What is your favorite work by Michael Crichton? -

[Justanotherguy]

I think we all loved Jurrasic Park, but what else gets to you?

I picked up Airframe in 6th grade and was captivated by his writing. I think by far my favorite books by him are Terminal man and Sphere.

Also, god damn, HBO's Westworld(based on his book) is wonderful.

 

[Stilgar of Troon]

A toss-up between "The Terminal Man", "Prey" and "The Andromeda Strain", personally. In fairness, I don't think I've disliked any of his books; he was pretty consistent.

 

[King Koalemos]

Andromeda Strain, easy

 

[TFT-A9]

Andromeda Strain, easy

This.

But not that fucking TV movie reboot.

 

[Gar For Archer]

I all his books I could find at the library back in middle school and it’s kind of hard to pick a favorite. Airframe would definitely be near the top, since it’s inherently a lot more grounded in reality than his other works. If I had to give an award to the ballsiest entry though it would be State of Fear, whose entire plot is that a group of climate change accelerationists is fabricating data and planning on causing artificial ”natural” disasters in order to control and influence world leaders through global warming alarmism.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

Sorry to say I haven't read too much Michael Crichton. There's his two Jurassic Park books, and the former was bundled with Congo. I don't know how well that one stands up against his other works, but it was much, much better than the cheap, nasty, from-the-writer-of-Jurassic-Park cash-in film adaptation.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Outside of Jurassic Park, Sphere. Obsessively read that one. Really loved Dragon Teeth too, but it was an obvious first draft unfortunately. Really needed fleshing out.

I tried reading Prey but that after awhile it felt like I was listening to Crichton drone on and on himself through the main characters internal dialog since the book was written in the first person.

Someone would say "this solution is the right one!" only for expy Crichton to interject in his thoughts, "no, this is wrong..." and go on about the history of the subject at hand and how this other character is wrong and here is the some better ideas but maybe not actually do anything with said ideas. Cool idea I guess, nanomachine swarm, but I didn't have it in me after another rant.

 

[Rupert Bear]

Sphere has my favorite example of alien life out of any media.

 

[Chan Fan]

Jurassic Park, and Pirate Latitudes

 

[BayView]

Lost World was my favorite

 

[Orion Balls Deux]

The Great Train Robbery. And of course, Sphere.

 

[Justanotherguy]

This.

But not that fucking TV movie reboot.

This shit killed my love of the story. The adaptation ruined my mental image.

 

[Justanotherguy]

I all his books I could find at the library back in middle school and it’s kind of hard to pick a favorite. Airframe would definitely be near the top, since it’s inherently a lot more grounded in reality than his other works. If I had to give an award to the ballsiest entry though it would be State of Fear, whose entire plot is that a group of climate change accelerationists is fabricating data and planning on causing artificial ”natural” disasters in order to control and influence world leaders.

Hey! Thank you for my next reading recommendation. I haven't read State of Fear.

 

[Justanotherguy]

Sorry to say I haven't read too much Michael Crichton. There's his two Jurassic Park books, and the former was bundled with Congo. I don't know how well that one stands up against his other works, but it was much, much better than the cheap, nasty, from-the-writer-of-Jurassic-Park cash-in film adaptation.

Love your avi.

Chrichton was a pretty smart guy, but was a bit socially off in his earlier years due to being so tall.

 

[Justanotherguy]

Outside of Jurassic Park, Sphere. Obsessively read that one. Really loved Dragon Teeth too, but it was an obvious first draft unfortunately. Really needed fleshing out.

I tried reading Prey but that after awhile it felt like I was listening to Crichton drone on and on himself through the main characters internal dialog since the book was written in the first person.

Someone would say "this solution is the right one!" only for expy Crichton to interject in his thoughts, "no, this is wrong..." and go on about the history of the subject at hand and how this other character is wrong and here is the some better ideas but maybe not actually do anything with said ideas. Cool idea I guess, nanomachine swarm, but I didn't have it in me after another rant.

Sphere's movie adaptation could have been better.

 

[Autumnal Equinox]

I was really into Crichton in my teen years. Haven’t gone back to read his stuff in ages but my three favorites by him were Sphere, The Terminal Man and Eaters of the Dead

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I've only read his Jurassic Park books, which I really liked, so I see this thread as a list of recommendations since I always wanted to read his other stuff.

 

[TowinKarz]

It was Sphere, just edging out The Andromeda Strain and Congo by virtue of being first one I read and being so young at the time that I was still genre blind enough to be surprised by a few of the "twists" a more seasoned reader might see coming and not affected by a couple things in the book might make the modern and much more cynical me stop reading for asking too much suspension of disbelief. Sphere was certainly much more exciting and fast paced than the rest. The slow burn in Andromeda felt tedious at times, but only because I was comparing it to the first one. I want to make it clear that NONE of this should be a dig at Crichton, I've read some BAD sci-fi and his is certainly not bad, I just feel Andromeda loses some of its potential due to constant infodumping, though he eventually leaned out his style, that was his first novel IIRC.


It also earned an indelible place in my heart for me having to beg my 10th grade English teacher to give it back when I got caught reading it in class instead of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Teacher was cool, appreciated the fact I was reading arguably above my level, and did give it back, but only after I promised to keep it for study hall and stay on lesson. We got to Lord of the Flies soon enough anyway, and that was almost as good.

Godspeed Mr Weakland, wherever you are.



I eventually read JP, it was spoiler'd a bit by me seeing the movie first, but it does deviate significantly from what they adapted for the film, so it was still a pleasant surprise. (Muldoon in the movie hunts raptors with a SPAS-12, in the book, he uses LAW rockets!)

That's around the time I got into other things and heard some bad reviews about his post JP-work that kinda turned me off. I haven't read any of his other newer books, the closest I got was picking up a copy of Airframe from a surplus Sam's Club bin and leafing through the first chapter, ultimately put it back for being a hardcover new release at the time and more than I wanted to spend, I might go back and read it as it seemed to be a forgotten book that wasn't all that bad, judging by popular consensus.

Sphere's movie adaptation could have been better.

Sphere could've been better. But the 1995 version of Congo is a damn travesty, IIRC Ebert gave it thumbs down and added it to his zero star "I hate hate hate hate HATE this movie" list.

 

[kaien]

I read Eaters of the Dead fairly recently, and that's a really interesting stylistic exercise. Plus it cracks me up that he did it just to show up his English professor.

IIRC Ebert gave it thumbs down and added it to his zero star "I hate hate hate hate HATE this movie" list.

He actually quite liked it, I think because he often enjoyed films that were so consciously retro like that. I'm a fan myself -- it's raw, stinking cheese, and I can see why fans of the book like you were pissed off, but it leans so hard into its cheesiness I can't help but appreciate that. Like I get a huge boot out of Ernie Hudson as a black man playing the great-white-hunter stereotype to the hilt.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Sphere was alright, but I have the sneaking suspicion based on that time he included one of his critics in one of his books as a pedophile with a small penis that he's one of those people with the good fortune to die of cancer before they go full lolcow.