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Michael Crichton was no prose stylist but he was a mightily efficient producer of high-concept, predictive thrillers.
He had a great knack for identifying an exciting futuristic subject, usually involving technology: viruses from space, say, in The Andromeda Strain; revived dinosaurs (Jurassic Park); stroppy androids (Westworld); malign medics (Coma); uncontrollable nanotechnology (Prey)
Who wouldn't want to read a story dealing with such frightening, fascinating threats? Having found these themes, Crichton animated them with a standard issue, indeed prefab, plot.
Sympathetic heroes are put in peril by the aberrant phenomenon, which they discover to be both more terrifying and more advanced than anybody had suspected, so that only after the most hair-raising adventures and narrow escapes do they win. Readers could happily let their imaginations roam in Crichton's fantasy worlds because he always seemed to be addressing an important and novel topic. So it wasn't just escapism after all, they could tell themselves - if they needed justification for wasting their time.
Towards the end of his career, Crichton became rather preachy, taking himself a little too seriously. Some believed him, too. It seems that no less an authority than Prince Charles was impressed by Crichton's warning in Prey about the threat of the world succumbing to microbot "grey goo" - but HRH can hardly have equally liked Crichton's subsequent assault on the science of global warming in State Of Fear, which was stuffed with graphs and came with an appendix about false science - and a lengthy annotated bibliography.
On the one hand, his thriller about genetic engineering, Next, featured such captivating inventions as a loyal monkey-boy and a brilliantly clever African Grey parrot - but, on the other, it ended with a stiff author's note proposing key reforms in the field: "1. Stop patenting genes".
Crichton was at his best when remembering to thrill, rather than letting himself lecture. I always looked forward to his books - and I'm sorry there will be no more.
Reader views (1)
So he should lecture. Arthur C Clarke was an expert at both.
Someone has to lecture the vast number of low intelligence politicians in this world.
What sort of stupid common sense is it to be allowed to patent something that everyone has. ie. genes.
- Larry Hotchkiss, York, England, 06/11/2008 20:22
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