Michael Crichton

this is coming on a year late, but i still wanted to make a note of it. Michael Crichton's passing away did not hit me very hard at first. it was more like a "oh. ok, RIP dude." moment until the other day when i was killing time browsing through the used books section at the Brattle Bookstore when i came upon a couple of Crichton's books. i took a moment to pause and reflect.

i read Andromeda Strain about the same time as the first Jurassic Park movie came out (early '90s), and i remember being quite shocked that Andromeda Strain was actually written in 1969! and as simply as that, i was hooked by the thought that microorganisms could be intelligently trained as described in the book. i was never a huge fan of the Jurassic Park franchise, so i pointedly avoided those. then i discovered that Crichton had written other books too (remember, this was pre-Internet - the only way you knew what a writer's earlier works were was by looking at the reticent page between the title and the dedication pages).. i started haunting my friends' bookshelves looking for the name Crichton to pop up.. Congo, The Terminal Man, Sphere, The Great Train Robbery.. his spectrum fascinated me, he dabbled with time travel, structural technology, biomaterials, science fiction and space adeptly and seamlessly. for a growing teenage mind this was fascinating - skipping across genres is not something i could comprehend that easily. it's like you love vanilla ice cream. you also love chocolate ice cream. and then one day you realize that you could have both! not just one scoop of one on top of the other, but in swirls, like you'd get out of the machine. wow!

Congo was two borders away - so the story resonated easily. The Terminal Man answered a few questions on what we think and how we think. Sphere expounded my uneasiness with water and depths. The Great Train Robbery i have read multiple times, what a fantastic and daring heist! i have recreated and replayed that scene when Pierce waits for the policeman to go to the bathroom to sneak in with the key.. fantastic! what an amazing tool books are, letting you build scenarios in your own head. the movie completely chewed up this scene, turning a delicious juicy pork chop into a dry wedge of petrified cardboard. in fact i only just watched Eaters of the Dead / The 13th Warrior about a month ago and loved that too.

i would go on to say that some of his books molded me in my formative years, giving me insights and opinions that i had not seen or heard yet, filling me with a healthy curiosity for the marvels of science.

i went on to college with my mind made up that engineering was what i wanted to do. then i read Airframe, and that blew my mind away. once again his theme of man-machine interaction gone wrong reared its head. they should have added Crichton as a writer to the Terminator franchise! his next book Timeline was a delightful romp through time, back to the Dark Ages. the time continuum warp is always good fodder for a book.

his next book came when i had just moved to Buffalo, NY and was starting grad school. i was still unsure what i really wanted to do for my graduate thesis at the time. and then two things happened in almost consecutive weeks. i was auditing a class on biomaterials, not sure what it would be about and met a professor unlike any other i had met. Dr. B made sitting in class for three hours a fun experience. getting to play in his lab was another 'high' all on its own. soon after that i read Prey.

Prey equally horrified and fascinated me. it was my first exposure to nanoparticles and the possibilities they presented. i came up with a few ideas, went to see Dr. B and in a few days we had the beginnings of a thesis. i was completely engulfed by swarm theory and i was thrilled to find out how far technology had come.

State of Fear followed, where he addresses the elephant in the room that no one seems to see - global warming and other environmental issues. the last book of his i read was Next, which comes back to an old favorite theme of his - genetics. it delves into the murky world of venture capitalism and patent protection, very contemporary issues again.

i hear Mr.Crichton has one last card up his sleeve, to be played later this year - Pirate Latitudes is a finished manuscript one of his assistants found on his computer after he died. this book follows in the vein of the Great Train Robbery, but looks in depth at one of my favorite themes of all time - pirates! hopefully his treatment of the story will not have received the effluent-wash that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise tainted everything with - i'd like to see more young Jim Hawkins & crusty Long John Silver in his book and less of bumbling Cap'n Jack Sparrow & now-busty, now-not-so-busty Elizabeth Swann.

thank you Michael Crichton, you changed my life and opened up many doors. rest in peace, and enjoy the company in Valhalla.