The Andromeda Strain
discussion
Which was Cricton's best book? apart from the andromeda strain
Too bad 'Westworld' wasn't written as a novel. People often forget how ground-breaking the premise was for that film. So many things in that flick were new to audiences. " MC must have really disliked Walt Disney. "
LOL
Westworld, Jurassic Park(x2), Timeline..good pick up!
As for 'Lost World'..what's wrong with Conan Doyle?
The Great Train Robbery. It's almost a scientific analysis of a heist.
Tough question! Prey and Terminal Man are a couple of my other favs...
Tony wrote: "The Great Train Robbery. It's almost a scientific analysis of a heist."You rock!
So many: Prey, Timeline, Congo,and State of Fear, are my top faves. It was too hard to pick just one.You will like reading M.C. although sometimes when he lands the story you will say Huh?
next and Jurassic park hands down
Jurassic Park and Sphere are my favorites.
Have to add Prey to my list...great book.
I really liked Prey. It had such a cool premise and brought so many areas of science together.
It's "Sphere" for me, totally creepy, and the ending was so unsettling that I think I couldn't shake it off for a week. I am still freaked out even thinking about re-reading it.
I go for Congo and Sphere. I did not like Timeline (invent a time machine to create an amusement park? That may be the most stupid use of a time machine in the history of the written word).
Michael Crichton's books - loved them all and yes, Andromeda Strain is the best. But no one has yet to mention "Travels". It's his autobiography/memoir. I found it profound and wise as well as fascinating.L.A. Kragie
author of Vampire Chimeras
Just think of the conceptualizing, the editing, the oversight, and the craftsmanship needed to create that spooky 'environment' of the Wildfire lab with all the teletype messages and memos; the protocols and regulations of the project, the bureaucratic conflict with the USAF, the research needed to describe accurately how decon equipment works...and then to build on top of that, things like the 'odd man scenario', the SCOOP mishap, the blood caking, the quirky characters and the technical staffing structure of the mission..all of that... and had anyone else ever done it before? I mean really done it, as comprehensively as he did? Name the precedent he was able to crib from. I can't think of any. He not only did it first, he did it awesomely on the first attempt. Its unheard of. Most other writers would've stopped at the envisioning of the "5-level color-coded circular containment lab architecture" and imagined that they had just created the coolest thing ever. Crichton tossed that off negligibly, and then built a frightening thriller atop all that brainwork!
Feliks wrote: "Just think of the conceptualizing, the editing, the oversight, and the craftsmanship needed to create that spooky 'environment' of the Wildfire lab, with all the teletype messages and memos; the pro... Name the precedent he was able to crib from"Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald to name one. A cold war inspired bit of paranoia about the last survivors of the human race being killed by their own technology post worldwide armageddon type warfare. Thousands of feet under ground, in a top to bottom layered environment with each deeper level being more secure and self contained.
The United States missions to the Moon for another. The are indelible images in the brains of those of us who watched as the first Lunar astronauts upon their return were hermetically sealed in to an Airstream trailer.(well it looked like my great aunt's Airstream) This was to protect the Earth from any possible contamination brought back from the moon. Or from a low/no gravity environment that might have altered an earth based bacteria or virus such that it would spread uncontrollably.
Writers Bono and Gatland (Frontiers of Space among others) in the same year as AS was published in a non-fiction wrote of the research in to using low gravity, altered accelaration(modified G-forces), and other physical methods enhanced by space travel to alter biological life at the microscopic level. Growth solution technology enhanced or degraded by centrifuge activity was a decade or more old technology by the 1960's. Microbiologists had been exploiting this since easily the 1930's.
Further Crichton's Alma mater Harvard, and some even brighter folks a few blocks away on the banks of the Charles River at M.I.T. had designed and been chief contractors for the new C.D.C. facilities in Atlanta. Containment facilities in and around Harvard Medical School were well known within Michael Crichton's professional circles. Public concern was escalating by the early 1960's regarding the accidental release of biological (or chemical) agents in a metro area as a result of academic research. Crichton was 'just' reading the newspapers and new magazines of the era. At least to grasp the tone of the paranoia.
What is interesting is Crichton's awareness of the psychological studies that were not really public at all at the time he wrote the Andromeda Strain that had been incorporated into US Air Force Command doctrine for Strategic Air Command. Specifically the concern's about the 'if' question of an officer using 'nukes'. Much of this still has not fully emerged, but much more with the end of the Cold War than was available in the 1960's. Perhaps one of his colleagues at Harvard anonymously made documents available to Crichton to address the increasing paranoia about he Military Industrial Complex???
There are a bunch of other fiction and non-fiction sources that Crichton drew on, but his was a good story that was well told. I've always felt that was Crichton's biggest talent in the fictional realm, storytelling.
CD you are right. Harvard and MIT had a lot of that infrastructure going at the time. Again, I recommend EVERYONE read his memoir, Travels. Very insightful.
CD wrote: "Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald to name one..."Great stuff. I will have to look into these two (well, the one which is fiction, in any case) and compare them to what Crichton did. Thx for writing all that out, CD.
