STATE OF FEAR (Michael Crichton) - November 28/12

Michael Crichton is no stranger to throwing in a message into his stories, but I feel like he's gone too far this time. The book, which is at least 300 pages too long, contains a number of completely engrossing action sequences, including a fantastic moment in which two characters get stuck in a lightning simulator and another in which characters get trapped in a crevice in the ice. (And let's not forget about Bradley's fate at the hands of crazy cannibals.) But Crichton all too often bogs the book down with explanations and speeches about the environment, going so far as to include charts and footnotes! It's tolerable for a while, but there's a stretch of about 100 pages towards the end that's just so preachy that it becomes impossible not to glaze over most of this stuff. (And the climactic action, involving a possibly deadly tidal wave and men with guns, is consequently unable to pack the punch that Crichton has intended.) It's readable, basically, but awfully disappointing. Where's the abridged version? **1/2 out of ****