Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 16, 2009

Jamie rated it:

First, an overlong apologist's review of Michael Crichton. Then, a very short review of Sphere.

(Life update: I am procrastinating).

In my opinion, you can only truly rate a Michael Crichton book by a) the depth and originality of the concept and b) the lucidity of the monologue/essay that will always occur, usually as a rant from some broken visionary genius or another, approx. 4/5 of the way through the book.

Rating Michael Crichton on his prose, either i More...

2 comments like (17 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Lowed rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2009

Noelle rated it:

it is awsome!!!!!!!!!!

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2008

Zatchmo rated it:

A team of people have been called to a ship in the middle of the ocean. No one knows why they have been called, or exactly where they are. All they have been told, is that something has been discovered under the sea. As the team embarks on their journey, they wonder what they will find, and why all the secrecy? Soon, they will find out.

Michael Chrichton has done it again! Although this particular peice of work may not be as believable as his other novels, it exceeds his other books More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2008

Michael rated it:

Read this when I was in high school, and was one of the few times I've been up nearly all night reading, saying to myself every hour, "I need to go to sleep," but then couldn't put it down. The movie adaptation was atrocious, so don't judge this story based on the film (I always pictured Ted Knight in the role of Ted, not Liev Schreiber [though Mr Schreiber is a talented actor]). The story has a very tense, claustrophobic feel, and rightly so, as the characters are trapped at the bot More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2011

Zach rated it:

This is my favorite book by this author. Michael Crichton doese a great job coming up with innovative book ideas while making them fast paced and readable. this one blows the others away. It begins with an expedition to research an alien craft more than a mile beneath the ocean surface. A team of navy personal and specialists that have been assembled for just such an occurrence descends to a "habitat" set at the bottom of the ocean for them to live while they investigate the craft. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 17, 2007

John rated it:

Sphere tackles a lot of science fiction favorites - telepathy, mental influence of reality, undersea exploration, undiscovered life forms, extraterrestrials and a weird kind of time travel that I still haven’t wrapped my mind around ten years after the first time I read it. These elements swirl around a small crew who are sent to examine an interstellar sphere underneath our oceans. Claustrophobia and paranoia set in on the group, especially as the truly bizarre things start to happen. Easily Cr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

Millard.stephen added it

after reading Sphere i thought of the things that had happened in the book. Of how he just maid diffrent charicters disappered as if they had no major role at all. What I did like was that there was a mistery that keped me interested on the last one houndred pages. I learned that we the human species will never be ready to contact an alien species because we will know nothing about them. I also learned that after a certan depth oxigen becomes toxic to humans and we must breath exotic gases. i wo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2007

Ed G rated it:

All I'm going to say about Crichton is that he has a knack for what I call the "miracle ending". In one summer I read Congo, Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery and Sphere. I felt the same about each of them when I finished each.

He's a very good writer with captivating storylines, dead on science, compelling plot and in depth characters, but...I feel like he gets tired of writing the same story or can't properly tie things together a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Victor rated it:

Words cannot express the contempt I harbor for this book.
My hatred for it knows no boundries. There are few pieces of literature that I cannot come to appreciate in some way, even fewer that compel me to demand the time back that I spent reading it so that I may do something more productive like piss on the third rail.

It was rather suprising, considering Michael Crichton has published some excellent work. I guess he pulled this one out of his ass while drunk/high/stoned/oncrac More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Donovan rated it:

This was a great read and I was fortunate enough to have read it before I saw the movie. The story in itself is quite simple with enough hooks that you will find it hard to put down. There are a couple of twists and turns that have you open your eyes - even at 4 in the morning. It is a quick read and I finished it in a couple of days.

Plot ***Spoilers***
A group of scientists, including psychologist Norman Johnson, mathematician Harry Adams, biologist Beth Halpern, and astrophysici More...

0 comments like

Jan 14, 2012

Austin rated it:

One of my favorite movies as a kid was Jurassic Park. I read the novel (which is by Michael Crichton) a couple years ago and thought it was pretty good.

I've been told by more than a few people that if I liked Jurassic Park, I should read Sphere – that it is Michael Crichton's best work. Now that I've gotten around to reading it, I'll tell you what I think...

Without spoiling anything, it's about a group of scientists who explore a crashed spacecraft deep underwater.

T More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

John E. rated it:

As with The Andromeda Strain, I was reluctant at the time (and still am) to place this in the category of genuine science fiction as I think of it, although I admit that it resembles what many people call SF, first in being fairly strong on the science and decidedly weak on the fiction, second in that it does present what one reviewer here called a "thought experiment" built on a more or less scientific idea. To account for my rating, one star less than I gave to The Andromeda Strain ( More...

0 comments like

Feb 16, 2011

Nicholas rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jul 11, 2010

Crystal Starr Light rated it:

Here is yet another novel made into a movie and my first from Michael Crichton. I become more and more surprised at how Hollywood takes extreme artistic licensing in transforming the book to the movie. Situations are similar, most of the cast are the same, but there are distinct differences between the movie and the book that greatly make a difference in interpreting.

Plot:
Norman Johnson, a psychologist, is hauled to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to preside over a supposed plane More...

0 comments like

Jul 08, 2010

mark rated it:

The Sphere (1987) is Michael Crichton’s metaphor for his own mind. The novel preceded Travels (1989); Crichton’s autobiographical work that attempted to explain himself and his beliefs. The plot of Sphere, the characters, the style, the action, the setting, the monsters, the technology, the science are all mostly irrelevant. Nevertheless, that’s what people focus on. And that is Crichton’s conclusion—that people, humans, do not want, and cannot, function effectively if they (we) truly engage the More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2010

Nick rated it:

Check out more reviews and SciFi/Fantasy fun at Lions and Men.

