Well I've been lucky in that I've been able to procure most of these for actually under $20, some ridiculously so. I didn't mean to come off sounding snobby, it's just that I can't enjoy a book if it's a tiny paperback. And when we begin talking paperbacks released years and decades ago...
Originally Posted by Arthur Heath
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Devastating news...
Mr. Crichton has unexpectedly passed away today at the young age of 66 due to cancer.
http://www.etonline.com/news/2008/11/67369/
yeah, I just heard that on the radio 5 minutes ago!
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
BBC reports :
Author Michael Crichton dies, 66
Michael Crichton won awards including an Emmy.
Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park has died, aged 66, 2008 after a "courageous and private battle against cancer," his family has said.
He penned the books Congo, Twister and the popular Jurassic Park trilogy, all of which were adapted into films.
He also created the long-running US hospital drama ER and his books have sold more than 150 million copies.
"He will be profoundly missed by those whose lives he touched," his family said in a statement.
Crichton has won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer's Guild of America Award for ER.
A private funeral service is expected.
Sad News indeed.
The Man In Black Fled Across The Desert...
...And The Gunslinger Followed.
“I’m always on the Batman rule, sir.” - Kate Kane / Detective Comics 857
"It is the story, not he who tells it." Except to us collectors who have to put limits somewhere. - jhanic
Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November, The Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot.
Terrible news. He battled 'a private war with cancer' For a guy who went through medical school (though he quit to write) it makes me wonder what he was thinking.
Surprisingly terrible news indeed.
"As for gunslingers, Roland," Cuthbert says, "I am here. And we are the last."
When two fit, it makes you think
I got the cute one, my woman
She says, "Lovin's all I bring"
And it's her loving that's a wonderful thing.
Lovin' yes we are, it's such a wonderful thing
When two fit it makes you think
See us both in the black
She lays on me so relaxed.
-Big D and The Kids Table
He was working on a new novel. There wasn't much information, but he seemed to be along quite well. Hopefully it could see the light of day as a testament to his art and life.
I was very surprised and saddened to hear this.
My condolences go out to his family.
I was lucky enough to get a signed gift edition of Jurassic Park which was my most favorite of his works.
Life is a garden...dig it!
he's one of of my favorite authors
this really sucks.
I just finished collecting his first editions earlier this year.
What a loss...
Seems like the novel he was working on was scheduled for release this December. It's been pushed back to May now:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0007241011/
I started a new thread on this up in The Oracle before I saw this.
Mods, do what you want.
Michael Crichton--
John
RIP Michael Crichton
It'll take a lot more than words and guns,
A whole lot more than riches and muscle.
The hands of the many must join as one.
And together we'll cross the river.
Puscifer, "The Humbling River"
According to a poster on another forum, Michael Crichton actually revised his two early novels (under the pen-name John Lange) that were recently published, like King's The Colorado King, in Hard Case Crime. For one of those Crichton even wrote new framing chapters, he says.
I particularly like the unique blend of science and suspense. I'm particularly fond of The Andromeda Strain. At times the focus shifts a bit too much on science perhaps, that it sometimes seems to lose it's functionality but it never really bothers me.
Was very sad to hear of his passing. I have enjoyed everything I have read by him. I think the Great Train Robbery was my favorite. It felt a lot different then all the other things he wrote. I agree that his charters are always a little thin and under developed. But they are really just bit parts with the technology or situation being what the story is always really about.
I read Next, it was ok....
I just got a paperback edition of both Next(i have a hardcover, but i just couldn't resist) and Congo from a used goods store. My old copy of Congo was left in our car and got destroyed.
I just reread Timeline, Congo and Jurassic Park.
That was some good stuff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/bo...?_r=2&ref=artsPosthumous Crichton Novels on the Way
Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of technological thrillers like “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” who died of cancer in November, left behind at least one finished novel and about one-third of a second. Both will be released over the next year and a half, his publisher said.
HarperCollins, Mr. Crichton’s publisher for his previous three books, will release “Pirate Latitudes,” an adventure story set in Jamaica in the 17th century, on Nov. 24. The company also plans to publish a technological thriller in the fall of 2010, a novel that Mr. Crichton was working on when he died.
Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, said Mr. Crichton evidently wrote “Pirate Latitudes” at the same time that he wrote “Next,” his last published novel.
The new novel, discovered by Mr. Crichton’s assistant in the writer’s computer files after his death, features a pirate named Hunter and the governor of Jamaica, and their plan to raid a Spanish treasure galleon.
“It’s eminently and deeply and thoroughly researched,” Mr. Burnham said. “It’s packed through with great detail about navigation and how pirates operated, and links between the New World and the Caribbean and Spain.”
The novel represents a departure from Mr. Crichton’s longtime fictional preoccupation with the moral and social ramifications of science and technology. But Mr. Burnham pointed out that “Pirate Latitudes” also harks back to the kind of historical yarn that Mr. Crichton wrote in the “The Great Train Robbery,” first published in 1975. Mr. Burnham said that the book needed little editing and that Harper planned a first printing of 1 million copies.
At the time of Mr. Crichton’s death he was under contract for the second of a two-book deal that began with “Next.” He had begun that second novel, a technological thriller, but was only about a third of the way through. Mr. Burnham said that the publisher would work with Lynn Nesbit, Mr. Crichton’s agent of 40 years, and his estate to select a co-writer who would finish the book, working from Mr. Crichton’s notes.
“We want a high-level thriller writer, somebody who understands Michael’s work,” Mr. Burnham said. “From what I gather, there are notes and indications of which direction the novel was going, so the writer has material to work from apart from the actual material that was finished.”
Neither Mr. Burnham nor Ms. Nesbit has seen the unfinished novel. Ms. Nesbit said that Mr. Crichton was “the most private of all authors that I have ever met in my life,” and that he never showed his agent or his editor any material before he had a complete draft. She said that other than the general category of technological thriller, she had no idea what the incomplete novel was about.
Ms. Nesbit said that she and Mr. Burnham had discussed some possible co-writers, but no decision had been made. She added that any selection would be made in collaboration with Sherri Crichton, Mr. Crichton’s widow, acting on behalf of his estate.
In “Next” Mr. Crichton explored the ethical dilemmas posed by the expanding field of genetics. According to Nielsen BookScan, which represents about 70 percent of retail sales and does not cover retailers like WalMart, the book sold 500,000 copies. Mr. Burnham said that the figure was closer to 800,000 copies.
Ms. Nesbit said that Mr. Crichton left “many, many electronic files,” and that there could well be other novels or unfinished material. “We haven’t begun to really go through it all,” she said.
Mr. Burnham said, though, that HarperCollins had no plans to take Mr. Crichton’s name and create a franchise in the way that ghostwriters have continued to publish books under Robert Ludlum’s name long after his death. “We’re not taking a name brand and spinning books out of it,” Mr. Burnham said.
This pleases me to no end.
Indeed. The novel sounds very interesting, and hopefully they'll do justice to the unfinished one. As they said, there could be more unpublished material, novels even.
I've read The Andromeda Strain, The Lost World, Terminal Man and Next. He probably would have been a great author if his characters were as dynamic as his scientific extrapolations. To me they seemed like so many leaves in the wind. He was a thinking man's Irwin Allen if you will.
A little more info: http://www.michaelcrichton.com/mc-newbook.html
My first book was Jurassic parkI was only 8 or 9 years old. It was scarry but i loved that.
RIP
"Hope is a good thing,and the good things dont die!"
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