John Michael Crichton, M.D. (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, producer and director, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide. As the creator of the TV series ER, most famously as the author of Jurassic Park, and its sequel The Lost World, which were both adapted into high grossing films and leading to the very successful franchise, in 1994 he became the only creative artist ever to experience chart-topping success in America with a film, a television series and a novel, all at number one at once. Many of his other novels were made into films.
Easton Press Michael Crichton books
The Andromeda Strain - Signed Modern Classic - 2003
Jurassic Park - Signed Limited Edition - 2008
The Lost World - 2008
The Great Train Robbery - 2013
Timeline - 2014
Dragon Teeth - 2017
Sphere - 2017
Franklin Library Michael Crichton books
Travels - signed first edition - 1988
Jurassic Park - signed first edition - 1990
Rising Sun - signed first edition - 1992
Disclosure - signed first edition - 1993
The Lost World - signed first edition - 1995
Airframe - signed first edition - 1996
His literary works were usually based on the action genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomised the Techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, often specifically bio technologically and catastrophe related. Many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. He was the author of The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Disclosure, Rising Sun, Timeline, State of Fear, Prey, and Next, the final book published before his death, and he also had another project set for some time in 2009.
Author Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist and Zula Miller Crichton on October 23 1942. He was raised in Long Island, in Roslyn, New York., and had three siblings, two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas. Crichton showed a keen interest in writing from a young age and at the age of just 14 had a column related to travel published in the New York Times. Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and commenced his studies at Harvard College in 1960. During his undergraduate study in literature, Crichton conducted an experiment to catch a professor who he believed was giving him abnormally low marks and criticising his own literary style off guard. Informing another professor of his suspicions, Crichton plagiarized a work by George Orwell and submitted it as his own. Unaware, the paper was received by his professor with a mark of "B−". His issues with the English Department led Crichton to switch his course to biological anthropology as an undergraduate, obtaining his bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1964. Crichton was also initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He went on to become the Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellow from 1964 to 1965 and Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1965.
Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School when he began publishing work. By this time Crichton had become unusually tall. According to his own words, he was approximately 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 meters) tall in 1997, a full 12 inches (30 centimetres) above average height in the United States. In reference to his height, while in medical school, he began writing novels under the pen names John Lange and Jeffery Hudson. Lange is a surname in Germany, meaning "tall one" and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th century dwarf in the court of Queen Consort Henrietta Maria of England. A Case of Need, written under the Hudson pseudonym, won him his first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969. He also co-authored Dealing with his younger brother Douglas under the shared pen name Michael Douglas. The back cover of that book contains a picture of Michael and Douglas at a very young age taken by their mother.
Crichton graduated from Harvard, obtaining an M.D. in 1969, and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship study at the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, from 1969 to 1970. In 1988, he was Visiting Writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As an adolescent, Crichton felt isolated in regards to his height and different to others. As an adult, he was acutely aware of his intellect which also left him often feeling alienated from people around him. During the 1970s and 1980s he consulted psychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his karma. As a result of these experiences, Crichton practised meditation thoughout much of his life. Crichton was a workaholic. When drafting a novel which would typically take him six or seven weeks, Crichton withdrew completely and ritualistically to follow what he called "a structured approach". As he approached writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly earlier each day, to the extent that on nearing completion he would sleep for less than 4 hours, by going to bed at 10pm and awaking at 2am.
In 1992 Crichton was ranked among People magazine's 50 most beautiful people. Crichton was married five times, but four of the marriages ended in divorce. He was married to Suzanna Childs, Joan Radam (1965 – 1970), Kathy St. Johns (1978 – 1980) and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987 - 2003). At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander.
How did Michael Crichton die?
Given the private way in which Crichton lived his life, his battle with cancer was not made public until his death. He died unexpectedly of cancer on November 4, 2008. On Crichton's death, long term friend and collaborator Steven Spielberg issued a statement: “Michael’s talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of ‘Jurassic Park.’ He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the earth. In the early days, Michael had just sold ‘The Andromeda Strain’ to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionally ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘ER,’ and ‘Twister’ followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.”
Jurassic Park
On a remote jungle island, genetic engineers have created a dinosaur game park.
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them for a price.
Until something goes wrong. . . .
