History Literature / Prey

* HollywoodScience: The thermite charges used by the protagonists explode violently when ignited, much like a grenade. In RealLife, however, thermite actually burns relatively calmly.

* ShownTheirWork: It's Creator/MichaelCrichton. The fact that it is impossible to quickly build several billion nanobots individually (the "build-time problem") is directly addressed, for one.

* XanatosGambit: An unusual version, as it is pulled by the heroes. Jack and May manage to place the swarm killing virus into the main assembly line of the facility, which will flood the air of the facility with the virus, but only if the safety system is turned off. While doing this, they also fill the emergency fire sprinkler tank with the virus as well, and light a fire. This places the antagonistic swarm in a brilliant MortonsFork. If the hosts leave the safety systems on, the infected water will flood the facility and kill the swarm, but if they turn the safeties off, the infected air will flood the facility and kill the swarm. Jack aptly sums it up as "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

** How the swarms kill. They suffocate the victims by pouring in waves into every orifice until the victim suffocates.

* DyingAsYourself: Jack is ultimately unable to save Julia, Vince, and Ricky from the swarms, but does succeed does manage to remove them long enough destroy the research facility. Considering the state of the hosts when they are removed, it was most certainly a MercyKill.

* XanatosGambit: An unusual version, as it is pulled by the heroes. Jack and May manage to place infect the swarm killing virus into the main assembly line of the facility, which will flood the air of the facility with the virus, but only if the safety system is turned off. While doing this, they also fill the emergency fire sprinkler tank with the virus as well, and light a fire. This places the antagonistic swarm in a brilliant MortonsFork. If the hosts leave the safety systems on, the infected water will flood the facility and kill the swarm, but if they turn the safeties off, the infected air will flood the facility and kill the swarm. Jack aptly sums it up as "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

* WeaksauceWeakness: Wind. The nanoswarms have to stick very close to the ground whenever wind comes up, or the swarm will disperse and the bots will deactivate.

* BodyHorror: Any time the nanoswarms interact with organic material, it's probably not going to be pretty.

* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler:It's not entirely clear how much control the infector swarms have over their human hosts, nor how intelligent they are. They seem to be accessing their host's memories and directing their actions to some extent, but the hosts are implied to have at least some measure of free will left - hence the hosts' apparent willingness in spreading the nanotech to dominate the world.]]

-->''It's hard to believe that a week ago my biggest problem was finding a job. It seems almost laughable now. But then, things never turn out the way you think they will.''

* AIIsACrapshoot: Averted. The nanoswarms are simply trying to protect and propogate themselves ([[GoneHorriblyRight exactly what they were programmed to do]]). However, they are also not smart enough to be reasoned with: not true AI.

''Prey'' is a 2002 sci-fi thriller novel by MichaelCrichton, this time centering around {{Nanomachines}} that have gone wildly out of control and threaten lives, and the main characters must prevent them from getting any more out-of-hand. As is typical for Crichton, [[ShownTheirWork he goes into]] great detail on the technical aspects of the nanotech; mostly, in this case, computer programmming and evolutionary theory.

* ShownTheirWork: It's MichaelCrichton. The fact that it is impossible to quickly build several billion nanobots individually (the "build-time problem") is directly addressed, for one.

* TheyLookLikeUsNow: The swarms eventually begin to imitate human forms, implied to be random behavior as part of their learning algorithms. They accomplish this by carefully arranging themselves and aligning their solar panels, reflecting light into the images they need.

* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler:It's not entirely clear how much control the infector swarms have over their human hosts, nor how intelligent they are. They seem to be accessing their host's memories and directing their actions to some extent, but the hosts are implied to have at least some measure of free will left.]]

* ScienceIsBad: Averted. The book mentions the numerous very useful, revolutionary technologies that could come about with nanotech. It also stresses that the technology is also very dangerous, and should be handled cautiously. The company in the novel just did some incredibly ''stupid'' things, which is why the danger happens.

* BookEnds: The first and last scenes of the book are nearly identical, word for word. [[spoiler:At the beginning, the scene sounds like everything has GoneHorriblyWrong. At the end, however, the reader knows enough that the same scene is actually a BittersweetEnding.]]

** While he gets some of the wider strokes relatively accurate, he unfortunately gets virtually everything else detailed about nanotech wrong. For MichaelCrichton, it's remarkably shoddy preparation.

* GreyGoo: Discussed, lampshaded, and [[spoiler:played straight in the first climax. The nanites begin targeting organic material, as they need it to make more swarms.]]

''It's hard to believe that a week ago my biggest problem was finding a job. It seems almost laughable now. But then, things never turn out the way you think they will.''

* InfoDump: Blocks of hard science appear at several points with minimal explanation.

* HouseHusband: Jack
* GreyGoo: ''Not'' present, for once. The nanoswarms have more specific tasks programmed into them.
* GoneHorriblyRight: The "wild" nanoswarms. They are doing exactly what they were programmed to do: solve problems about how to survive on their own.

* {{Transhuman}}: [[spoiler:Infected!Julia claims that the nanoswarms are forming a symbiotic relationship with humans, but it is horribly clear, when the swarm is stripped away, that they are really killing the real Julia one small bit at a time.]]

* AIIsACrapshoot: Averted. The nanoswarms are simply trying to protect and propogate themselves. However, they are also not smart enough to be reasoned with: not true AI.

* ShownTheirWork: It's MichaelCrichton.