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Michael Crichton died yesterday.  I thought someone should say something.  I wasn't a fan of his books but he was quite tall, wasn't he?

He was one of the first authors I read outside of school and started my love of science fiction.  Although I haven't read any of his books recently that's too bad.

Although I didn't think he was an awesome writer he did have some good books.  Sad to see him go.

What an awful title for his next book.

Wow, he was quite tall. That's too bad, he relatively young.

Looking at his work, I think the only things I liked from him were ER  (:-o) and Disclosure. Funny.

What no Jurassic Park?  hehe

Andromeda Strain was a good book... but bad movies.

Rising Sun is not a good book,  but it really summarizes the popular opinion in the US about the Japanese economic juggernaut right before their ten year recession.

His writing got worse at roughly the same rate that my tastes got more sophisticated, so his later stuff didn't do much for me. I devoured all his early work, though. For a mass market whore, he was definitely more readable than most.

Early books were good. Later books veered into preachy nutbaggery.

I've only seen like the first 15 minutes actually. One of those big movies that I never got around to.

The film and the book are very different. The film is not great apart from the CGI that was jawdropping for its time. The book is a much better told tale.

Wow, sad to hear this. I thought his global warming book was pretty good, definitely a better followup to that terrible nanobot book. But hit or miss, he was still tried to thoroughly research stuff before turning it into sci-fi and trying to wrap a thin narrative around it. I felt like he was sort of like Dan Brown in a way: start with some plausible, make a fun story about it.

Rest in peace.

His latter works were utter crap, and rank right there with Terry Goodkind for "I'll shove my politics down your throat in ways I feel are subtle, but which are blatantly obviously, like when I name a pedophile after a journalist who annoyed me and seem surprised when people notice".

His earlier works were really hit or miss, and you could see the paranioa and junk science bits creep out at the edge from practically the beginning.

And frankly, the whole apes with ping-pong paddles was just ridiculous.

But I'll forgive it, because I sat in a theater and watched Jurassic Park. Fuck the story. I saw dinosaurs, and that was worth the decades of crap after.

Despite having a lot of really tedious books, Michael Crichton was an writer I enjoyed because of the books Sphere and Prey, and the movie Westworld.

I've read nearly every book by Crichton, and was upset to hear this.

Also, of all the books I ever see discussed with his name attached, I never see people mention "Eaters of the Dead" which was one of my favorite, most readable books by him. This became the movie 13th Warrior, with Antonio Banderas.

Westworld was a great film, as was Coma.

And who can forget Runaway with Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons.

Book was definitly better then the movie in this instance.  This is also one of my favorites of his.

After all the shitty science in his books, I never understood why people listened to the shitty science in his politics.

Ohhh shit, I forgot about Eaters of the Dead.  What a fucking fantastic book, and surprisingly short given his tendencies to ramble.

I don't think I ever read Eaters of the Dead. I just got a new library card- maybe I will use to and catch up on some old school Crichton soon.

Cricton did Runaway? Loved that movie... at the time  :grin:

Runaway was great to me when I first saw it, but looking back it's a really ridiculous movie.

Still, homing bullets.

Runaway is a captive of its time...Gene Simmons fights Tom Selleck using robotics. In the capsule that is 1984-1987, it will always be awesome. Do not...fuck...with Runaway!

EDIT: Now temporally accurate.

EDIT2: does no one remember Looker? Albert Finney discovers the memory gun?

I'll have to look that book up...I'm sure I've at least seen the cover, since I've named a bit of code after it, but didn't conciously realize it.

IMO it's a short story compared to his other stuff, heh.

It's a great book, probably my favorite of his and it's nothing like his other works. That's probably what made it great. Not to shit on the guy but he's nowhere near my favorite writer and if pressed I probably wouldn't list him in my Top 10. But Eaters of the Dead? Just great.

I'm going to have to read it, now. It would be nice to have something of his past 'The Andromeda Strain 'that didn't set off the 'gimmie' book detectors.

Jurassic Park spoiler:

No, nothing as interesting as that...

What a shame, I had that all built up in my head for so long.   :oh_i_see:

Crichton's books were basically the forerunner to the X-files:  vaguely plausible/minorly unplausible pop science what if stories.

Eaters of the Dead is also my favorite.  A great spin on the idea that legends/myths have actual historical basis.

I read a ton of his books in High School, always tended to enjoy them.  Jurassic Park, Sphere, Andromeda Strain, Eaters of the Dead, Congo, all good books IMO.  Also read Lost World and Timeline, which were OK (you couldn't defiantly tell he was just cashing a check for Lost World though).

I know none of his newer stuff was good, but still put out a lot of good fun books in his time.  Sad to see him go.

Same thoughts here exactly.  I stopped keeping up with him after the nanobots book which was pretty terrible (although a somewhat entertaining read).  I was a big science geek at the time, and I really enjoyed that aspect of his writing.

Although thinking back, I'm not sure if I ever read Eaters of the Dead.  I will definitely have to see if my mom has a copy of that one.

Felt like he had another good book in him somewhere.

I thought Timeline (the book) was awesome when I was in high school. Same with Terminal Man.

Sue me.

I actually did like Timeline (didn't mean to really put it down), but it just didn't have as "perfectly awesome adventure" feeling to it as the past books I named.  Still good though.

I also did read Terminal Man, thanks for reminding me.  I didn't really know what to make of it.  The concept was interesting, but I guess it was just sort "hmm" to me, just because it wasn't as epic as any of his other books.  I mean, it was basically about a normal guy getting (1970's) computer crap installed into him, going crazy because of it, and running away (and hurting people).  It just seemed so.....plain after all the other shit of his I read.