As always, there is a dark side to the fantasy and after a catastrophe destroys the park's defence systems, the scientists and tourists are left fighting for survival...
In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying techno-thriller. With this masterful cross of science fiction and action-adventure, Michael Crichton created one of the biggest bestsellers of all time, turned by Steven Spielberg into the highest grossing blockbuster ever in 1993.
The Lost World
It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.
There are rumors that something has survived....
Written in the wake of Jurassic Park's phenomenal box-office success, The Lost World seems as much a guidebook for Hollywood types hard at work on the franchise's followup as it is a legitimate sci-fi thriller. Which begs the inevitable questions: Is the plot a rehash of the first book? Sure it is, with the action unfolding on yet another secluded island, the mysterious "Site B."
The Andromeda Strain
From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a captivating thriller about a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism, which threatens to annihilate human life.
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.
Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study. One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.
Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.
Some biologists speculate that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials, those life forms are likely to be like most life on earth one-celled or smaller creatures, more comparable to bacteria than little green men. And even though such organisms would not likely be able to harm humans, the possibility exists that first contact might be our last.
That's the scientific supposition that Michael Crichton formulates and follows out to its conclusion in his excellent debut novel, The Andromeda Strain.
A Nobel-Prize-winning bacteriologist, Jeremy Stone, urges the president to approve an extraterrestrial decontamination facility to sterilize returning astronauts, satellites, and spacecraft that might carry an "unknown biologic agent." The government agrees, almost too quickly, to build the top-secret Wildfire Lab in the desert of Nevada. Shortly thereafter, unbeknownst to Stone, the U.S. Army initiates the "Scoop" satellite program, an attempt to actively collect space pathogens for use in biological warfare. When Scoop VII crashes a couple years later in the isolated Arizona town of Piedmont, the Army ends up getting more than it asked for.
The Andromeda Strain follows Stone and rest of the scientific team mobilized to react to the Scoop crash as they scramble to understand and contain a strange and deadly outbreak.
Congo
Deep
in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City
of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists is mysteriously and
brutally killed in a matter of minutes.
Ten thousand miles away,
Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video
transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn,
equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies all motionless
except for one moving image a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.
In
San Francisco, primatologist Peter Elliot works with Amy, a gorilla with
an extraordinary vocabulary of 620 “signs,” the most ever learned by a
primate, and she likes to fingerpaint. But recently, her behavior has
been erratic and her drawings match, with stunning accuracy, the brittle
pages of a Portuguese print dating back to 1642 . . . a drawing of an
ancient lost city. A new expedition along with Amy is sent into the
Congo where they enter a secret world, and the only way out may be
through a horrifying death …
Airframe
The
twin jet plane en route to Denver from Hong Kong is merely a green
radar blip half an hour off the California coast when the call comes
through to air traffic control:
'Socal Approach, this is
TransPacific 545. We have an emergency.' The pilot requests priority
clearance to land then comes the bombshell he needs forty ambulances on
the runway.
But nothing prepares the rescue workers for the carnage they witness when they enter the plane.
Ninety-four passengers are injured. Three dead. The interior cabin virtually destroyed.
What happened on board Flight TPA 545?
Disclosure
Thomas
Sanders' world collapses in just 24 hours he is passed over for
promotion, his new woman boss comes on to him during a drink after work,
then, the next morning, he learns that she has accused him of sexually
harassing her. She demands his transfer, thereby threatening to cut him
off from the millions he would have made when his high-tech company was
floated on the stock market.
What follow next made Disclosure the most talked about novel of the decade.
Travels
Often
I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I
really am. When Michael Crichton a Harvard-trained physician,
bestselling novelist, and successful movie director began to feel
isolated in his own life, he decided to widen his horizons. He tracked
wild animals in the jungles of Rwanda. He climbed Kilimanjaro and Mayan
pyramids. He trekked across a landslide in Pakistan. He swam amid sharks
in Tahiti. Fueled by a powerful curiosity and the need to see, feel,
and hear firsthand and close-up, Michael Crichton has experienced
adventures as compelling as those he created in his books and films.
These adventures both physical and spiritual are recorded here in
Travels, Crichton's most astonishing and personal work.
