Michael Crichton

[mae]

Excerpt from Pirate Latitudes, out tomorrow

Janet Maslin's review for the NYT

[ArtherEld]

Going to Barnes & Noble to get my copy today. Has anyone started it yet? Any of you speedreaders already finish it? What do you think so far?

I simply can't wait. Don't know what it is about Crichton. Can't put his books down.

[mae]

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat...collins_b30755

HarperCollins will posthumously publish Micro by Michael Crichton in November. Prior to his passing in 2008, Crichton had written about one-third of the book.

According to USA Today, nonfiction writer Richard Preston finished remaining two-thirds of the manuscript. Preston consulted Crichton’s outline, reference materials, and notes to complete the novel.

Preston explained: “For me, it was an irresistible challenge to finish the novel, and I was driven by a desire to honor the work and imagination of one of our time’s most visionary and creative authors.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...14e83c0c0dad1b

A new, posthumous story of science gone wrong is coming in November from the late Michael Crichton, with help by Richard Preston.

Crichton, author of such blockbusters as "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain" died in 2008 and had written one-third of "Micro," a thriller about a biotech company in Hawaii and the graduate students who end up stranded and endangered in a rain forest. Preston, known for his best-selling nonfiction work about the Ebola virus, "The Hot Zone," used Crichton's outline, reference materials and notes to finish the book.

Publisher HarperCollins announced Sunday that "Micro" would be "a high concept thriller in the vein of 'Jurassic Park.'" In a statement released by HarperCollins, Preston said he was immediately captivated by Crichton's manuscript.

"Michael was writing at the top of his game, with a grand sense of adventure, into an eerie world that seems almost beyond imagining," Preston said. "For me, it was an irresistible challenge to finish the novel, and I was driven by a desire to honor the work and imagination of one of our time's most visionary and creative authors."

"Michael was exhilarated by his concept for this novel," Crichton's agent, Lynn Nesbit, said in a statement. "He felt he was breaking new ground by introducing his readers to a fascinating, almost unimaginable landscape with real scientific underpinnings."

Crichton is one of many authors whose publishing output has continued after his death. David Foster Wallace's "The Pale King," a novel assembled from notes the author left behind after his suicide in 2008, came out last month. The "Wheel of Time" fantasy series by Robert Jordan, who died in 2007, is being completed by Brandon Sanderson. Crichton's "Pirate Latitudes," a novel he had finished before his death, was released in 2009.

[fernandito]

Interesting ...

[Jethro]

I like Crichton, and have read several of his books. The film adaptations are usually garbage compared to his novels ... Jurassic park being an exception.

Timeline's one of my favorites ... maybe because it was the one I've read most recently. I liked his whole time travel concept, with quantum physics and parallel universes. Messing with technology that's basically impossible to understand Good stuff.

Indeed, the film adaptation of Timeline was horrible...as was Sphere.

[LadyHitchhiker]

Oooooooooooooooooooh!!!! I've been waiting for another book like Jurassic Park.

For those who liked Jurassic Park, you will most likely like Fragment by Warren Fahy. That was an excellent book.

[mae]

http://www.musingsonmichaelcrichton....d-excerpt.html

The marketing department at Harper Collins UK sent me the link for a video trailer for Micro. There’s also a 10-page excerpt of the novel. I am happy to note that the UK release is on Nov. 22, the same date as the US. Two years ago, I threw a minor hissy fit when Pirate Latitudes was released in the UK and Europe eight days before being released in the US.

http://richardpreston.net/enhanced-e-book-micro

HarperCollins will release an enhanced e-book edition of MICRO. Yesterday a film crew was here at my house shooting an interview with me for the e-book. In it, I talk about poking around the rain forest on Oahu, learning the biology of micro-monsters, and doing the detective work with Michael’s notebooks and materials, figuring out what Michael intended for the story. There will be footage of Michael, and lots of scientific stuff, too. Good for an iPad or Kindle Fire or Nook, etc.

