Michael Crichton is arguably the successor of Arthur Hailey, the first great author of “capitalist realism” (whose bestsellers back in the 1960s – Hotel, Airport, Cars… – always focused on a particular site of production or complex organization, mixing melodramatic plot with lengthy descriptions of how the site functions, in an unexpected replica of the Stalinist classics of the late 1920s and 1930s like Gladkov’s Cement). Crichton gave to the genre a postmodern techno-thriller twist, in accordance with today’s predominant politics of fear: he is the ultimate novelist of fear – fear of the past (Jurassic Park, Eaters of the Dead), of the nanotechnological future (Prey), of Japan’s business (The Rising Sun), of sexual harassment (Disclosure), of robotic technology (Westworld), of medical industry (Coma), of alien intrusion (Andromeda Strain), of ecological catastrophy (State of Fear). State of Fear, his last book, brings an unexpected final twist to this series of shadowy forces which lurk among us, poised to wreak havoc: America’s fiercest enemies are none others than environmentalists themselves.