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Michael Crichton

State of Fear Mass Market Paperback – October 25, 2005

by Michael Crichton (Author)

3,025 ratings

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In Tokyo, in Los Angeles, in Antarctica, in the Solomon Islands . . . an intelligence agent races to put all the pieces together to prevent a global catastrophe.

Print length

672 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Avon
Publication date

October 25, 2005
Dimensions

4.19 x 1.38 x 6.75 inches
ISBN-10

0061015733
ISBN-13

978-0061015731
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Michael Crichton
1,967
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Michael Crichton
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Michael Crichton
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Michael Crichton
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Michael Crichton
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Michael Crichton
1,653
Paperback
109 offers from $1.36

Michael Crichton
1,967
Mass Market Paperback
128 offers from $1.29
Michael Crichton
1,999
Mass Market Paperback
98 offers from $2.06
Michael Crichton
2,717
Paperback
78 offers from $3.42
Michael Crichton
1,091
Mass Market Paperback
225 offers from $0.35
Michael Crichton
4,121
Paperback
107 offers from $1.98
Michael Crichton
1,653
Paperback
109 offers from $1.36

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Provocative and controversial. [Crichton] marries compelling subject matter with edge-of-your-seat storytelling.” -- USA Today

“In STATE OF FEAR, Michael Crichton delivers a lightning-paced technopolitical thriller...every bit as informative as it is entertaining.” -- Wall Street Journal

“Fascinating for how Crichton was trying to make the very absence of fear spooky.” -- San Francisco Chronicle

“There’s no one else like him…a fast, fun read.” -- Weekly Standard

“This is definitely one for the Christmas list.” -- National Review

“He imparts science while entertaining readers.” -- Denver Post

“STATE OF FEAR is a valuable education in the guise of entertainment. Do yourself a favor and buy it.” -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“The thrills of Crichton’s latest are interspersed with fascinating facts and data. Perhaps his most serious and important book yet.” -- Booklist

“STATE OF FEAR is Michael Crichton’s best.” -- Bookreporter.com

“Michael Crichton’s new book will appeal to your inner techie.” -- Washington Post Book World

About the Author

Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was the author of the bestselling novels The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park, Sphere, Disclosure, Prey, State of Fear, Next and Dragon Teeth, among many others. His books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, have been translated into forty languages, and have provided the basis for fifteen feature films. He wrote and directed Westworld, The Great Train Robbery, Runaway, Looker, Coma and created the hit television series ER. Crichton remains the only writer to have a number one book, movie, and TV show in the same year.

Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and author of the New York Times bestselling Robopocalypse and its sequel Robogenesis, as well as ten other books. He recently wrote the Earth 2: Society comic book series for DC Comics. Wilson earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He has published over a dozen scientific papers and holds four patents. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Avon (October 25, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061015733
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061015731
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 1.38 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,797,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,790 in Technothrillers (Books)
- #10,110 in Political Thrillers (Books)
- #12,025 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3,025 ratings

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Michael Crichton

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After graduating from Harvard Medical School, Michael Crichton embarked on a career as a writer and filmmaker, whose credits include 'The Andromeda Strain', 'Westworld', 'Jurassic Park', 'Rising Sun', 'Prey' and 'State of Fear' and the TV series 'ER'. He has sold over 150 million books which have been translated into thirty-six languages; twelve have been made into films. He is the only person to have had, at the same time, the number one book, movie and TV show in the United States.

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		20%
3 star		9%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Sam Clemens

Fiction in Support of a "Climate Change" Stance.

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2019

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As fiction, the story-line and style are just OK, yet the book DOES raise a number of CRUCIALLY important issues about Global Warming...an hypothesis which has come to be accepted by virtually everyone (with some very respectable exceptions). Fact is, there are some glaring problems with the popular "GW" stance (which seems to have morphed into "Global Climate Change," in the wake of criticism over weather phenomena which would seem to call the hypothesis into question.

