The Navy assembles an Unknown Life Form welcome squad based on recommendations Norman drafted for a top secret government project six years earlier. Based on the coral growth calculations of marine biologists and oceanographers, the spaceship arrived about 300 years ago. When he arrives at the site, he learns it is not a recent commercial or military plane crash, but an alien spaceship on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Navy summons him to consult on a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean. Norman Johnson is a psychologist from the University of California, San Diego. The Navy assembles an Unknown Life Form welcome squa Objective Summary Objective Summary Norman Johnson is a psychologist from the University of California, San Diego.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. Too many writers can do neither (particularly fantasy/sci-fi writers, whose purple prose is a pathetic attempt to hide this fact). Crichton was good enough as an action writer to compensate for lack of character development. Sphere was probably the only book where the action was driven by the characters, rather than the other way around. Norman in Sphere was probably his best-developed character in any of his books, but we still only learned enough just to move the plot forward. Sphere was written during his prime, and is a good example of his style, although Jurassic Park was his masterpiece.Ĭharacter development. His later books got increasingly bad (Timeline had an interesting setup, but failed in execution, State of Fear was laughable climate-change-denier propaganda, Next was stupid and appealed to literally no one).
His early prose was clumsy (The Andromeda Strain). He seemed excited about what was possible, but painted worst-case scenarios in his books and movies (Westworld). He took a long-view of technological progress and was cautiously optimistic. The action flows naturally in the story, and is never over-long.Ĭautionary tales. His action is (usually) easy to follow, more so that many so-called "action" writers (Ian Fleming, every Star Wars expanded universe novel). He naturally provides just enough of the scientific basis to suspend disbelief and move the story forward without bogging down the narrative.Īction. Dustin Dye I personally like Crichton's style, and I've read almost every one of his books, including his non-fiction and a number of his works under pseudonyms …more I personally like Crichton's style, and I've read almost every one of his books, including his non-fiction and a number of his works under pseudonyms (although nothing published posthumously).