Gee, I Must Have Made that Left Turn At Albuquerque

Bugs Bunny would sometimes begin his cartoons by his burrowing into a new, crazy location. He would explain this to the audience by saying that he made a left turn at Albuquerque. After that, everything would go wrong.

And that's how I feel about Michael Crichton's 2004 book State of Fear, which I title: State of Fear: A very convenient book. The fictional work focuses much of its attention on the global warming conspiracy and how eco-freaks are using it to their political advantage. Fine. I can dig any number of premises, such as: Jimmy Stewart was the Anti-Christ bent on world domination (for guys) AND that girl that wore the same coctail dress as you last Saturday (for girls). And only an unholy alliance of Celine Dion, Wayne Newton, The Carebears and Chuck Norris can stop him. But please keep up the pace. And give the book an ending. And don't be preachy. I'm talking to you, Mike.

The book begins with the death of George Morton, a gazillionaire supporter of environmentalists, in a fatal car crash. His most trusted lawyer Peter Evans and his trusted, sexy assistant Sarah embark on a voyage of adventure and danger, led by the mysterious yet wise John Kenner and his foreign sidekick Thapa.

But after an incident in New Mexico where EVERYONE overcomes nearly IMPOSSIBLE odds the novel makes a left turn turn at Albuquerque. Quite literally. The battle-scarred heroes go back to Los Angeles, and the novel's pace slows. And the author gets preachy about the global warming conspiracy. Indeed, Crichton seems to focus more attention on making environmentalists look ridiculous than tying all the loose ends up. (****SPOILER ALERT****) You never find out what happens to Nick Drake, the book's main villain, and the book closes with the scientist John Kenner's viewpoint about scientific independence. Despite these major flaws, Crichton did round up an impressive amount of research (all of which is meticulously documented, with annotated bibliographies) and makes some very interesting and valid points about global warming, science, politics, and the media.

But next time, Mike, make the right turn at Albuquerque.