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Chills & Thrills

Michael Crichton saves us-from those who want to save us from global warming.

Jan 3, 2005, Vol. 10, No. 16 • By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
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State of Fear

by Michael Crichton

HarperCollins, 603 pp., $27.95

IT'S ALL SO IMPROBABLE. A stray group of unprepared people suddenly joined together to save the planet from catastrophe in a matter of days? A world of pre-September 11 airports, through which they can make hassle-free sprints from Iceland to Los Angeles to the Solomon Islands? A much-married philanthropist, a left-leaning actor with a disturbing resemblance to Martin Sheen, and all the other endlessly beautiful and smart people who invariably inhabit a Michael Crichton novel? I'm hooked instantly. Michael Crichton is, well, Michael Crichton. There's no one else like him, thank God, and the improbabilities combine--as they always do in his books--to make his latest, State of Fear, a fast, fun read.

Be forewarned: State of Fear is a novel about orthodox thinking on global warming, complete with footnotes on climate change. The book's dialogue doesn't exactly make for a fair fight: Crichton pits a knowledgeable scientist against uninformed and brainwashed amateurs, who can only question their opponents' motives, laud their own intentions (they may be wrong but they mean well), and repeat mindless environmental mantras.

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