PLENTY of "True Believer" behavior going on these days...and there IS NOT unanimity on the issue (among members of the genuine scientific community). Among other things, CO2 IS NOT the primary "greenhouse gas" (while water vapor is!), the oceans have a massive ability to handle changes in GG's, and CO2 has important virtues. And, over eons, the changes we've seen are still within the normal range. Some of the changes we've seen may well correlate with HAARP experimental research, which is associated with manipulation of ionosphere conditions. Finally, it's been amply demonstrated that the "multiplier effects" which would be necessary for the hypothesis to work, simply do not exist. No dice!!!!

52 people found this helpful

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Crichton provokes skepticism and independent thinking

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2015

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I didn't realize what I was getting into when I picked up this book recently. I've enjoyed many of Michael Crichton's earlier novels, not only Jurassic Park but also some of his lesser known works such as A Case of Need , one of his very early novels. My impression of Michael Crichton has always been that he brought a certain amount of technical expertise to his writings, along with a level of integrity, that caused them to raise to a level above most other thrillers and similar works.

Reading State of Fear, I found myself confounded by the point of view that began to dominate, that of skepticism regarding the global warming and environmental points of view that I had always more or less taken for granted. Surely Michael Crichton is not suggesting that Global Warming is not a Real Threat?? Can it be??

Well, it's not quite that simple, but first let me comment to the book itself. It's a good read, beginning seemingly as a 'good guy' vs 'bad guy' story with the corporate interests playing the expected role as 'bad guys', but early on there are questions raised about whether or not the bad guys are in fact the corporate interests, or if they are in fact the environmental interests, or are they both equally 'bad'. And then along the way, in the discussions that take place between the characters as they discuss the environmental movement and whether or not it is solidly based on real science and actual data, there is a good amount of real data included, for example charts of the warming trends of cities throughout the world, that do not present the expected evidence of a general warming trend. Is this real data, or something fabricated to support the story? The truth is not fully clear until the book is completed and the afterward is read (Crichton calls it his 'Author's Message' and in two or three pages he lays out very clearly his point of view with respect to the environmental movement and global warming, and it is quite interesting to read).

He also substantiates the data provided throughout the book, and the conclusions he presents in his 'Author's Message', as well as the astonishingly thorough and diverse listing of references that are provided, are such that I have to feel that there is something serious here that merits thoughtful reflection.

If nothing else, it is that afterword, written by Crichton to give his own point of view, that is worth reading. I am appending it here to my review, confident that I am not violating any copyright restrictions since Crichton's own website also offers it for anyone to read.

This is a book that is both entertaining, and as well it is unexpected and thought provoking.

I am still not sure what to make of it.

-------------------

Michael Crichton's 'Author's Message' from the book State of Fear:

AUTHOR'S MESSAGE

A novel such as State of Fear, in which so many divergent views are expressed, may lead the reader to wonder where, exactly, the author stands on these issues. I have been reading environmental texts for three years, in itself a hazardous undertaking. But I have had an opportunity to look at a lot of data, and to consider many points of view. I conclude:

