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 always, the white man's character is not tied to being a man or white and is free to have a little more dimension. The bigger issue is the unimaginative treatment of the unconscious, but the clueless, passive white-man centrism was annoying (it made it difficult for me to suspend belief as well).

I had read this in high school and remember enjoying it back then. This one gets an extra star for nostalgia and for entertaining my son. :)