[Erin]

This sounds very promising! I'll have to check it out.

[onlylivingboyinny]

Oooooooooooooooooooh!!!! I've been waiting for another book like Jurassic Park.

For those who liked Jurassic Park, you will most likely like Fragment by Warren Fahy. That was an excellent book.

This ^

[rolandesch]

This sounds pretty much like Prey, if any of you have ever read that one by Crichton. I'm a huge fan of his, having read Rising Sun, Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey, Sphere and a few more. He's an amazing author, so it seems like I'll be reading this sometime after I finish the DT saga! Thanks for posting.

[Bev Vincent]

This one is getting pretty roundly panned by the critics. I don't have much interest in it, even though I'm a big Crichton fan. Sounds to me like it's more Preston than Crichton.

[Jean]

I have finished The Andromeda Strain.

The thing is, I am not interested in science, not in the least. I am bored with anything scientific, or technology-related.

I read The Andromeda Strain practically in one sitting - interrupted only by a very short night's sleep. I was reading while eating; on the bus; walking down the street; in the supermarket line. I never wanted it to finish. Alas, it did - but my friends here are right: there's a whole wonderful new world ahead of me now; luckily, he's written lots.

I have this rare, precious feeling of having talked with someone outstandingly intelligent - and the amount of scientific facts in the novel doesn't have anything to do with it. I assume they are correct, but I don't know, nor do I care. It's just that the book itself, and the man who wrote it, are or superb intelligence, and this light shines from the pages right into the old bear's soul. His mastery of literary craft is, I think, unsurpassable. Seemingly dry, the narrative is structured the way every point he makes strikes home, relentlessly. The dramaturgy of the story is breathtaking. It is the most articulate - with jeweller's precision - piece of literature I've read in years.

I've only now learned that he died four years ago. I take it as a personal blow, as if I've just lost a friend.

I am going to read anything he's ever written, including speeches. I don't think there can be "better" or "worse" books here. Even if - which is probable - the books are uneven, plot-wise, it doesn't matter anything. The author will still be the same, with his acumen and wits; irony and pity.

Such a HUGE thanks to you guys, and pablo in particular!!!

P.S. Reading Jurassic Park now!!!!!!!

[Brice]

I have finished The Andromeda Strain.

The thing is, I am not interested in science, not in the least. I am bored with anything scientific, or technology-related.

I read The Andromeda Strain practically in one sitting - interrupted only by a very short night's sleep. I was reading while eating; on the bus; walking down the street; in the supermarket line. I never wanted it to finish. Alas, it did - but my friends here are right: there's a whole wonderful new world ahead of me now; luckily, he's written lots.

I have this rare, precious feeling of having talked with someone outstandingly intelligent - and the amount of scientific facts in the novel doesn't have anything to do with it. I assume they are correct, but I don't know, nor do I care. It's just that the book itself, and the man who wrote it, are or superb intelligence, and this light shines from the pages right into the old bear's soul. His mastery of literary craft is, I think, unsurpassable. Seemingly dry, the narrative is structured the way every point he makes strikes home, relentlessly. The dramaturgy of the story is breathtaking. It is the most articulate - with jeweller's precision - piece of literature I've read in years.

I've only now learned that he died four years ago. I take it as a personal blow, as if I've just lost a friend.

I am going to read anything he's ever written, including speeches. I don't think there can be "better" or "worse" books here. Even if - which is probable - the books are uneven, plot-wise, it doesn't matter anything. The author will still be the same, with his acumen and wits; irony and pity.

Such a HUGE thanks to you guys, and pablo in particular!!!

P.S. Reading Jurassic Park now!!!!!!!

And I thought I was the only one who does this. I'll be engrossed in a book, crossing busy intersections, weaving in and out of traffic without pausing in my reading.