- We know astonishingly little about every aspect of the environment, from its past history, to its present state, to how to conserve and protect it. In every debate, all sides overstate the extent of existing knowledge and its degree of certainty.
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing, and human activity is the probable cause.
- We are also in the midst of a natural warming trend that began about 1850, as we emerged from a four-hundred-year cold spell known as the "Little Ice Age."
- Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon.
- Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be man-made.
- Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century. The computer models vary by 400 percent, de facto proof that nobody knows. But if I had to guess-- the only thing anyone is doing, really-- I would guess the increase will be 0.812436 degrees C. There is no evidence that my guess about the state of the world one hundred years from now is any better or worse than anyone else's. (We can't "assess" the future, nor can we "predict" it. These are euphemisms. We can only guess. An informed guess is just a guess.)
- I suspect that part of the observed surface warming will ultimately be attributable to human activity. I suspect that the principal human effect will come from land use, and that the atmospheric component will be minor.
- Before making expensive policy decisions on the basis of climate models, I think it is reasonable to require that those models predict future temperatures accurately for a period of ten years. Twenty would be better.
- I think for anyone to believe in impending resource scarcity, after two hundred years of such false alarms, is kind of weird. I don't know whether such a belief today is best ascribed to ignorance of history, sclerotic dogmatism, unhealthy love of Malthus, or simple pigheadedness, but it is evidently a hardy perennial in human calculation.
- There are many reasons to shift away from fossil fuels, and we will do so in the next century without legislation, financial incentives, carbon-conservation programs, or the interminable yammering of fearmongers. So far as I know, nobody had to ban horse transport in the early twentieth century.
- I suspect the people of 2100 will be much richer than we are, consume more energy, have a smaller global population, and enjoy more wilderness than we have today. I don't think we have to worry about them.
- The current near-hysterical preoccupation with safety is at best a waste of resources and a crimp on the human spirit, and at worst an invitation to totalitarianism. Public education is desperately needed.
- I conclude that most environmental "principles" (such as sustainable development or the precautionary principle) have the effect of preserving the economic advantages of the West and thus constitute modern imperialism toward the developing world. It is a nice way of saying, "We got ours and we don't want you to get yours, because you'll cause too much pollution."
- The "precautionary principle," properly applied, forbids the precautionary principle. It is self-contradictory. The precautionary principle therefore cannot be spoken of in terms that are too harsh.
- I believe people are well intentioned. But I have great respect for the corrosive influence of bias, systematic distortions of thought, the power of rationalization, the guises of self-interest, and the inevitability of unintended consequences.
- I have more respect for people who change their views after acquiring new information than for those who cling to views they held thirty years ago. The world changes. Ideologues and zealots don't.
- In the thirty-five-odd years since the environmental movement came into existence, science has undergone a major revolution. This revolution has brought new understanding of nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, chaos theory, catastrophe theory. It has transformed the way we think about evolution and ecology. Yet these no-longer-new ideas have hardly penetrated the thinking of environmental activists, which seems oddly fixed in the concepts and rhetoric of the 1970s.
- We haven't the foggiest notion how to preserve what we term "wilderness," and we had better study it in the field and learn how to do so. I see no evidence that we are conducting such research in a humble, rational, and systematic way. I therefore hold little hope for wilderness management in the twenty-first century. I blame environmental organizations every bit as much as developers and strip miners. There is no difference in outcomes between greed and incompetence.
- We need a new environmental movement, with new goals and new organizations. We need more people working in the field, in the actual environment, and fewer people behind computer screens. We need more scientists and many fewer lawyers.
- We cannot hope to manage a complex system such as the environment through litigation. We can only change its state temporarily-- usually by preventing something-- with eventual results that we cannot predict and ultimately cannot control.
- Nothing is more inherently political than our shared physical environment, and nothing is more ill served by allegiance to a single political party. Precisely because the environment is shared it cannot be managed by one faction according to its own economic or aesthetic preferences. Sooner or later, the opposing faction will take power, and previous policies will be reversed. Stable management of the environment requires recognition that all preferences have their place: snowmobilers and fly fishermen, dirt bikers and hikers, developers and preservationists. These preferences are at odds, and their incompatibility cannot be avoided. But resolving incompatible goals is a true function of politics.
- We desperately need a nonpartisan, blinded funding mechanism to conduct research to determine appropriate policy. Scientists are only too aware whom they are working for. Those who fund research-- whether a drug company, a government agency, or an environmental organization-- always have a particular outcome in mind. Research funding is almost never open-ended or open-minded. Scientists know that continued funding depends on delivering the results the funders desire. As a result, environmental organization "studies" are every bit as biased and suspect as industry "studies." Government "studies" are similarly biased according to who is running the department or administration at the time. No faction should be given a free pass.
- I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
- I personally experience a profound pleasure being in nature. My happiest days each year are those I spend in wilderness. I wish natural environments to be preserved for future generations. I am not satisfied they will be preserved in sufficient quantities, or with sufficient skill. I conclude that the "exploiters of the environment" include environmental organizations, government organizations, and big business. All have equally dismal track records.
- Everybody has an agenda. Except me.

