Timeline by Michael Crichton

I finished another book. Timeline by Michael Crichton. It was a good book. A fast paced Crichton read. In the book a group in France is excavating a 14 century site with castles on opposite sides of a river. The work is sponsored by a secretive company called ITC from Arizona. While doing the excavation the team finds an unexpected document on ancient parchment. Another unexpected document arrives via a man found mumbling incoherently in the Arizona desert. The France researchers realize ITC knows more about the site as it was in the 14th century than they should and they are summoned back to Arizona.

Back in AZ ITC has been working on a fantastic device. Based on the famous double-slit experiments where it was shown that every electron in the universe somehow "knows" about every other electron. They exploit the multiverse to show with some leaps of logic that it is possible to travel back in time. The modern researchers are sent back to 14th century France to find and bring back their professor who went back a few days earlier and then failed to return.

Typical Crichton techno thriller there are numerous unexpected twists both in France in the past and in USA in the present. The transporters only work for 37 hours and it's a race against time on both sites to bring the researchers back.

I liked this book. It was from a good phase in Chrichton's career. Crichton does the "grad students thrown into crazy situation" theme pretty well and this is a strong title.

I found the book at Doull's, a fine store. I thought I might be finished with Crichton but on the sites I can see there's still a couple titles left.

The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton

I finished another book. It was The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton. I got it from a church yard sale for $2. It was well worth it. This is one of his earlier titles, set in the early 1970s. In the book a man named Harry Benson is suffering from seizures that cause violent outbursts. Doctors at the neuro psychiatric unit of a major hospital think they can cure Benson by implanting a computer into him that sends electrical simulations to his brain right before seizures occur.

Facing a serious assault charge, Benson agrees to the operation. Alas in the wake of the operation unintended consequences occur. The patient Benson originally seems passive and docile however the doctors consequently learn too late that Harry has his own plans and they are constantly a step behind.

This was a very good book. Crichton, himself a medical doctor, writes about doctors and hospitals very well. He's really in his element here. Like Andromeda Strain, some of the major characters are doctors. Set in the early 1970s, a theme of this book is the increasing and possible dangerous reliance on computers and technology. Crichton explores this technology run amuck theme later in Jurassic Park and Prey.

The story is fast paced. The writing is very crisp. This is a fine Crichton title. There's a few Crichton left for me to find and finish. I enjoy his earlier work it tends to be quite good.

Next by Michael Crichton

Continuing the Crichton reading I finished another book Next from later in his career. In this story Crichton explores the topic of genetic engineering and the ability of modern science to modify species, cure diseases, adjust human behavior,  using gene therapy. He also discusses related topics such as patenting of genes, and the ownership of the genes in our own bodies.

If there's ever a discussion of the worst Crichton title then Next should always be considered. This book is terrible. It seemed to have no discernible plot at all. Just a long sequence of unconnected genetic related events by unconnected people all over the world. He does make a halfhearted attempt to pull the storylines together in a sloppy and not believable confrontation at the very end of the book. But it was too little too late.

The characters are awful. It seems everyone is evil, hateful, greedy, selfish. He does make a good point about contemporary science though. Maybe in some romantic past like the heyday of Einstein there was some notion of the noble scientist serving only the advancement of human knowledge. Alas today there are literally millions in America and worldwide who make a living as "professional scientists". In such a large population the scientist is no longer a separate or special entity in society. Today they are just regular folks with the same shortcomings of regular folks, lying, cheating, stealing, underhanded dealing, deception, money chasing, litigious, concealing unfavorable findings, etc.

Ah the cheating. Going back to Disclosure and Prey Crichton has used marriage infidelity through his novels, usually as a key part of the plot. However in Next Crichton has turned it into the Getty museum. It seems pretty much everyone cheats. Worse the cheating seems to have just been thrown in for fun, unrelated to what little plot there was. For example one character Gail gets into a fight with her husband when their overly smart parrot discloses the husband has been bringing some slut back to their house. Gail storms out and then goes off to sleep with some colleague visiting researcher from Tokyo who she had cheated with before. Of course Crichton adds that Tokyo was also cheating as he has a wife and child back in Japan. And so on it goes throughout this painful book.

It was hard to finish and I nearly put it down. I did get through it for the laughs as I suspect Crichton may have released this book as a joke. It did make it finishable, reading it as an unserious work.

Like Stephen King, nobody claims that the later Crichton stuff is close to as good as the stuff from the early years. It is what it is. I get the feeling from the later titles that Crichton should have just retired from writing and spent more time enjoying his immense wealth in his final few years. Another step closer to done the Crichton project now.

Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

I finished reading another novel. It was Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. It was a good book. One of his early novels.

In the story an earth-orbiting satellite crashes in Piedmont Arizona and within hours all but two of the town's residents are dead. The book is the story of four scientists working in a special secure US government facility in their race to understand the nature of the apparent alien organism and what to do to contain it.

It was later made into a movie and that's not surprising. It's a fast paced story and there are many of the successful Crichton features. Plausible near future science fiction, scientists dealing with unexpectedly dangerous new discoveries and technology, chance errors and their unintended consequences.

I'm continuing to chug away at the Crichton library. The earlier titles are a bit harder to find in the library and I've still got a few to get through.

