If you're looking for a good light read, skip this. If you want a diversion into laughably-bad pseudoscience with cardboard-cutouts as cast, go for it. I bought this in an airport bookstore, going into a 6-hour cross-country flight, and the only reason I ended up finishing it was boredom and lack of mobility, ultimately. ( )

Everyone knows about Global Warming. The Green House Effect. Our Carbon Footprint. How do we know about these things? The media. What if the media was giving us incorrect data? What if environmental agencies were tell us things were dangers when they really we the natural rhythms of our planet? That is what Michael Crichton is trying to get us to think about in The State of Fear. While a work of fiction, it is based in real data collected by scientists. It really made me think. It made me question what I have always believed about the environment. By the end of the book, I was left with the realization that I need to question the things I have always "known", the things that I have been told over and over again but never thought to research myself. Never thought that I wasn't getting the "real" story. This lesson is useful in every aspect of life and because of that, changed my life a little. It sis all this while being very entertaining. You can't ask a novel to be any better than that. ( )

It wasn't that bad. I found that it dragged a little. ( )

If the ratings of a book depended on how much they make you re-evaluate your thinking then this one would have got ten. The plot was implausible and the characters seemed to pop-in and out without much explanation but this is well worth reading. Not being either an eco-warrior or the reverse, just re-cycling and energy-saving where I can, this book will certainly make me question things more in the future. It seems everyone has an agenda........ ( )

This is another of Crichton's good ideas that resulted in average execution. (Another example is Prey.) I second AshRyan's review below with regard to characters and plot.

What kept me reading and in the end made the time spent worthwhile was the "science" on climate change that was debated throughout and then the bibliography. If you have too many books to read, forget reading State Of Fear. Simply borrow a copy so that you can review the bibliographpy and perhaps, Appendix I. ( )