I have been reading a book for the last few days...about 5 that I have found fascinating and absorbing. In addition, it is not often that you find a novel (and this one was on the New York Times Bestseller list at one point, published in 2004) that has footnotes and a bibliography. This one does, an extensive list of both, plus appendixs. The book I am referring to is State of Fear by Michael Crichton.

The book is a novel, but heavily researched. Mr Crichton has to have put a lot of time into writting this book. It deals with envirnmental concerns, namely "global warning". It has a lot of action, side plots, love stories, and LOTS of mystery. But the suggestion in the book is that the whole "global warming" scare is just that...a scare. The interesting thing is that right in the middle of reading this book, I saw some newspaper articles in a local paper about this issue as well. One was saying that those that are on the bandwagon (in particular Al Gore) are making themselves rich. The other said just the opposite, ie that it is a real issue. I thought that was really a case of a novel, and real world events shadowing each other in a profound way..

The plot is well written, the characters are well developed. It is an extremely well written novel.

In addition to that, however, it brought up some questions about just what we know about the envirnmental situation. Obviously there are those who have a vested interest in denying there is a problem; but increasingly I am beginning to think that the same thing could be true on the other side as well. That is what makes this book not be an easy read for me. I find myself wanting to check out some of his references...maybe by reading another book or looking on the internet to see what might be there. I have to admit, however, that I doubt my ability to understand the issues, or rather to have the time or scientific understanding to really get a grasp on the subject matter...which points up the dependence that we, the ordinary person has on "the experts" to tell us what to believe. :(

At the end of the book, he details his personal position on the whole envirnmental issue. He is, perhaps not surprisingly, somwhere in the middle. His points of personal opinion are almost as much fun to read as is the book. I found myself agreeing with several, if not all, of his points. In fact, once I read his "what I think" section, I found myself much less conflicted. If you havent read this book, I would recommend it, and dont stop reading at the end of the action. Read the "what I think" section at least.

In case you or a friend dont already have this book on your shelves, Amazon has it for sale at this location.