November
2008
Michael Crichton was one of my favorite authors
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Just when I thought nothing could wipe this grin off my face today, I hear that Michael Crichton has died at the age of 66 after a private battle with cancer. I think I have read every one of his books. He’s the only bestseller author I can say that about. His books were quite formulaic: a group of intelligent experts in different fields are brought together to solve a crisis. The formula worked well. Since each character was ignorant in the other experts’ fields, they had to explain everything to each other in layman’s terms, thus informing the reader as well. What I loved about his books was that he took a field of science and blended smoothly the known reality of the field into a science fiction “what if” scenario. None of his work is classic literature, but it’s all excellent reading for scientifically inquisitive.
Below is one of my favorite interviews with Michael Crichton. His intelligence is obvious.
He has one final book, untitled but with ISBN 9780060873028, scheduled for release on December 2, 2008.
Erik R.
Michael Crichton’s death makes me so sad. I have had the best adventures with him through all of his books….and spent the time in between anticipating his whatever new book was in the works. RIP.
The first two books I read in Spanish: Sphere and Congo.
(I mean the first two I finished, as I started H2G2 prior to beginning to read his novels, but I didn’t get very far.)
Michael Crichton translated a lot better into Spanish than Douglas Adams.
I’ve read Rescate en el Tiempo (a.k.a. Timeline) in Spanish. One of the only books I’ve read in Spanish. Which might be why my written Spanish is so weak.
But what did you think of his “global warming is a hoax” book?
State of Fear was, well, interesting. The global warming skepticism was a little strange. But then he also wrote a “non-fiction” book about seeing auras and traveling on the astral plane. Crichton wasn’t perfect, but he could tell a damn good scientifically plausible story.
The best lesson I got from State of Fear was that it’s insulting for a first worlder to visit a third world country and take delight in how “quaint” everything is and mourn the fact that the first world can’t live as simply as the third world. No one wants to live in an underdeveloped country.
Have you read Travels? A fascinating nonfiction read.
Travels is my favorite, I think. That’s the one I was referring to about “non-fiction” about auras, astral planes, and spoon bending. His stories from medical school and world travel are fascinating.