Rising Sun
In
a novel set within the arena of volatile Japanese-American relations,
business moguls compete for control of the international electronics
industry.
On the forty-fifth floor of the Nakamoto Tower in
downtown L.A. the new American headquarters of the immense Japanese
conglomerate a grand opening celebration is in full swing.
On the forty-sixth floor, in an empty conference room, the dead body of a beautiful young woman is discovered.
The
investigation begins ... and immediately becomes a headlong chase
through a twisting maze of industrial intrigue ... a no-holds-barred
conflict in which control of a vital American technology is the fiercely
coveted prize and the Japanese saying "business is war" takes on a
terrifying reality ...
Michael Crichton movies
Michael
Crichton was not only a prolific author but also had a significant
impact on the film industry. His novels, known for their thrilling and
science-based narratives, were often adapted into successful movies and
television series. The following are some notable Michael Crichton
movies.
Westworld (1973) Crichton wrote and directed this science
fiction thriller about an amusement park where guests can experience
interactions with lifelike robots. The film explores the dangers of
technology and artificial intelligence.
Coma (1978) Adapted from
Robin Cook's novel, Crichton wrote and directed this medical thriller
about a young doctor who discovers a conspiracy surrounding patients who
fall into comas during routine surgeries.
The Great Train
Robbery (1978) Crichton wrote and directed this period piece based on
his own novel, which is a historical crime caper set in Victorian
England.
Jurassic Park (1993) Directed by Steven Spielberg and
based on Crichton's novel of the same name, this film is a landmark in
the science fiction genre. It explores the disastrous consequences of
cloning dinosaurs for an amusement park.
Disclosure (1994) Based
on Crichton's novel, this thriller delves into issues of sexual
harassment and corporate intrigue. Michael Douglas and Demi Moore star
in this adaptation.
Congo (1995) Adapted from Crichton's novel,
this adventure film follows an expedition to find a rare diamond in the
jungles of the Congo. The story involves advanced technology and a
talking gorilla.
The Lost World Jurassic Park (1997) A sequel to
the original Jurassic Park film, this adaptation of Crichton's novel
explores the dangers of an isolated dinosaur habitat.
Sphere
(1998) Based on Crichton's science fiction novel, this film involves a
team of scientists investigating a mysterious alien spacecraft on the
ocean floor. The story explores psychological and existential themes.
Timeline
(2003) Adapted from Crichton's novel, this science fiction adventure
involves a group of historians who travel back in time to medieval
France.
Prey (upcoming) A film adaptation of Crichton's
techno-thriller novel Prey is reportedly in development, exploring the
dangers of nanotechnology.
Michael Crichton's influence on film
extends beyond these adaptations, as his work often inspired discussions
about the ethical implications of scientific advancements and the
consequences of playing with the boundaries of nature and technology.
Fiction
Odds On was Michael Crichton's first published novel. It was released in 1966 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a short 215-page paperback novel which describes an attempt of robbery in an isolated hotel on Costa Brava. The robbery is planned scientifically with the help of a Critical Path Analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way. The following year he published Scratch One. The novel relates the story of Roger Carr, a handsome, charming and privileged man who practices law, more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Carr is sent to Nice, France where he has notable political connections, but is mistaken for an assassin and finds his life in jeopardy, implicated in the world of terrorism. In 1968 he published two novels, Easy Go and A Case of Need, the second of which was re-published in 1993 under his real name. Easy Go relates the story of Harold Barnaby, a brilliant Egyptologist who discovers a concealed message while translating hieroglyphics, informing him of an unnamed Pharaoh whose tomb is yet to discovered. A Case of Need, on the otherhand was a medical thriller in which a Boston pathologist, Dr. John Berry, investigates an apparent illegal abortion conducted by an obstretrician friend which caused the early premise of a young woman. The novel would prove a turning point in Crichton's future novels, in which technology is important in the subject matter, although this novel was as much about medical practition. The novel garnered him an Edgar Award in 1969.
