Comments on: Michael Crichton, dead at 66

By: General X

General X — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:01:56 +0000

Wow, this was a gut punch.

By: Phyreblade

Phyreblade — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:29:54 +0000

He will be missed…

By: r0b0tch1ck3nz

r0b0tch1ck3nz — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:25:41 +0000

nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!he was my favorite author

By: DasMaus

DasMaus — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:24:45 +0000

@SumoSnipe: Incredibly sad. Crichton and Hillerman were are two of my favorite authors. I absolutley loved Eaters of the Dead. It's my second favorite book of all time.

By: sylvanish

sylvanish — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:25:08 +0000

I’ve got “Next” sitting unread on my bookshelf; I’ve never read any of his books before and I’ve got like a hundred other random books on my ‘yet to read’ shelf, in your varied opinions, is it worth bumping up in the queue?
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By: Caio

Caio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:55:57 +0000

@reboot: Wait what the fuck? I haven’t read the foundation series in a while but I think you need to read the last books? Foundation was a thinly-veiled allegory about Nationalism and Nation building, specifically Greco-Roman, based on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. Aside from that it was a jab at the social sciences: Seldon makes his predictions on socio-cultural trends but he himself, an extraordinary individual, changes the course of events ironically removing the “foundation” from his own theory. You know, the observer always effects the subject, that kind of thing?

I don’t know if you noticed this (it’s in the later books, I guess) but the Foundation becomes corrupted and crumbles and when they get Seldon’s next prophecy it is completely irrelevant. Then the Foundation crumbles. Barbarians at the gate, as they say.
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Anyway, my favourite Crichton book is Sphere, and that’s not a warning about science. The ‘science fiction’ comes from a magical alien ball that tells the people about themselves.
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By: SumoSnipe

SumoSnipe — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:44:08 +0000

All the hue and cry going on this past week, I just found out that another writer,Tony Hillerman, died last sunday. Dammit all my favorite writers are dropping off….

By: NotJesus

NotJesus — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:44:08 +0000

I was so about to mention Eaters of the Dead. His best non-formulaic work. First Jurassic Park was pretty good, too, if for nothing else but the awesomeness of bringing dinosaurs back to life. And the movie, well, it was cutting edge for its time. Not much scarier than the raptor/kitchen scene. I nearly wet myself when the raptor went for Lex’s reflection in the stainless cabinetry.

Oh, and most of you probably won’t believe me, but back in ’94, I had the pleasure of introducing Dr. Crichton to Tom Clancy.

By: SumoSnipe

SumoSnipe — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:03:38 +0000

Damn.
I had gotten burned out on Mr S King and found “Eaters of The Dead”. Typical me I then ran through everything I could find of his, But “Eaters” is still my favorite. As for screen adaptations..eh. I never expect hollywood to get anywhere near as good as the books.
How about popcorn with bacon salt?

By: nyokki

nyokki — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:53:28 +0000

Oh and I never thought of his writing as anti-science, the opposite in fact. The downfall was always the people and their unwillingness to really understand the science they were dealing w/ and its consequences. There always are characters who control the science that did nothing to create it.