Anyone read the Michael Chrichton book I’m currently advertising, State of Fear? I know it’s about global warming hysteria which is cool and all, but is it any good?
Been a long while since I last read a Michael Chricton book; I think The Lost World was the last one (the main character of which I thought he killed off in the first book – though didn’t die in the movie).
State of Fear is AWESOME !!!
I want to have it’s baby.
OK, maybe not.
But it should be required reading.
Just to be clear, State of Fear is an excellent book that explains Global Warming, and why so many people believe it, and why it is such crappy science. MC also has an appendix (in the book, not necessarily in his torso) that explains how GW started, and that few pages alone is worth the price of the book – even in hardcover.
State of fear is excellent. Chricton attempts to stress real science is needed in this highly political topic. That means objective data collection and analysis.
Maybe I should learn to spell Mike Crichton’s name properly.
it’s a great book
State of Fear is great! Through his characters, Crichton demolishes all the mythes and hysteria surrounding global warming, which Crichton insists is a theory, not proven fact. There’s also your typical Hollywood folk (one who “plays a president on TV”- hmm…I wonder who that refers to :), who champion the global warming cause because it’s popular. Every conservative should read it.
Wait… which state is the State Of Fear?
Harvey? You there?
We actually have a review of that very book here:
http://www.stumblebumstudios.com/book-review_state-of%20fear-crichton.htm
Sorry for the plug.
Worth the money for the info presented in it.
As an action/adventure book dealing with terrorists/intelligence/etc, however, it does not begin to compare to, oh, anything by Tom Clancy (who I’m sure, in the same manner, cannot write about dinosaurs)
Great read and worth the time. If you are a scientist or scientifically trained individual such as an engineer or, in my case, mathematician, it resonates! The whole global warming schtick never made sense, at least to me. More CO2 in the atmosphere means more clouds => which block the sun => which means cooler surface stemps, etc. The I read the “science” and I get touchy-feely vibes, which have no basis at all in the real world.
If you want to know how the environmental lobby works, this is a good example. They mostly base their ‘conclusions’ on unseeable, unknowable ‘facts’, which turn out not to be facts at all.
The perfect example is water usage in the west. Can’t really tell how much is there, the historical records are too short.
Enjoy!
I’ve got the State of Fear audiobook on my iPod, but I keep not getting around to it because I’m too busy memorizing all fo the IMAO podcasts.
Yee haw.
Great book. Besides the science, it’s just a great read overall. Even if I was stupid enough to buy the hard-cover sized paperback version when it was first published.
You know what I like about it? The way the main guy, whose name I forget, keeps verbally pulverising all the hippy environmentalists with his big, wordy science stick. And he can shoot. What a guy. I shared some of his facts about global warming with the tree huggers in my apartment and do you know what they said? Nothin’. Mwahaha. Then they stopped speaking to me for 3 days, but that’s because I shouted at them about charity. It was a productive evening.
Oh, and go to my blog where I have a couple of posts about charities and Greenpeace (my Greenpeace one was on the carnival of comedy once. Number 13 I think). Can I do that? It’s ok if I advertise my blog?
As a dismantling of crap science it’s great.
As an action/adventure, it’s passable + 5 – basically a guy gets jumped through more and more extreme hoops, between the dismantling of crap science.
As a treatise on the comparative mores and culinary practices of Hollywood and pacific islanders….
I didn’t like the book very much. It spent too much time preaching about Global Warming (how its bad science, etc). The enviormentalist characters (hippies and actors) have as much intelligence and depth as the hate-filled-lefty in your cartoons. There are pages and pages of the main character preaching to them about how all their beliefs are wrong. That is not what I am looking for in a thriller.
Also, the main plot itself is rather far-fetched (which can be OK in a good thriller, but in my (possible worthless) opinion, this was not a good thriller).
I’ld skip this one (the new George RR Martin book is supposed to be out this month. Get that instead.)
Great book.
They shoot Ecoterrorists with assault rifles. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Also, SPOILER!! DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE!
Also, martinsheengetseatenbySouthPacificcannibals. Which is awesome.
If you think Global Warming is a crock, you’ll love it. But if you’re offended by people presenting theories and evidence that rattles your fragile and sensitive world view, you won’t like it much . . .
I’ve challenged IMAO bloggers and other global warming denialists to bet me over whether global warming is happening, but they don’t seem willing to put their money where their mouth was:
http://backseatdriving.blogspot.com/2005/09/bet-offers-to-bloggers-denying-global.html
The mouths keep going, and their wallets stay quiet.
Hmm, no one taking up Brians challenge? How disappointing.
While you’re waiting, try reading Michael Crichton’s State of Confusion if you’re interested in the “science” in t’ book.
Hmmm… lets try that link again…
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=74
There we are…