Crichton, Michael

• The Andromeda Strain (7 r)

  • This was one of Crichton's earliest works, and his style is just as recognizable and unique here as in his more popular later books. This is a fairly realistic interpretation of the government's response to a strange virus that comes down to Earth after being capture by a "scooping" satellite (scary to think that the UW Astronomy dept. has a fairly similar project going to collect upper atmosphere micrometeorites). The movie, though very old by now, is still gripping. So is the book.

• A Case of Need (6)

  • Recently re-released medical/legal thriller written by Crichton under a pseudonym in his early days. Though I didn't expect much, I'd have to say that Crichton is a fair match for any of the best legal-thriller writers of today, such as Turow and Grisham. Anyone who watches ER will see Crichton's medical school background come to the fore in this book as it does in the series. A good detective novel. Not great, but worth reading.

• Congo (5)

  • One of Crichton's less exciting books, this one involves a team of archaeologists exploring the deep jungles of Africa and finding an intelligent tribe of *nasty* primates. Has its moments, and there was a halfway decent movie version. I'd put this down on my list fairly deep. If you like Crichton's other stuff, this is definitely readable.

• Sphere (4)

  • Just below Congo at the bottom of the list of Crichton books. This is a suspense-horror novel that takes place in a cramped research lab at the bottom of the ocean that is being attacked by some odd manifestation of power from an alien ship. A bit bizarre and very check-your-brain-at-the-door suspension of disbelief required to get it down. Still, good pulp for hard core Crichton fans. This could be a good horror movie if someone good like John Carpenter got hold of it.

• The Terminal Man (4)

  • Story about a scientific experiment to treat a human brain like a lab rat. Give it a chance to self-stimulate (the brain or a rat) and watch it slowly become hopelessly addicted in an exponential timescale. Unfortunately, the self-stimulation also causes the patient to become homicidal... Fairly effective scary story, ranks just above Congo on my list. Might make a good ABC Movie of the Week. :)

• Jurassic Park (8)

  • If you haven't seen the movie or heard about this story, you've been living in a cave. This is a very good speculative story about a dinosaur genetic breeding experiment gone somewhat amok. If you liked the movie, you should read the book. It has a much better ending and is somewhat more realistic all-in-all.

• Rising Sun (7)

  • This book got flamed for Japan-bashing, but it's really not as bad as all that. It just isn't PC. Anyway, an interesting murder mystery...Crichton's attempt to create a "Hercule Poirot" character comes off pretty well. Again, book is better than the movie, though I have to say I thought Sean Connery was made for that role.

• Disclosure (10)

  • I avoided this like the plague when it first came out, believing what I had heard about it being somewhat of a "backlash" book. While this may be in part true, that doesn't mean it isn't an incredibly gripping story. This is one of those rare books I just COULD NOT PUT DOWN. The movie, while excellent, hardly does the book justice as the book is a bit more complex and wild. Set aside your politics for this one. It's a great thriller.

• The Lost World (8)

  • I read this book before going out to see the movie in the summer of 1997, and, like pretty much all of Crichton's stuff, it is fluff, but quite enjoyable. Crichton is very skilled at getting to the exciting parts of the story quickly and keeping things moving. Clearly, this book is written with a screenplay in mind, but for all its literary shortcomings (lack of character development, implausible plotlines and actions, discontinuity with Jurassic Park, etc), it was still a fun read. Sometimes, that's pretty much all I care about. So sue me.

• Airframe (8)

  • If you liked "Disclosure", then you'll like this. Once again, Crichton has written a very tight, fast-paced plot within the time frame of a single week, written from the point of view of a character who is the target of a major-league backstabbing by virtually everyone powerful character/entity in the book (although, of course, the quiet, hidden, well-meaning friends and the character's smarts and integrity come through in the end). Like "Disclosure", Crichton weaves in a lot of interesting details about the background of society (in this case, the aviation industry instead of sexual harassment laws), but he typically does this without the seemingly forced soliloquys from knowledgeable characters.

    The main plot involves a female Vice President of a large airplane manufacturer in the U. S. (similar to Boeing or perhaps Lockheed) and how she handles damage control and investigations for the company after one of their planes suffers an incident in the air leaving a few passengers dead and several wounded. Ok, I'll admit several of the characters were entirely too one-dimensional, but as I've said before, literary merit is not that big of a deal to me if I enjoy the book, and I liked this one enough to zip through it in a day (thanks to a long wait at an airport).

• Timeline (7)

  • This novel reads a lot like "Jurassic Park". The story is that of a super-wealthy individual cutting corners to do interesting and very dangerous science for fun and profit. This time, instead of creating dinosaurs, the wealthy industrialist (Robert Doniger) creates a time machine, using principles out of the current scientific journals (Crichton's specialty is that he is very good at speculating from the most interesting ongoing scientific research in virtually any field). The purpose is both academic (observing life in the Middle Ages in this case) and economic (Doniger hopes to sell history tours to the super-rich).

    As in all time-travel novels, there are the paradoxes to deal with, and Crichton has an interesting twist on this problem that is similar in many respects to Simon Hawke's excellent "Time Wars" series. Unlike the plodding and disjointed "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis, Crichton makes the Middle Ages a lot of fun (not surprisingly), throwing in a lot of action, surprise and intrigue. The characters are familiar from Crichton's other novels (the troubled scientist, the overeager fighter-type, the kid-in-over-his-head, etc), and that's starting to wear a little thin. If you liked "Jurassic Park", this is a good half-price book store pickup.

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