In Michael Crichton's Sphere, a group of scientists and other academics are sent to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to investigate the discovery of a technologically advanced spacecraft. When they arrive, the small group of intellectuals realize that the spacecraft is anything but what they expected, and that its contents have the power to alter the fate of the world.

Sphere is a classic science fiction novel. A More...

0 comments like

Apr 13, 2009

Elketw rated it:

Category: Books
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Michael Crichton

Ini jelas jenis buku yang cerdas. Karena selain ini merupakan novel fiksi, novel ini juga banyak menuliskan rumus kimia,teori fisika dan berbagai teori matematika. Namun jangan takut dulu untuk membenci buku ini, karena buku ini merupakan buku yang sangat menarik dan menegangkan.

Buku ini sendiri saya temukan diantara tumpukan buku diskon di pesta diskon buku di Palmerah tahun lalu. Sam More...

0 comments like

Oct 17, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

here is what i learned from this book. and i can say this because michael crichton is dead (God rest his soul).

[ahem]

do no fall victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is "when someone asks if you're a god you never EVER say no" (as seen in ghostbusters where i get most of my everyday advice), but only slightly less well-known is this: "always be the first person to use any alien technology....ALWAYS." then you should probab More...

0 comments like

Jun 05, 2011

Raymond rated it:

I love this book because it was like very horror like to sci-fiction to me which i love. Although i am afraid of scary stuff when it has sci-fiction in it it puts the spark in the book that makes me want to read it until i'm done. This book is about somehow a future human spaceship landed back into our time and scientist are trapped inside some sort of their own nightmares under 1000 feet of water with no help until a week later. It actually freaked me out at first when i read it because the hor More...

0 comments like

May 06, 2011

Lee rated it:

This week, here in the UK, we had a national referendum on whether to change our voting system from the one currently in use to one which would hopefully have more accurately represented the views of the electorate. There were many good reasons for changing to this new system, but there were also good reasons to stick with our current system. The campaign to keep our current system did not, on the most part, point out these good reasons. Instead they used ad hominem arguments and made claims More...

0 comments like

Nov 21, 2010

Avel rated it:

Suspensful science fiction that keeps the reader guessing at every turn. A crew sent to study a mysterious spacecraft found at the bottom of an ocean. The story got on a rather slow start, I felt, but it is actually the author's way of building up suspense, as the crew (as well as the reader ) is baffled at every event; from guessing what their mission is all about, to the entry into the spacecraft, to the discovery of the sphere, to the speculation of whether they are communicating with an alie More...

0 comments like

Apr 08, 2010

True rated it:

This was an excellent book, it was well written, understandable, mysterious, and scary.This book is about a group of scientists who are sent under the ocean to a sub marine facility near the crash sight of a spacecraft of unknown origin. Strange, unexplainable things begin to occur, but after the team comes into contact with the sphere, they will experience the stuff of nightmare.

I can connect this book to research missions which have gone horribly wrong. For instance, a book by the More...

0 comments like

Jun 23, 2009

Kyle rated it:

Unlike many other people, I actually thought the movie version of this book was pretty good. I didn't really remember the ending that well, but from what I did remember, thought it was pretty weak. Though the rest of the movie - solid.

So I decided after 10 years or so after seeing the movie, to read the book. I really thought the book was very good. Crichton's prose isn't that great, but it isn't terrible, but okay; definitely readable. The story line is pretty simple, a group of sc More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2011

Rich rated it:

For the second time around, with all of Michael Crighton's books but Pirate Latitudes under my belt, I have to admit that this one is in my top 5 favorites for him.
First time I read 'Sphere' I was finishing high school, and while I remember enjoying it, I think that at the time it was either still slightly over my head or I had too many things going on the put the right amount of concentration into it. This book is pretty psychological, the main character "Norman" actually a psyc More...

0 comments like

Dec 16, 2010

Benjamin rated it:

This is another of my "December reads," that is, books that have been sitting around on my shelves for years, just waiting for a chance to be read. Michael Crichton is one of those authors that, for me, always has a good premise for a plot but sometimes falls short in the execution. "Sphere" definitely falls within those parameters.

This is an alien contact novel; at least it would appear so at the beginning. A major discovery has been found in the South Paci More...

0 comments like

Jun 27, 2010

Ben rated it:

i was in the bookstore with mike and mike said hey is that guy any good? and i said who? and he said that guy and pointed and i looked and he was pointing at this book. and i said michael crichton i don't know i never read any. and he said really? why not? and i said i don't know why not, why don't you read him? and he said i haven't read your book, why should i read his? and i said good point why don't you read my book? and he said he didn't know. so then i bought this book and read it. and it More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

George rated it:

This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. It's climactic chapters and suspenseful situation kept me up for nights trying to find out what will happened next. The book is about a mysterious vessel that was found at the bottom of the ocean. And that's only the beginning of the great enigma. Within this vessel is a huge sphere and the purpose of it is...Well, that's the main question which drives the reader to continue on through the book.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2011

Robert rated it:

I read this to my son, who by the way gives it a "4.8". I'm glad he enjoyed it: I didn't tell him I didn't care for it much. There were some interesting ideas, but the flaws outweigh those. Besides the weakness with which Crichton writes about the unconscious (a central theme in the book), I was annoyed by how the three main characters are treated. The blackness of the black character is important, and the fact that a second character is a woman is important to her character, but, as a More...

0 comments like

Aug 10, 2007

Frank rated it:

Sphere is an interesting voyage into man's quest to discover extraterrestrial life. But also our quest to understand our selfs. It is easy to get lost in the action of the book (as there is a lot of it) but the underlying message is hard to miss.

The short and long of it is; this is a great read, i highly recommend it. It keeps you guessing right up till the end. Personally i think it's one of Crichton's best works.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)