For Michael Crichton fans

[Radioactive]

Any 1 of u a fan of mike crichton?if u r then let's talk about his books.i've read his books: timeline,jurassic park,the lost world,the terminal man,the andromeda strain, prey,etc.any of u read any other?tell me about it!

[StarLab]

Los World's the best...won't say no more.

[Tinaa]

I liked Timeline. The ending really added a nice twist.

[tyrie2001]

I've only read one of his books so far, it was Jurassic Park, I thought it was very good, I'd like to read more of his books, any perticular ones would you guys would recommend?

[Radioactive]

Originally posted by tyrie2001@Jun 21 2005, 06:57 AM
any perticular ones would you guys would recommend?

tell u what , all his books r classy(i'll say that coz i'm 1 of his biggest fans ) then again i found sphere good,and prey has a lot 'bout nanotech and AI.timeline is one masterpiece.try timeline 1st.that's the latest i've read(and i loved it).

[Sabo]

I have read many of his books, and i enjoyed every one of them:-)

Timeline is definately a highlight though!

[howard2]

Michael Crichton is the best writer alive. His imagery is so good you are transported into his world.
His is a very rare talent.

Howard2

[RobWolfe]

I have liked every one of his books that I've read. I liked timeline but thought jurassic park was better. I don't remember if it was jurassic park or lost world but the part where the T-Rex got in the water and swam after the boat like a giant crocodile sent chills up my spine.

[Rivertree]

I've only read one of his books, TRAVELS.


It's my favorite book.


How well do his other works compare?

[Hutch]

He is a reasonably good writer, and his first book "The Andromedea Strain" is perhaps one of my favorites.

Unfortunately, the last book of his I read, "Prey", was nowhere near as good and read more like a movie script (which it probably will be one of these days) than a good novel.

[tdvance]

It's not quite a technothriller in the traditional sense, but his "The First Great Train Robbery" is a good book. You end up rooting for the bad guy in this one....

[ToSeek]

Moved from "BABBling" to "Small Media at Large."

[Gillianren]

Michael Crichton is the best writer alive. His imagery is so good you are transported into his world.
His is a very rare talent.

I have to disagree. He's not a bad writer, but The Lost World, for example, was a bad book. I wasn't transported anywhere but into a state of annoyance for such a blatantly commercial book. A truly dedicated writer doesn't write books because they're popular; they write books because if they don't, the idea in their head will drive them crazy.

Michael Crichton's okay, but Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Lois McMaster Bujold, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Alan Moore, and any number of others are far superior writers. Heck, I more reliably like Dave Barry.

[parallaxicality]

I've gone off Crichton since he became an anti-global warming crusader. Jurassic Park was excellent, The Terminal Man was good, The Andromeda Strain was OK; Westworld, which he directed, was great. However, Sphere and Congo were atrocious, Eaters of the Dead was just bad, and the less said about State of Fear, the better. Timeline and Prey were mediocre, but good for a plane ride.

[MG1962A]

I thought Timeline was excellent. Prey was reasonable, Westorld...I consider his best

[tdvance]

Westworld the movie was great---sphere the book was good. It's been a while since I've seen the movie but I remember it being ok.

Disclosure, both the book and movie, are good. Congo the book was better than the movie.

Neat trivia about Andromeda Strain (the book), it was written in the style of a "government report" complete with fictional references. Crichton said once (I forgot where) that several readers thought the book was a nonfictional account of a real incident. Another piece of trivia--he wrote Andromeda Strain as a med student, in secret, because his advisor would not have taken too kindly to his devoting so much time on something not integral toward finishing his degree. Of course, he showed his advisor, making more money than nearly every other doctor!

[nomuse]

Hrm. I find him a functional storyteller with personal axes to grind. Most of his books move along briskly as long as you are careful not to get distracted by all the exposed plot machinery. He does his research, and is obviously having fun presenting all the cool stuff he found: which does make him a little schizoid; fawning over science and technology in the specific whilst simultaneously decrying it in the general.

The movies don't really do him justice, though. I found Congo great fun to read, both for all the canned lectures, and for the usual Crichton spectacle of an expedition loaded down with tech far too advanced and fragile, heading into a situation primed to make most of it break -- in the most inconvenient way possible. The movie didn't seem to get it, and tried to be more serious than the material could (or should) support.

[Gerrsun]

Nuff said. ^

Jurassic Park was ok, although I remember little about it, it's been so long since I read it.

