State of Fear

The tsunami that struck the asian coasts is no story, it happened. Tsunami has struck the unprepared coastlines along the Indian ocean. An unprecedented event.

Now, welcome to the fiction tsunami. State of Fear, the latest novel/book/work by Michael Crinchton, is a long environmental science lesson. For the usual readers of Crinchton and the casual fiction freaks, the book is a big bore!!!

There is a group of environmentalists, who, for appropriating money from rich, environmentally concerned and charitable people, create a state of fear. This is a Fear of the drastic effects of global warming, abrupt climate change, sea level rise, deforestation, land slides etc. The recent asian tsunami and the landslides in california could turn out to be a big push in marketing the book but for the message Crinchton tries to convey is quite contradictory to the real picture.

However, the book is a bold venture to spread the word that nobody actually understands the environmental changes and their effects absolutely. The actual effects of modern man's Carbon-di-oxide and Carbon-monoxide releasing ways of life on the environment is a science which is completely not understood yet and will be a tough challenge in future years too. Stop worrying about weather changes and to be on the safe side, pollute less. Thats a positive tone to end the book. Now, there is a fine line of demarcation between Crinchton's fiction and reality- manmade disaster vs natural disaster.

To those who have already read the book by the time tsunami struck the asian coasts, the news of the tidal wave would have sounded funny or ridiculous. (ah! someone's trying to make the book real!?). But on seeing the heavy casualty in every news channel, they would have hunted all possible resources to verify whether the 9.8 richter earthquake was indeed natural. That includes me as i was half way thru the book and could guess the rest. I shall wait and see if the book is a real best seller or like the novel, an artificially proclaimed one!!