Jul 28, 2005 05:31 PM
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(Updated Aug 01, 2005 09:23 PM)
''Has it ever occurred to you how astonishing the culture of Western society really is? Industrialised nations provide their citizens with unprecedented safety, health, and comfort. Average life spans increased fifty percent in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear. They are afraid of strangers, of disease, of crime, of the environment. They are afraid of the homes they live in, the food they eat, the technology that surrounds them. They are in a particular panic over things they can't even see - germs, chemicals, additives, pollutants. They are timid, nervous, fretful, and depressed. And even more amazingly, they are convinced that the environment of the entire planet is being destroyed around them. Remarkable! Like the belief in witchcraft, it's an extraordinary delusion - a global fantasy worthy of the Middle Ages. Everything is going to hell, and we must all live in fear. Amazing.''
(Professor Norman Hoffman in State of Fear)
Global warming or a globally warped mindset?
State of Fear is an enlightening novel. It exposes the ignorant to the many exaggerated claims of environmental mongers about significant issues like ozone layer depletion, global warming, pollution, pesticide dangers or any of those ecological troubles that mar our peace of mind. Many facts shared in this book are wonderful eye openers. For instance, remember the infamous DDT ban? Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler! Allow me to quote from the book ~ (Banning DDT) arguably the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century. DDT was the best agent against mosquitoes, and despite the rhetoric there was nothing anywhere near as good or as safe. Since the ban, two million people a year have died unnecessarily from malaria, mostly children.
Or check this one out ~ the most egregious example was the benzene regulations in the late 1980s that were so expensive for so little benefit that they ended up costing twenty billion dollars for every year of life saved. Twenty billion dollars to save one year of life!
Enter the Green Mafia
Also called the Eco-terrorists. Actually they are not new, it's just that we (in India) do not see their like often. Usually based in the Americas and Europe, these groups of environmental extremists may not hesitate to even kill for achieving their lofty ideals. Their ideals are noble however their information poor and their means unnecessary, criminal and tragic.
State of Fear ~ a sci-fi thriller that races across the globe
The back of the book says it all ~ In Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor. In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specification. In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea. And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means.
The eco-terrorists are sophisticated, evil and well-versed with the evils of technology. Yet they do not count for the brilliance of intelligence agent Kenner and his aide Sajong, lawyer Peter Evans, billionaire George Morton, his assistant Sarah and Kenner's niece Jennifer. They relentlessly move forward, despite danger of death, to end the diabolical attempts of the terrorists to bring the world's attention to their concerns.
The initial chapters could be confusing & boring however after that, the true action begins that also strikes in the freezing death zones of Antarctica, the Mckinley State Park in Arizona and ends in a cannibal-infested island near New Guinea.
I appreciate author Michale Crichton's intention of exposing the readers to environmental myths and truths. He succeeds to that extent but how about the fiction? It's a thriller no doubt yet the end was damp. I expected the final outcome at the Pacific basin to be spectacular or atleast better than the gripping drama that precedes it. However don't lose heart, State of Fear has enough chills to hold your breath for hours.
Author Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery, Eaters of the Dead, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey. And now State of Fear. I'm not a book lover, so was pleasantly surprised to know that he was the writer behind blockbusters like Jurassic Park and other movies that I enjoyed like Disclosure and Sphere. He is good-looking, wealthy, famous and a brilliant researcher like another famous author Dan Brown.
Man, I am inspired by this guy !
I wanna write a novel too - a quickie I hope to release by January 2006. A controversial thriller about a sexy actress who battles personal scandals, media hype, violent fans and lecherous advances of influential producers to win the Oscar for best actress. But the critical question remains ~ will I spend the time and money to research extensively into the evils of MMS? ;)
