


If you were to read some reviews of the novel you would quickly discover two camps of critics. For these reasons it can be an infuriating book to read. Every single one of these conversations feels forced, and one gets the feeling that they exist as an excuse for Crichton to tell us what he thinks. They preach (with footnotes) data-driven contradictions to the ill-reflected global warming rhetoric. Counterpoint to such figures, Crichton’s sceptics have wised up to the global warming façade. They spout speeches about the need for saving the planet, all the while quoting dreamily from half-baked sources and displaying, overall, great ignorance of the real data about the natural world. Advocates, having drunk the global warming Kool-Aid, are universally foolish.
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A main mechanism for this transition is a series of conversations that Crichton arranges between advocates and sceptics.
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The main character is a man who begins as a full global warming supporter, is brought to question these convictions, and concludes as a sceptic. However, it is seriously hindered by a farfetched plot, ham-fisted dialogue, and the strange interplay of Crichton-esque science-fiction and what appears to be his underlying message of suspicion about global warming. The novel contains many of the hallmarks of Crichton’s style-mysterious, business-like characters with unclear motives, stooges who die out of ignorance, a scientific ‘feel’ including diagrams, research, and charts, and so forth. Catastrophic weather events are timed to coincide with global warming announcements so that people will ‘wake up’ to the looming danger of climate change. State of Fear is a novel about global warming-put succinctly, it is about a conspiracy of left-wing environmentalists who attempt to orchestrate a series of environmental disasters in order to bolster their position as global warming advocates. With that in mind, you’ll appreciate some context, and disappointment, behind my claim that State of Fear is the worst Michael Crichton novel I have ever read. I went on to read many of his other novels, enjoying them to similar effect- Sphere and Airframe, Eaters of the Dead and Prey. I never knew there could be books like this in the world, and Crichton’s inventiveness, plausibility, and capacity to generate thrills were addictive. The experience was, to my thirteen-year-old self, life-changing. I’ve been a Michael Crichton fan since I was in the eighth grade and read Jurassic Park for the first time.