In 1969 Crichton published three novels. The first, Zero Cool, dealt with an American radiologist on vacation in Spain who becomes caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact. The second, The Andromeda Strain, would prove to be the important novel in his career which established him as a best selling author. The novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that fatally clots human blood, infecting the sufferer with ebola-like symptoms and causing death within two minutes. The microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biologic properties. The novel became an instant success, and it was only two years before the novel was sought after by film producers and turned into the eponymous 1971 film under the directorship of Robert Wise and featuring Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid as Leavitt, and David Wayne. In September 2004, the Sci Fi Channel would announced a production of a miniseries, executive-produced by Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Frank Darabont, premiering on May 26 2008. Crichton's third novel of 1969, The Venom Business relates the story of a smuggler who uses his exceptional skill as a snake handler to his advantage by smuggling snakes out of Mexico under the guise of medical research to be used by drug companies and universities for research. The snakes are simply a ruse to hide the identity of rare Mexican artifacts. In 1970 Crichton again pubished three novels. The first, Drug of Choice, the second, Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues and the third, Grave Descend. The novel earned him an Edgar Award nomination the following year.
In 1972 Crichton published two novels. The first, Binary relates the story of a villainous middle-class businessman who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States by stealing an army shipment of the two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve agent. The second, The Terminal Man is about a psychomotor epileptic sufferer, Harry Benson, who in regularly suffering seizures followed by blackouts, conducts himself inappropriately during seizures, waking up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. Believed to be psychotic, he is investigated electrodes implanted in his brain, continuing the trend in Crichton's novels with machines-human interaction and technology. The novel was adapted into a film directed by Mike Hodges and starring George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard A. Dysart and Donald Moffat, released in June 1974. However both the novel and the film were not well received by critics.
In 1975, Crichton ventured into the nineteenth century with his historical novel The Great Train Robbery which would become a bestseller. The novel related a mild rerepresentation of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, which takes place on a train traveling through Victorian era England. A considerable proportion of the book was set in London. The novel was later made into a 1979 film directed by Crichton himself, starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. The film would go on to be nominated for Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers, also garnering a nomination for Best Motion Picture by the Edgar Allan Poe award by the Mystery Writers Association of America.
In 1976 Crichton published Eaters of the Dead, a novel about a 10th century Muslim who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement. Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript and was inspired by two sources. The first three chapters retelling Ahmad ibn Fadlan's personal account of his actual journey north and his experiences in encountering the Rus', the early Russian peoples, whilst the remainder is based upon the story of Beowulf, culminating in battles with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a relict group of Neanderthals. The novel was adapted into film as The 13th Warrior, initially directed by John McTiernan, who was later fired and directed by Crichton himself.
In 1980 Crichton published the novel, Congo, which centers on an expedition searching for diamonds in the tropical rain forest of Congo. An expedition, searching for deposits of valuable diamonds, discover the legendary lost city of Zinj and an unusual race of barbarous gorillas. The novel was adapted into a film loosely based on the novel in 1995, starring Laura Linney, Tim Curry, and Ernie Hudson. Seven years later, Crichton published Sphere, a novel which relates the story of psychologist Norman Johnson, who is required by the U.S. Navy to join a team of scientists assembled by the U.S. Government to examine an enormous alien spacecraft discovered on the bed of the Pacific Ocean, believed to have been there for over 300 years. The novel begins as a science fiction story, but rapidly transforms into a psychological thriller, ultimately exploring the nature of the human imagination. The novel was adapted into the film Sphere in 1998, directed by Barry Levinson, with a cast including Dustin Hoffman as Norman Johnson, (renamed Norman Goodman), Samuel L. Jackson, Liev Schreiber and Sharon Stone.
In 1990, Crichton published the novel, Jurassic Park. Crichton utilised the presentation of "fiction as fact", used in his previous novels, Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain, in conjunction the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an amusement park showcasing certain genetically recreated dinosaur species in a "biological preserve" on Isla Nublar island, 120 miles west off the coast of Costa Rica. Paleontologist Alan Grant along with his paleobotanist graduate student, Ellie Sattler, are brought by the billionaire John Hammond, founder and chief executive officer of International Genetic Technologies, or InGen to investigate. Upon arrival, the park is revealed to contain cloned dinosaurs, 15 different species, including species such as Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex which have been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA, found in mosquitoes that sucked Saurian blood and were then trapped and preserved in amber).
