The publishing company ran a game prior to publication wherein one had to visit a variety of websites scanning for codes and locations in Flash banners. Though this was quite cheesy at the time, reading the book now makes the clues more meaningful. Just for the record, here is the list of clues. This list alone, shows the breadth of the book, without giving away much of the plot.
1. AKAMAI
2. Paris Nord, France
3. Pavutu, Africa
4. Pahang, Malaysia
5. Shad Thames, London
6. Tokyo, Japan
7. Vancouver, BC
8. San Francisco, CA
9. Point Moody, CA
10. TERROR
11. Punta Arenas, Chile
12. Weddell Station, Antarctica
13. Beverly Hills, CA
14. ANGEL
15. Los Angeles, CA
16. Century City, CA
17. FLASH
18. City of Commerce, CA
19. Diablo Canyon, AZ
20. McKinley State Park, AZ
21. Arroraville, AZ
22. Oakland, CA
23. BLUE
24. Santa Monica, CA
25. RESOLUTION
26. Resolution Bay, Gareda
27. Pavutu, Gareda
One of the key aspects of this book, apart from the scientific spin, is the concept of netwar - most resonant with the current War on Terror. This deals with the fear of governments in having to fight an amorphous, loosely connected enemy who changes and shifts focus, and is well-informed & well-funded. In this case, the eco-terrorists employ highly advanced methods to attempt to control the weather, and are tracked by highly covert methods with great difficulty.
Possibly the most compelling character is a USC Professor named Hoffman who puts forth the proposition that the environmental crisis supplanted the specter of global communism as a means of social control by the 'PLM' or politico-legal-media complex. Sounding like a David Icke-clone, he makes quite a bit of sense in trying to show that state control of society depends on having sources of fear to manipulate the populace. Not a new idea, and one that saw it's most sinister application in the fascist regimes of the twentieth century, and indeed in the historicity argument of Marxism. Hoffmann's best line comes when he talks about 'whole sectors of society' living 'the life of the mind', supplanting universities, who, according to him, are 'the most restrictive environments in modern society' and 'factories of fear for the PLM'. Thus he adduces 'the nation that these institutions are liberal is a joke. They are fascist to the core...'
In effect, Dr Crichton's thesis is that the eco-crisis is a meme gone wild, an idea whose appeal is like that of a fad, fed by legions of academia, politicians and the media. He expands on the theme, directly to the reader at the end of the book, with a few appendices, and the line, possibly tongue in cheek that 'Everybody has an agenda. Except me.'
Article comments
1 - Bryce Eddings
Listed at Advance
2 - DrPat
For sci-fi global warming scenarios, I preferred John Barnes' Mother of All Storms, which posited the massive collapse of sea-bed clathrates (deposits of methane "ice" trapped by the cold temperatures at the bottom of the sea.)
The strange thing about Crichton's book is that different elements of his fiction are even now being posted as fact or speculation in regard to the 12/29 tsunami.
Life imitates art...
3 - Aaman
ars longa, vita brevis
Actually, Dr Crichton posits an anti-global warming scenario, lol
4 - PC1149
He's a Doctor?
5 - Aaman
Yes - a medical doctor from Harvard Medical School. He also ran a software company, FilmTrack, which developed computer programs for motion picture production in the 1980s; for this pioneering work he won an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Technical Achievement Award in 1995. His film Westworld was first feature film to employ computer-generated special effects.
Bio here