Michael Crichton

Might as well not read Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or His Dark Materials or any book that's ever been made into a movie :p

Seriously, as good as the Jurassic Park film is, the book is way better. And the story is so different to the film anyway. It's definitely worth reading.
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Yea probably but i just don't have time to read nowadays,too busy with the kids and work. Only time i get to read is half an hour at bedtime and i find it hard to follow a book that way. I'll probably never read LOTR,The Hobbit was hard going enough when i read it years ago.
 
Yeah, he died some time ago now. I have to admit, i have read the first three Jurassic Park books. I agree that it did get tired after the first two, but this guy is also responsible for the Andromeda Strain and Westworld. He's done some great work other than JP
 
I read "The Sphere" years ago and quite liked it but more recently read "Timeline" which I thought was utter tripe. It has put me off trying anything else of his, although I might consider one of his earlier works...
 
Rodders said:
I have to admit, i have read the first three Jurassic Park books. I agree that it did get tired after the first two...
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Possibly because a third doesn't exist...? Did you read a Dinotopia novel by mistake, maybe?

He died last year, Lioness, from cancer. There wasn't a whole lot made of his death, despite his standing in the literary world, but I tend to find that about most authors. We did have a thread here devoted to his passing, though.

I wasn't aware of a new book, but I will definitely look into it. Especially now I know it's about pirates! According to Wikipedia there's another coming in 2010, though it was only a third finished at the time of his death and will be completed by a co-author.

Just to correct something from the first couple of posts, Crichton wasn't Australian - he was born in Chicago...
 
I'm sure i have a third one at home. Perhaps i am mistaken.

Woopsie.
 
uhmmmm, the Jurassic Park movies don't differ from the books by all that much. Michael Crichton wrote with the big screen in mind, it's why he was something of a hack, but a damn good hack.
At one time MC was one of my favorite writers, I love mundane sf and he was it's best practitioner. Alas, he caught a bug from the Conservatives in this country and his last three novels were mostly polemic bombast.

His novel Next is one of the worst books I have ever read.

How you go from writing classics like The Andromeda Strain , The Great Train Robbery , and Jurassic Park to Next is beyond me.
 
Sparrow said:
uhmmmm, the Jurassic Park movies don't differ from the books by all that much.
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I guess that depends on your definition of 'all that much', but The Lost World film was most definitely a huge departure from the book. Check out the plot summary at Wikipedia, or, even better, the list of differences between the film and the novel...

The 1997 film adaptation's plot differs significantly from the novel; most significantly, at the end of the film, a Tyrannosaurus rex attacks San Diego.
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The whole San Diego thing was the main difference, of course (and STUPID to boot), but there's many, many others.
 
Maybe it was wish fulfillment....

Oh and people show up later who were dead. Could be zombies I guess...or (dum, dum, dum) Clones. :)
 
Culhwch said:
Possibly because a third doesn't exist...? Did you read a Dinotopia novel by mistake, maybe?

He died last year, Lioness, from cancer. There wasn't a whole lot made of his death, despite his standing in the literary world
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Wow this is news to me! Ok so I'm no major fan and was a bit annoyed at his book/film the Lost World with NO mention of Conan Doyle but even so, he's no longer with us? Crikey, he must have still been fairly young too(I'm guessing about 50 tops)
Gonna check on FF
 
So I have finally read State of Fear, after having also just read Sphere and the Andromeda Strain for the first times.
I recently went to a second hand book sale, and picked up a bunch of his works for a couple of dollars each.
Didn't really enjoy Sphere, but liked the Andromeda Strain.
Also didn't mind the State of Fear, which is an interesting concept. Had not considered the use of panic as a means of controlling a population.
I did enjoy reading through the comments and references at the end, as it revealed a lot about what his underlying thoughts were, and was quite amusing to read.
 
dekket said:
So I have finally read State of Fear, after having also just read Sphere and the Andromeda Strain for the first times.
I recently went to a second hand book sale, and picked up a bunch of his works for a couple of dollars each.
Didn't really enjoy Sphere, but liked the Andromeda Strain.
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Andromeda Strain is one of my favourite TV memories as a teenager when I first saw it! Love it and the book is great too. I read the book years later and was shocked to find that the female character in the film, who freezes when she sees a red light, was a man in the book!
 
Whatever happens, no matter how hard it is, save youself! Never watch the pathetic television remake of Andromeda Strain. I loved the book, liked the first movie....the later TV remake I had to block from my mind. I just pretend it doesn't exist and hold on to the thought. Sometimes I can go a long time without the nausea that comes from knowing it's out there...lurking, prtending to be anything like the same story.....

Burrrrr, forgive the shiver. I had to be hospitalized after trying to watch it...it's a lot like knowing about Lovecraft's Old Ones out there, lurking by the gate to the world...AEIIIIIIEEEEIIII!
 
thepaladin said:
Whatever happens, no matter how hard it is, save youself! Never watch the pathetic television remake of Andromeda Strain. I loved the book, liked the first movie....the later TV remake I had to block from my mind. I just pretend it doesn't exist and hold on to the thought. Sometimes I can go a long time without the nausea that comes from knowing it's out there...lurking, prtending to be anything like the same story.....

Burrrrr, forgive the shiver. I had to be hospitalized after trying to watch it...it's a lot like knowing about Lovecraft's Old Ones out there, lurking by the gate to the world...AEIIIIIIEEEEIIII!
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What? There was a TV remake!! First I've heard of it! Will avoid like the plague,savour my memory of seeing the film for the first time years ago.
 
I vaguely remember this, although i haven't seen it. Didn't it have the guy from Will and Grace in it?
 
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