Micro by Michael Crichton

I finished another book recently. It was Micro by Michael Crichton. The book was unfinished at the time of Crichton's death and Richard Preston also gets author credit. Like Pirate Latitudes this book was published posthumously.

It was ok. I wouldn't call it his best work. In the book a group of graduate students in biology go to Hawaii on a recruiting visit from the Nanigen company. Alas they stumble upon a dark secret of the founder Vin Drake. The evil Drake uses the Nanigen shrinking machine to make the students about an inch tall and cuts them loose in the rainforest to perish. The novel is the story of their struggles to survive at that size in a hostile world; and the efforts of Drake to cover up his vile deeds mostly by committing more murders.

The best parts were the descriptions of being small. The micro world is quite dangerous and the shrunken humans are threatened by ants, centipedes, spiders, birds, bats, wasps and even ordinary rainfall. There's a real sense of danger reading those descriptions.

There's lots of plot twists and unexpected characters appearing to keep it interesting. Like several Crichton titles there's the who will survive? element that he also uses in Prey, State of Fear, Jurassic Park, etc.

It's still too bad Crichton is passed away. A great writer of our time. Well I've now completed the final books in his career. There's still a smaller number left of the earlier Crichton titles I haven't finished yet.

Pirate Latitues by Michael Crichton

I read another book recently. It was Pirate Latitues by Michael Crichton. It was good. It was just a few days to read it.

I hadn't heard of this Crichton title before. It turns out it was published after his death in 2008. The manuscript was found among his papers. I wonder how much more work the author was planning before sending it to his editor. The book was polished but I suspect Crichton may have tightened up a couple of places.

Still it was a good read. It's about a privateer heist in 1665 led by Captain Hunter based out of the wild Port Royal Jamaica which was a British colony at that time. The book is in the spirit of The Great Train Robbery set in the glorious British Empire of the past. A tale of audacity, daring, cunning and determination. Crichton does a very good job of describing the times and the reader is able to really feel for what life was like way back then. It is a good book and I'm glad I happened to find it a the library. I've read a lot of Crichton but still a few of his titles to work through.

Michael Crichton State of Fear

I just finished reading another book. It was State of Fear by Michael Crichton.

It was a good book. It was a more challenging read as it wasn't really clear throughout who where the good guys and the bad guys. In the plot a mild mannered California lawyer Peter Evans who does a lot of work for a multimillionaire philanthropist and environmental activist becomes tangled up in a scheme involving the radical militant environmental movement.

Although it was a bit of a leap with Evans' character development. If I was Evans I personally would have said after the Antarctica incident and got back to sunny southern Cal. whoa, whoa, whoa, this is crazy. I'm just a dumb lawyer, a paper pusher, I didn't go to law school to risk my life, I'm outta here. I want to chase ambulances, not end up in one. Still besides the occasional leap of faith and believability its an entertaining read, a page turner.

The author presents some very interesting views on the contemporary environment movement, global warming and the debates around the validity of global warming claimants, the incestuous relationship between government bureaucracies and government funded climate research scientists. The corrosive effect of the politicization of science. It was a rare book where the footnotes at the end were as nearly compelling as the story in the book.

The author uses characters such as a nutty retired sociology professor and an out of style drummed out MIT professor Kenner as the voices of reason. The reader notes that it was only after leaving academia that they were able to speak honestly their opinions about the true state of the environment.

The good news about the environment is that lifespan in the industrial west is still increasing. That would seem to suggest that wealth and industrial development is hardly killing us, actually it's making us healthier and safer and lengthening our lives.

Like every Crichton book it's a fast read, a good read. I'm not surprised it isn't a well known book and hasn't and won't be made into a motion picture. It challenges too many sensitive areas dear to the hollywood/celebrity elite clique.

The Great Train Robbery

I just read another book. It was The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton.

It was a good book. A fast and easy read. It took about a week to read. Set in the 1850s in Victorian London. Based on the actual train robbery and the subsequent trial. Crichton tells a vivid story of crime within a very class conscious society.

It turns out this was later made into a movie. I didn't know that until after I'd read it. No surprise there; it would make a good movie script. I may watch the movie some time if I think about it. It was good to switch to an easier read after the previous book which was a bit heavy. Not quite sure what I'll read next. Maybe another light book or some nonfiction. I do enjoy a well written Chricton style techno thriller.

Michael Crichton - Prey

I finished up another book recently. It was Prey by Michael Crichton. It was a good book. An easy and compelling read. It only took a few days to get through it.

It's the story of an experiment with nanotechnology and computer programming gone awry. Crichton uses some of the elements that are in some of his other books. Psychologists are prominent characters in this book (Sphere); new advanced technology gone awry (Jurassic Park); set in Silicon Valley (Disclosure, Airframe); infidelity (Disclosure); computer programmers (Jurassic Park). Crichton isn't afraid to reuse what works and what the fans are comfortable with and enjoy. The book isn't cliché though and there's plenty of fresh material and well thought out plot twists to keep it interesting.

There's still a few Crichton I haven't read yet and I'm sure I'll catch up and read them. Plus he seems to still be writing new books which is great for me and the many other fans. My local library branch doesn't usually have Crichton for some reason. I ended up getting Prey from a branch me and my son went in after a hockey game.