IF YOU ARE ONE of the many fans of Michael Crichton's techno-thrillers, you will love Prey, which remains true to his tried and tested formula: earnest, dysfunctional geeks battle science running amok.
Jack Forman is a software engineer turned house-husband. He suspects his wife might be having an affair. She works for Xymos, a technology firm that is developing a new form of weapon for the United States military, and lately she has been acting strangely. Jack knows something highly unusual is afoot because their youngest child has turned bright purple. When Xymos loses control of its creation, Jack is called in to lend his expertise.
The weapons in question are microscopic man-made particles which have the ability to self-replicate and learn. They have escaped from the remote laboratory in which they were spawned, and no longer respond to the scientists' attempts to control them. The software with which they are endowed is based on the behaviour of predators and the particles hunt in packs, forming clouds that can take on the appearance of larger objects. As the swarms relentlessly multiply and evolve in the wilderness of the Nevada desert, Jack is caught up in a race against time to outwit them.
So the central theme is nothing new, but then why mess with such a proven recipe for success?
Few writers have achieved as much as Crichton. He has sold more than 100 million books. He is the only person ever to have scored the No 1 book, the No 1 movie (Jurassic Park), and the top TV show (ER) in the United States at the same time.
He has degrees in medicine and anthropology (summa cum laude) from Harvard, and has lectured at Cambridge. He ran his own software company. Oh, and he was named one of the world's 'Fifty Most Beautiful People' by People magazine in 1992.
He received a reported US$40-million (HK$311-million) advance for Prey and one other book, and Fox Studios has bought the film rights to this story for US$5 million.