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This book may be a watershed Most of the reviews so far have separated the book into two parts: an action-romance-adventure thriller, and an exposition on a political subject. I will keep with the pattern. The fiction part of the book is a little improbable, to say the least. Crighton has some pretty unlikely characters - a civil litigator, an executive assistant, an actor - chasing around the globe in roles better suited for highly trained commandos. Yet Crighton may be excused for this because clearly the novel was written with an eye on the movie to follow. And rather than allow a screenwriter to heavily edit the story, Crighton provides up front the necessary elements for a Hollywood box-office hit. And so all the women are beautiful, and the prospect for sex is ever-present, the action scenes are exciting, the special effects guys are given clear guidelines to do their wizardry; and the chapters are short, each representing a nice bite-sized scene. Like Jurassic Park, it should be a thriller. Unlike Jurassic Park, the underlying premise - the political story - is not so improbable. Indeed, it is Crighton's purpose to expose the popular and currently prevailing view on global warming as the improbable scenario. By citing a wealth of scientific data, available to any and all from peer-reviewed prestigious sources, Crighton shows us just some of the many flaws in the global warming theory, especially as it is popularly understood. Crighton attributes this to a global conspiracy. I would disagree on this, his ultimate thesis. The more likely and mundane reason the science has strayed so far from what the facts truly are can be found in the nature of science research funding. That is, no researcher ever gets a grant proposal funded by saying, "we hypothesize there is no significant problem (and are ready to study the non-problem over the next 2 years for a cost of several million dollars)." Nevertheless, I would predict this book could do to the global warming activists' movement what Reagan did to the Soviet Empire: make its continued existence untenable. Whether they are for or against Crighton's political views, the book is a must-read for those who want to participate as the debate goes forward.