Prey

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   ネバダ砂漠で、1つの実験が失敗した。研究所からは、一群のナノ粒子、――マイクロ･ロボット―― が流出した。ナノ粒子の一群は、自活し、自らを複製する術をもつ。知性もあり、学習能力も備わっている。つまり、事実上生きているといえる。そして、「捕食者」としての役割がプログラミングされていた。一群は急速に進化し、1時間ごとに凶暴化している。しかし、それを破壊する試みはことごとく失敗。そして、今や人間がその餌食になろうとしていた…。

   朝刊の見出しのように、新鮮で人を引きつける魅力にあふれた『Prey』は、科学技術がもたらす災難と悲劇を食い止めようとするほんの一握りの科学者達の奮闘を描く。そして、スリルに満ちたサスペンス形式の物語でありながら、最新の科学的真理を根拠にした、先端ナノテクノロジー（10億分の1メートルの精度を扱う技術）と人工分散知能の領域に読者を誘う。読み出したら止まらない。時間切れが刻々とせまっているのだ。

   著者マイクル･クライトンは、1942年シカゴ生まれ。代表作に『The Andromeda Strain』『Congo』『Jurassic Park』『Timeline』がある。また、テレビシリーズ『ER』の制作も手がけている。（Book Description）

Product Description

In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horriblywrong. A cloud of nanoparticles -- micro-robots -- has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive.

It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolvingswiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.

Every attempt to destroy it has failed.

And we are the prey.

Amazon.com Review

In Prey, bestselling author Michael Crichton introduces bad guys that are too small to be seen with the naked eye but no less deadly or intriguing than the runaway dinosaurs that made 1990's Jurassic Park such a blockbuster success.

High-tech whistle-blower Jack Forman used to specialize in programming computers to solve problems by mimicking the behavior of efficient wild animals--swarming bees or hunting hyena packs, for example. Now he's unemployed and is finally starting to enjoy his new role as stay-at-home dad. All would be domestic bliss if it were not for Jack's suspicions that his wife, who's been behaving strangely and working long hours at the top-secret research labs of Xymos Technology, is having an affair. When he's called in to help with her hush-hush project, it seems like the perfect opportunity to see what his wife's been doing, but Jack quickly finds there's a lot more going on in the lab than an illicit affair. Within hours of his arrival at the remote testing center, Jack discovers his wife's firm has created self-replicating nanotechnology--a literal swarm of microscopic machines. Originally meant to serve as a military eye in the sky, the swarm has now escaped into the environment and is seemingly intent on killing the scientists trapped in the facility. The reader realizes early, however, that Jack, his wife, and fellow scientists have more to fear from the hidden dangers within the lab than from the predators without.

The monsters may be smaller in this book, but Crichton's skill for suspense has grown, making Prey a scary read that's hard to set aside, though not without its minor flaws. The science in this novel requires more explanation than did the cloning of dinosaurs, leading to lengthy and sometimes dry academic lessons. And while the coincidence of Xymos's new technology running on the same program Jack created at his previous job keeps the plot moving, it may be more than some readers can swallow. But, thanks in part to a sobering foreword in which Crichton warns of the real dangers of technology that continues to evolve more quickly than common sense, Prey succeeds in gripping readers with a tense and frightening tale of scientific suspense. --Benjamin Reese