[mae]

Jean, I'm so happy to have helped you discover Michael Crichton! You have lots of great stories ahead of you, so many real classics, I think. And yes, his death was a shock. Nobody knew he had been ill. But his body of work is large (though nothing like King's of course). If you really do intend to read his entire oeuvre, I'd suggest you leave his pseudonym novels for last, except A Case of Need, which he later republished under his own name, and maybe Binary. His non-fiction books are also interesting. I thought Electronic Life, a book about computers which was published in the early 1980s and is thus extremely outdated now, was especially fascinating.

And Jean, that is some very strong praise, something I didn't quite expect ("the most articulate - with jeweller's precision - piece of literature I've read in years"). I knew (hoped) you'd like it, but this was a pleasant surprise.

[Stockerlone]

An amazing author.
On my MUST HAVE list are still some of his pseudonym
german first editons.

A Case Of Need


Binary

[Jean]

oh my Lord, finished Jurassic Park!

Yet again, Crichton did the impossible. At the beginning, the novel seemed much more conventional than Andromeda, much more, so to speak, reader-friendly, and I was afraid - no, afraid is the wrong word, because I knew the author, this awesome ultimate interlocutor, remains the same, with his unparallelled intelligence and dry wit - but, well, a little apprehensive - and I was totally wrong!

The impossible he did this time (last time it was fascinating bears with scientific stuff, which no-one else has been able to do) was to make bears relish the action scenes. I've never read anything like this. You know how much bears hate it when everyone starts running, falling, shooting, burning, crawling etc; when Sai King, one of my favoritest authors ever, comes to this (which he almost inevitable does), I practically dislocate my jaw yawning, and on reread always skip, or at least skim, most of these parts. Here I was riveted. I know I will reread it lots of times in the future. It is - I am happy to repeat it - articulate like nothing else I've read. Every sentence serves its purpose. The dialog when Grant is trying to restart the generator is one of the best things ever. So is all the rest of it.

Now Crichton is among my favorite authors ever, right there on the top with Dickens and King. Fantastic, incredible! I am almost 50 years old, and have been reading nonstop all those years.

Thank God I've discovered him only after I got my Kindle. I would spend all my money on his books, like I did on King's (books in foreign languages are frightfully expensive here, and I just couldn't wait till I go to Europe again).

[Lauterer]

Finally Jurassic Park made it possible... unbelievable but i have only seen the film... and this was kind of popcorn-kino(=cinema) - as we call it in Germany...

Probably should read the book, because i am still thinking about you just making jokes

Seems to be learning never stops... KA

[Jean]

i have only seen the film... and this was kind of popcorn-kino(=cinema) - as we call it in Germany...

The film was one of the reasons why I didn't want to read the book all those years.

And no, I wasn't joking. My jokes are usually less elaborate.

[thegunslinger41]

Hmmm...thinking i will have to read this one for sure. Never read it due to having already seen the movie.....

One of my favorites of his was Sphere. Totally sucked me in.
G

[jhanic]

My two LEAST favorite Crichton books are Airframe and Prey. Both bored me to tears.

John

[mae]

Loved Prey! Very exciting. Jean, your exuberant exaltations are making me want to pick up some MC right now. Haven't read his stuff in a while, though (as the genesis of this thread makes clear) I too am a relative newcomer to his works, but my shelves proudly display all of his first editions, except the paperback-only early novels. Maybe a re-read of The Andromeda Strain is in order. Like you, Jean, I read that in an almost non-stop fashion.

[Jean]

[John Blaze]

My two LEAST favorite Crichton books are Airframe and Prey. Both bored me to tears.

John

Ditto.

Loved Timeline. I think Timeline, Congo, and the JP books are my favorite of his.

[mae]

Haven't read Airframe yet, but it sounds fascinating. But then again, it's Crichton, so no wonder.

[Heather19]

I was going to ask how Congo was. I couldn't remember if I had read it or not, but I love the film. And all this Crichton love is making me want to pick up one of his books again as well.