his best. If you're looking for a great tale to escape into, MC has published far greater examples. The purpose of this story (as well as Crichton's later novel, Next) is to convey a message. It's the spoonful of sugar that helps the reader swallow the hard truth that Crichton wishes to convey.

The book takes its title from the end of a Platonic-style dialogue in which a sociologist specializing in the "ecology ... Read More

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Rating: - Classic Crichton with a twist
State of Fear is the classic Crichton novel--a fun, action-packed story wrapped around a little nugget of science. But in this case, there is a twist. The twist is that for Crichton, the science he wrote about is the pseudoscience of Global Warming, or, to be a little more exact, the study of the environment and its warming trend in relation to the activities of humankind.

Having heard Crichton speak about Global Warming before, I knew he was not a fan. What makes State of Fear a compelling ... Read More

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Rating: - Blazingly fast read! Exhilarating book!
I was astounded at how fast I read through this book. This is one heck of a fast paced action packed thriller! Something I notice about Crichton is he seems able to appeal to a broad audience with his books. Many of the subject matters he writes about many people would find uninteresting, but Crichton has a way of making things interesting that, at face glance, might not seem so at first. I am not usually into novels of this type, but Crichton seems able to make ones of quality good enough to keep me coming ... Read More

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Rating: - An Exciting Thriller Based In Controversy
THE STATE OF FEAR, by the impeccable Michael Crichton, is a fast-paced, action-packed thriller based in the world of environmental science and the very controversial subject of global warming. This is a thought-provoking work of fiction that makes you question what you "know," as well as why and how you know it. IMHO, any good book or movie will entertain, make you think, and teach you something. THE STATE OF FEAR does all three.

THE STATE OF FEAR posits whether or not global warming is real. It ... Read More

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