Just finished reading it (It was a Christmas present).
The story involves the heroes foiling a plot by eco-terrorists who attempt to create "natural" disasters in an effort to push their agenda regarding global warming. Along the way the Crichton presents a pretty convincing argument that scientists don't really have a good enough understanding of our climate to really estimate the impacts of mankind and that many of the events claimed to be evidence of global warming are statistically insignificant and contain a huge amounts of bias. In addition, he provides references to many examples where mankind has failed miserably at trying to "manage and preserve" the environment. He also makes a feast (literally, read the book :-) ) of Hollywood stars who push environmental causes and claim to pine for the more "simplistic and environmentally friendly" life of native islanders all the while living in their huge mansions, driving their SUV's and traveling around the world in private jets. The title "State of Fear" comes the concept well known to many on the list that best way to control society is via fear. In this case fear of global warming. There are a lot of footnotes and an extensive bibliography of the current research both supporting and debunking global warming. It will interesting to see if this book makes it into a movie (It almost seems like a rebuttal of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"). Crichton's other books include, "The Andromeda Strain" (I'm sure most of us old-timers on the list will recognize that one), "Disclosure", "Airframe", and (the one most new subscribers will recognize), "Jurassic Park". I recommend taking a look.
