State of Fear by Michael Crichton
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m generally a fan of Michael Crichton, but I wasn’t impressed with this one. The story line involves a cabal of environmentalists who are portrayed as evil ignoramuses trying to convince governments to give them vast sums by pushing a false narrative about global warming and, oh by the way, murdering people and trying to cause global environmental catastrophes to bolster fund-raising. The author’s extensive end notes state that he is skeptical of people on both sides, pretty much landing on the notion that no one really understands much about the environment and how to manage, must less control, it. Despite this disclaimer, he portrays anyone working to clean up the air or preserve nature as either greedy, stupid, or evil, or maybe all three, while the good guys who are saving the world from the murderous cabal all know that global warming is not caused by greenhouse gases if it exists at all, that preserving open spaces is pointless or harmful, and so on. The book was much too didactic to be very entertaining no matter what your feelings are about global warming. The characters are one-dimensional, the action scenes preposterously implausible, and the constant lectures just too boring. Still, it was readable and kept me going for a few days. I also agree with one of his main points, and that is that activists, politicians, and media people all seek attention to their views, cause, or business by trying to cause fear and that false fear is not only unwarranted but also making people unhappy for no reason.
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