225 people found this helpful

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Grandma B

Another Winner

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2017

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I use to read all his books, don't know how I missed this one. Call me a "Denier" but I have my doubts about man made climate change & this book just adds to my skepticism. I know the time frame was several years ago & to be PC the comments at the end of the footnotes try to make you believe Crichton would have written it differently today, but I don't buy it. When you look at his earliest writings, you see where he was spot on many things in the furture. Great book, lots to think on.

40 people found this helpful

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Sean Ireland

"State of Fear," by Author Michael Crichton

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2015

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For those of you who enjoy Michael Crichton novels this one is a must read. The story is, naturally, fiction. The weather/climate science data illustrated in this book is real-world. Michael Crichton is a master at blending fictional stories with futuristic technology that is either factually plausible, or already authentic and proven technology. In the case of this book he did his homework meticulously and backed up his storyline with real-world data. He provides website addresses and other data that allows the ready to check and verify/validate the data used in the book.
The book addresses a current real-world issue, global warming. The storyline of this book is written is such a manner as to give the reader a prospective on both sides of the issue; that is to say the position that man's actions are the actual cause and effect of global warming as opposed to the position that global warming is, in fact, a natural process in which man cannot stop and has no control over. After reading this book you will, more than likely, develop an alternate perspective on the subject as opposed to what you currently believe.

38 people found this helpful

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Janna N

Good data. Poorly written. Leading.

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2020

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Crichton is amazing. He is brilliant and knows his stuff. I read this book because it is timely. Not just because of climate change rhetoric, but also because of Covid-19 rhetoric. Crichton could easily have spun this plot around the coronavirus pandemic. He was 15 years ahead of the game.

Too often Crichton leads the reader...as if we are too dumb to get the hint, see the irony or make the connections. Sometimes he is so desperate to make his point that he overplays his hand. The concept of "show; don't tell" as a writing technique is often ignored or, worse, replaced with "show; did you see that? Here, I will show you again."

BTW, the three essays at the beginning are incredible. They are probably better than the book. If nothing else, read those.

Read this book if for no other reason than to understand how the left, academia, media, and radical left control the masses. By creating a State of Fear, they are able to gaslight the middle and turn them into scared voters. Crichton nailed this part.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Gianni ELVEZIA

Outstanding.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2020

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The plot is weak, the characters are weak, it's not so well written, but the research behind all of that is OUTSTANDING and should be adopted as text in schools to contrast the actual brainwashing that it is going on on climate changing.

15 people found this helpful

Readingaddict

A well researched, contrary view of the causes of climate change in a fun novel.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2020

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Plausible science, with a very good reference list. Though now dated of course it nevertheless provides a good starting point for further research into the emotive subject of climate change and its causes.
The book goes a bit bonkers at the end, but is still a good read.

8 people found this helpful

Veronica

One of the best books I've ever read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2021

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I've read this book three times over the years, this copy was a replacement for one I gave away. I highly recommend buying the paperback (you can get them second hand quite cheap). It takes the first chapter to start building the story but, then you won't be able to stop reading. Its well resourced with a scientific bibliography. It also has a few bonus authors notes at the back which you can read before you read the book, it will give a great overview of the promise. The author touches on some serious topics like Margaret Sanger et al. Its a must read book.

One person found this helpful

Lozza

Ok holiday read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2012

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The book is interesting from the standpoint of understanding more about the arguments for and against global warming. Lots of footnotes showing he did some research or someone else did for him, either way, very interesting.

However, the plot is a little predictable, a bit like a lot of films coming out of Hollywood.

As a woman, I found all the relationships with women very boring, one-dimensional. Clearly he only has room for athletic built women, so creates a plot with 3 of those types, hardly real life or believable, and makes it repetative. Better as a video game maybe?

3 people found this helpful

J P@rr0w

Excellent book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2020

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I bought this on a recommendation and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Crichton did a great job in his research and he certainly makes you think. Excellent read!

One person found this helpful