Coming in late to the discussion, but after The Andromeda Strain, my #2 vote goes, unequivocally, to The Great Train Robbery.
So far, I think Disclosure is Michael Crichton's best book, I put Timeline right up there too.
Oh Yes, agree. I was surprised that Crichton could shock us with this "opposite view" situation that put the principals in the bright spotlight. Was well done. Timeline... another well researched novel. Good work.
Prey, Rising Sun and Disclosure. But Andromeda Strain is still the best!
"Prey" is my personal fav. This one book made me an instant fan of Crichton.
I've read a lot of Crichton's work, so I checked to see which one I rated highest. To my surprise, I rated every single one of those I have read (all but a couple of somewhat obscure ones, such as Travels, which I haven't read) four stars.It's been a really long time since I read The Great Train Robbery, and I may go dig it out of my shelves and give it a second look after reading the comments here.
The only way for you to know which is the second best is to read them all. Me, I loved Congo, Prey, State, Timeline.
Timeline, Eaters of the Dead and Airframe. A salute to a master writer!
Sphere is the best. Just a really great psychological thriller... Terminal Man is also a masterpiece, Jurassic Park is epic, the Great Train Robbery is very well written (also very different from his usual novels), Next is pretty, good, Congo is good for the first three-quarters. Timeline and Eaters of the Dead aren't as great.
What makes 'The Great Train Robbery' wonderful is that it will never be dated. Many of his other works are affected by the problems all science fiction literature suffers.
Timeline, Congo, Airframe
I liked most of his books - Rising Sun comes to mind because of the decent movie tie in.
The Andromeda Strain is the best, Jurassic Park comes next. Congo was good too. I did not like Sphere much. The Terminal Man was OK.
I'd say Next, Pirate Latitudes, and The Lost World.
Prey, without a doubt.
Timeline and Pirate Latitudes are his best 2 in my opinion because it seems like every othe novel he wrote dealt with nano-junk, something I just can't get into.
In my opinion Jurassic Park is his best. Much better than the movie. But then books are always better right?
Jesse wrote: "every other novel he wrote dealt with nano-junk, something I just can't get into."This is a keen observation. It may even be true. Obviously, except for 'Great Train Robbery' you're kinda correct: 'Andromeda Strain', 'Terminal Man', and many of his other projects all deal with microscopic threats. Even 'Jurassic' has that element. But 'Looker' did not; 'Westworld' did not; nor did 'Runaway'. I'm not familiar with enough of his later projects to say more.
Anyway I really liked what you pointed out.
Jurassic Park, Sphere, and State of Fear all grabbed me and never let go... :-)
Apart from 'The Andromeda Strain' , 'The Great Train Robbery'.
I`d recommend his Rising Sun. The book is by no means The Very Best by Crichton, still it`s well worth reading http://readaholicme.weebly.com/rising...
Feliks wrote: "What makes 'The Great Train Robbery' wonderful is that it will never be dated. Many of his other works are affected by the problems all science fiction literature suffers."When reading the opening question, Great Train Robbery was the only book that came to mind, for the reasons Feliks wrote. Recently reread Case of Need and felt it had aged well, also.
Agreed about andromeda strain. Second best is Timeline. Yet to read the great train robbery.
Tanvi wrote: "The reason I'm asking is because I loved the Andromeda Strain, however Pirate Latitudes and Micro I really didn't like that much, so I want to ask which Crichton would you recommend apart from AS.""Travels", a memoir published well before "Jurassic Park."
I think it is Crichton's absolute best work.
I enjoy so many of Michael Crichton's books that it's hard to choose. The best way that I could put it would be to remind everyone how works date. As time passes and scifi becomes fact the more ordinary a work can become. Jurassic Park is being realised by scientists actually trying to achieve Michael's idea. Strange how he stated that he wrote it to stop it happening but obviously the scientists just wanted a little push. To me prey and state of fear are the most intriguing. Both are haunting on different levels and enter a world where control is lost.
Sage advice. The idiocy of scientists and their constant tinkering with shyt annoys the heck out of me. Either they're playing with "pandora's boxes" like DNA; or else they're getting massive grants to study 'hey, why do teenagers worry about acne?'. What else? Some of them take corporate money to produce deliberately obfuscating psueudo-reports for the sake of discrediting useful findings from good scientists which could help save lives (smoking and climate control are two areas like these).
And now there's this new trend of some researchers so hungry for their (15 minutes of) fame that they're deliberately falsifying 'amazing breakthoughs'.
I'm sick of scientists. You can see what huge damage a couple of scumbags (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs) have done to our planet just because they wanted to 'tinker with stuff'.
Haven't read them all but State of Fear and Prey are the best of those I have read followed by Andromeda Strain.
PREY!!!! Without a doubt. The only novel, EVER that I read in two days. I just could not, put, it, down!!!! Great Read!
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2. Prey (just a superb story that I can just keep rereading)
3. Jurassic Park
4. Disclosure or Next
In that order.