[Strider1974]

Another piece of trivia--he wrote Andromeda Strain as a med student, in secret, because his advisor would not have taken too kindly to his devoting so much time on something not integral toward finishing his degree. Of course, he showed his advisor, making more money than nearly every other doctor!

While in medical school, he wrote novels under the pen names John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson (under which pseudonym A Case of Need won the 1969 Edgar Award).

EDIT - Forgot to include the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton

[Tog]

I liked Jurassic Park and Eaters of the Dead, and sort of like Congo, but for someoe that is supposed to be so detail oriented regarding getting the science right in his books, he made two really really bad mistakes.

The first ws in Congo. As they are all running from, well, everything, they come across a C-130. They scramble up the landing gear to the wing then drop down into the fuselage. No... The C-130 has it's wheels mounted low on the fuselage. There is no way to get to the wings without going through the fuselage.

Spoiler for Jurassic Park:

Ian Malcom, star of the second book, is mentioned at the end of the first one with the following:
"The Costa Rican governement would not even permmit the burial of Hammod or Malcom". We know Hammond died, but it never really says Malcom did. Still, if he survived, it seems like they should have mentioned all the survivors that were not allowed to be buried.

[nomuse]

Well, as far as Congo goes....Crichton described that one as a failed experiment. He intentionally went for something based on reality, but that wasn't an actual item. That is; in general what he says about, say, primate communication is correct, but the specific examples he gives are made up. I don't know if he carried that through to aircraft, tho!

Eaters of the Dead lost me the moment I figured out where he was going (embarrassing to say, not until they arrived at the mead hall). Was also annoying just how obvious the change from diary to his own made-up material was. Almost to the precise word where it changed, obvious.

[Gillianren]

Spoiler for Jurassic Park:

Ian Malcom, star of the second book, is mentioned at the end of the first one with the following:
"The Costa Rican governement would not even permmit the burial of Hammod or Malcom". We know Hammond died, but it never really says Malcom did. Still, if he survived, it seems like they should have mentioned all the survivors that were not allowed to be buried.

Oh, man, I hated that! I was in line to see the sneak preview of The Lost World with someone who'd only seen the first movie and read the second book. The rest of us, who'd read the first book, were joking about how lively Ian Malcolm looked in the commercials, given he was a dead guy.

So the guy who hadn't read the first book was going on and on about how Malcolm couldn't be dead, because he didn't die in the movie. We said we knew; he died in the book. He pointed out that he was alive in the second book. We said we knew; he died in the first book. It got to the point that other people, people who weren't with our group, were trying to explain the Incredible Resurrecting Ian Malcolm to this guy. It didn't take. I kind of wonder now if he ever got around to reading the first book.

[mahesh]

..... Heck, I more reliably like Dave Barry.

Gillianren, hi....i absolutely love Dave Barry....
(i wonder what's happened to his column in IHT!...after so many years, too!)

'Big Trouble'....what a hoot!

[Gillianren]

He retired.

[mahesh]

he can't do THAT....!!
it's not fair....

[deepspace]

well. I have read 3 books of this writer.these masterpieces are Time line,Jurassic park and the andromeda strain. I like to read more...

[mahesh]

andromeda strain...excellent book...excellent film

[Gillianren]

I just don't think "masterpiece" describes any Michael Crichton novel. "Workmanlike." "Readable." "Tolerable." But I reserve "masterpiece" for works a great deal better, and seldom at all by living authors. (Simply because there's a lot more dead ones.)

[tdvance]

I just don't think "masterpiece" describes any Michael Crichton novel. "Workmanlike." "Readable." "Tolerable." But I reserve "masterpiece" for works a great deal better, and seldom at all by living authors. (Simply because there's a lot more dead ones.)

What was the Tom Clancy quote, something like--"It's not 'literature' unless people have to be forced to read it."

Todd

[parallaxicality]

Given the quality of most Tom Clancy novels, that's the sort of ignorant twaddle I'd expect from him. No one forced people to watch Shakespeare; he made money hand over fist putting on his shows. Dickens published most of his work in installments for popular consumption, and travelled the world giving sold-out lectures. Yet even in their own lifetimes they were both regarded as great writers. In the 17th century it was highly unusual for the works of a playwright to be published as literature (it would be akin to a television script being published today), but Shakespeare's colleagues did so, because they recognised their merit.