The Book: State of Fear, by Michael Crichton

The Story: I know that I don’t usually do this, but there’s a lot going on here. I’m just going to give you the Goodreads synopsis:

“In Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor.

In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications.

In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea.

And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means.”

There ya go.

What I Thought: This is dick lit without a doubt.

It has this crazy plot, a lot of car specs, hot girls with very few clothes, a worldwide conspiracy, the whole thing.

That’s not to say anything bad about it, but if you’ve read a couple of these, then you can probably about guess how the whole thing plans out.

The thing that kind of caught me off guard here is how much of an clear message Michael Crichton was putting out there. The whole book had this obvious slant that kind of made me scratch my head. I wonder if he really believed all of that or if he was just playing devil’s advocate. Either way, I realize it was fiction, but all of the little references to real papers/speeches made it clear that he had done his research and was kind of lecturing his readers. I’m pretty sure a lot of the research was dodgy or at least taken out of context, but what do I know?

I thought that the writing was really simple- a 8th grader would be able to read this and understand it- and, although convoluted, the plot was pretty straight forward. There wasn’t much that happened that caught me totally off guard.

That being said, I actually did kind of enjoy this. It was a longer book, but it had me hooked from page one. I was kind of engrossed in it and kept reading and reading, so how bad could it have been? I read it over a month ago and still remember the plot and a lot of the sub-plots, so that’s saying something. It must have had some kind of hold over me. It also made me want to explore Antarctica. If I ever talk about this again, someone please talk me out of it. Thanks.

Conclusion: Nothing life changing, but a good escapist book. Great for a long plane ride or a vacation read.

The Book: Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton

The Story: I probably don’t have to explain this one too much…

A crazy old guy decides to clone dinosaurs and put them on an island as an amusement park.  They are all girl-dinos and they are pretty sure that they have control over the whole situation.  A couple of dinosaur scientists, a lawyer, two kids and a mathematician head to the island to check it out.

Quickly the scientists and the mathematician figure out that they are not, in fact, all girl-dinos and that they are breeding. A stingy computer guy turns everything off so he can steal some embryos.  So the dinos are kinda on their own.

All hell breaks loose.

What I Thought: I remember reading this while I was in middle school and just absolutely loving it. I’m not sure what prompted me to pick it up again- I just saw it at the thrift store and got nostalgic.

I have to say, I really liked it again.  I was less impressed with the writing, but the story still really compelled me.  I liked how Michael Crichton “talked shop” a lot so that we’d know what was happening and why.  I don’t  know if this book was actually well researched or if he is just a good b.s.er, but either way it worked for me.

I do usually tend to lean toward character-driven books, and this is not that in the slightest.  The characters have no story, very little personality, and not much to distinguish them from each other. The story is very heavily plot driven, but I was fine with that.  It moved along quickly and kept me reading, so I can’t complain.

Not sure what year this book was written, I guess around the mid-ninties, but I couldn’t quit thinking about how a high-speed internet connection and cell phones would have changed this storyline.

Conclusion: A fun, quick read.  And as a bonus it made my husband so happy that I was reading this because now I’ll want to watch the movie.  It is his favorite of all time. So funny.