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Below is the review I posted on a thread a few days ago, and FWIW am posting again. I strongly recommend the book but I think Mr. Murray is a little overheated. See point 2) below.

Earlier Review:
I just finished the book last night and for what its worth, here are my thoughts.

1) It's a very interesting and enjoyable book, but it's a horrible novel. A lot of the most interesting scenes are things I either knew or had fantasized myself (that's not as weird as it sounds). For instance, every time I see Martin Sheen or Oliver Stone preening about some issue, I picture him getting his comeuppance in some perfectly appropriate way. There are scenes like that in the book. And the analysis of the data, the fisking of the green talking points, is all very interesting. But if you follow the issue or Michael Chrichton's speeches, it's not really new. That leaves the story itself, which is frankly not nearly as taut as it ought to be. And its ending is exciting, but there is no scene that resolves the issues and relationships between the characters; there is no scene that affords finality.

That is unfortunate, because the problems it has as a novel might turn people off the book, and thus prevent people from reading all the great debunking of environmentalists and their celebrity backers.

2) Reading the book, I came to the realization that we conservatives are the obsessive ex-grilfriend of American culture. Every time we get the least recognition from the culture at large, we invest the recognition with importance far beyond its actual significance, as though it meant we'd finally get our boyfriend back and we could call and tell mom she was all wrong about him. But in fact, the gesture is not significant.

Why do we do that to ourselves? Every once and a while something like this book comes out and we start thinking "Finally! American culture is normal again!" But it always ends the same; in a few weeks people will be gawking at some art movie about epileptic lesbians, giving it twice the coverage as "State of Fear" and 10 times the positive feedback. Maybe it's just me that feels that way, but it seems that we are inordinately hopeful based on relatively small victories, like a mainstream thriller in which environmentalists are treated as the rats they really are. It's nice to see, but it will fade, and the culture will return to its natural state of contempt for anything to the right of Jesse Jackson.

(Rereading that, I have to admit that this year has been better than most -- the Passion, National Treasure (which has the decency to treat the Founders as great heroes of history and man, even if it is all fiction), the new Tom Wolfe book, State of Fear). But no, I won't get my hopes up only to have my heart broken again!

3) Virtually everything anyone can say against the book in terms of the science is debunked by the book itself. I haven't read the review yet, but I bet I can find passages in the book that directly challenge the reviewer (that the reviewer most likely ignores). It's an incredibly thorough book, and that's good and bad. It's good, because it builds confidence that Mr. Chrichton knows what he is talking about, but bad because it means that most of the book reads like a deposition transcript.

In fact, that's probably the best thing about the book. If you've ever wanted to get some environmental activist / talking head into the dock and give him a good interrogation, then this book is for you. But that doesn't make it a good novel.

4) There's a scene near the end that conservatives will especially appreciate. It's more than just anti-green, it's really anti-left, and it does a good job of explaining the social forces that so irritate us. I sometimes think we conservatives mean to shoot but don't no how to aim, that complain about one thing but really are angry about something else, or at least something much larger than we realize. It's worth getting the book just to read it.

I strongly recommend the book, but as I said those conservatives that follow the issue probably won't be surprised by anything. That said, there are some very exciting scenes and, for those of us who ever wanted to see a left-winger get his comeuppance, there's a scene near the end that's worth the price of the book in itself.

Good review.

I finished it last week, and I would still recommend it...if nothing else, as a breath of fresh air in a liberal, environmental wacko world.

My main gripe is that the Kenner character--while used primarily to push the truth--ends up being way too longwinded to appeal to most people. He is the character that takes Crichton's extensive list of footnotes and references and puts it into words. However, as interesting as the facts are to some of us, most people will find them dull and uninteresting, and be turned off by the character's rants. Once a screenwriter gets hold of this project, the Kenner character will cease to exist as we have seen him.

"2) Reading the book, I came to the realization that we conservatives are the obsessive ex-grilfriend of American culture. Every time we get the least recognition from the culture at large, we invest the recognition with importance far beyond its actual significance, as though it meant we'd finally get our boyfriend back and we could call and tell mom she was all wrong about him. But in fact, the gesture is not significant."

Great analogy.