The Strait Times is running this story on Michael Crichton and his new book Prey, which will be available in the United States on Monday. Publisher HarperCollins has bet heavily on Prey. They’re confident of its success, and they’re putting all the marketing muscle they can muster behind it. After stealing Crichton away from publisher Knopf, in a two-book deal which reportedly cost US$40 million, HarperCollins is shipping 1.5 million copies of Prey–the same number sold in hardcover of his last book, Timeline, 3 years ago. In this latest thriller, Crichton goes back to the familiar theme of tech-gone-wrong, with science and scientists running amok. Says Crichton, “I was interested in knowing where three trends might be going – distributed programming, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.”

So who’s going to be the first to post a review?