Prey

　　「我已經習慣當家庭煮夫的生活了，沒想到曾是高科技公司電腦程式設計師的我可以如此優游、甚至勝任這般瑣碎的家務，但我那擔任公司高層主管的太太竟開始有徹夜不歸的紀錄，而且經常說話不算話，更奇怪的是，她的某些生活習慣改變了，還指責我為什麼不去上班並離間她和孩子間的感情！從種種歇斯底里的跡象看來，我懷疑她有外遇。這使我開始不得不採取先發制人的行動，還有就是解決我目前最大的問題--找工作。

　　「當我焦頭爛額之際，太太的公司竟要聘我擔任他們的顧問，我決定接下工作，順便探查太太古怪行為的來由。不過，我萬萬沒想到需要面對的問題竟是如此恐怖，當下我所能做的只有背水一戰......」

　　才華洋溢的麥克．克萊頓繼《侏儸紀公園》後，再度以科技事實為背景，透過驚悚的筆法描繪出因人性的軟弱所造成的科學災難。一場生死存亡的獵殺行動就此展開。

　　In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. 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 evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.

　　Every attempt to destroy it has failed.

　　And we are the prey.

作者簡介

　　Michael Crichton, who died in Los Angeles on November 4, 2008, was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. His most recent novel, Next, about genetics and law, was published in December 2006.

　　Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT. Crichton's 2004 bestseller, State of Fear, acknowledged the world was growing warmer, but challenged extreme anthropogenic warming scenarios. He predicted future warming at 0.8 degrees C. (His conclusions have been widely misstated.)

　　Crichton's interest in computer modeling went back forty years. His multiple-discriminant analysis of Egyptian crania, carried out on an IBM 7090 computer at Harvard, was published in the Papers of the Peabody Museum in 1966. His technical publications included a study of host factors in pituitary chromophobe adenoma, in Metabolism, and an essay on medical obfuscation in the New England Journal of Medicine.

　　Crichton's first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published while he was still a medical student. He later worked full time on film and writing. One of the most popular writers in the world, his books have been translated into thirty-six languages, and thirteen have been made into films.

　　He had a lifelong interest in computers. His feature film Westworld was the first to employ computer-generated special effects back in 1973. Crichton's pioneering use of computer programs for film production earned him a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 1995.

　　Crichton won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award for ER. In 2002, a newly discovered ankylosaur was named for him: Crichtonsaurus bohlini. He had a daughter, Taylor, and lived in Los Angeles. Crichton remarried in 2005.