Crichton had originally conceived a screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur; but decided to explore his fascination with dinosaurs and cloning until he began writing the novel. Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989 while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would become the television series ER. Before the book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross. Warner Brothers and Tim Burton, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Richard Donner, and 20th Century Fox and Joe Dante bid for the rights, but Universal eventually acquired them in May 1990 for Spielberg. Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel, which he had completed by the time Spielberg was filming Hook. Crichton noted that because the book was "fairly long" his script only had about 10–20 percent of the novel's content, resulting in scenes from the novel being dropped for budgetary and practical reasons. The film, directed by Spielberg was eventually released in 1993, starring Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm (the chaos theorist) and Richard Attenborough billionaire CEO of InGen. The film would become highest grossing film ever in film history at the time, grossing $914 million worldwide.
In 1992, Crichton published the novel Rising Sun, an international best-selling crime thriller about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation. The book was instantly adapted into a film, released the same year of the movie adaption of Jurassic Park in 1993 and starring Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Tia Carrere and Harvey Keitel. Crichton would continue with the subject matter of a high tech corporation in his next novel, Disclosure, published in 1994. The novel again revolves around a fictional high tech company, but specifically addresses the theme of sexual harassment which had been explored in previous novels such as 1972's Binary. Unlike that novel however, Crichton centers on sexual politics in the workplace, emphasising an array of paradoxes in traditional gender functions, by featuring a male protagonist who is being sexually harassed by a female executive. As a result, the book has been harshly criticized by feminist commentators and accused of anti-feminism. Crichton, anticipating this response, offered a rebuttal at the close of the novel which states that a "role-reversal" story uncovers aspects of the subject that would not be as easily seen with a female protagonist. The novel was made into a film the same year under the helm of Barry Levinson, and starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore and Donald Sutherland.
Crichton then published The Lost World in 1995 as the sequel to Jurassic Park. It was made into a film sequel two years later in 1997, again dircted by Spielberg and starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn and Pete Postlethwaite. Then, in 1996, Crichton published Airframe an aero-techno-thriller which relates the story of a quality assurance vice-president at the fictional aerospace manufacturer Norton Aircraft, as she investigates an in-flight accident aboard a Norton-manufactured airliner that leaves three passengers dead and fifty-six injured. Like many of his other novels, Crichton uses the false document literary device, presenting numerous technical documents to create a sense of authenticity. In the novel, Crichton draws from real life accidents to increase its sensation of realism, including American Airlines Flight 191 and Aeroflot Flight 593 which flew from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) and crashed at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport in 1994. Air safety procedures are a central theme in the novel. Crichton challenges public perception of air safety and somehwat relates an element of investigative journalism, and the consequences of exaggerated media reports to sell the story. The book also continues Crichton's overall theme of the failure of humans in human-machine interaction, given that plane itself worked perfectly, and had the pilot known how to react properly, the accident would not have occurred within it.
Then in 1999, Crichton published Timeline, a science fiction novel which tells the story of a team of historians and archaeologists studying at site in the Dordogne region of France where the medieval towns of Castelgard and La Roque stood who travel back to the 1357 to uncover some startling truths. The novel which continues Crichton's long history of combining technical details and action in his books, addresses quantum physics and time travel directly. The novel quickly spawned Timeline Computer Entertainment, a computer game developer that created the Timeline PC game published by Eidos Interactive in 2000. Afilm based on the book was released in 2003 by Paramount Pictures, with a screen adaptation by Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi, under the directorship of Richard Donner. The film stars Paul Walker, Gerard Butler and Frances O'Connor.
In 2002, Crichton published Prey, a cautionary tale about developments in science and technology; specifically nanotechnology. The novel explores relatively recent phenonomen in the scientific community, such as artificial life, emergence (and by extension, complexity), genetic algorithms, and agent-based computing. Reiterating components in many of his other novels, Crichton once again brings fictional companies to the readers attention, this time Xymos, a nanorobotics company which is claimed to be on the verge of perfecting a revolutionary new medical imaging technology based on nanotechnology and a rival company, MediaTronics. The story has been loosely adapted into cinematic format, in the 2008 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which a black swarm of nanobots escape from a secure military facility in the desert to destroy the world. Then in 2004, Crichton published State of Fear, a novel concerning eco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. Global warming and climate change serve as a central theme to the novel, and in Appendix I of the book, Crichton warns both sides of the global warming debate against the politicization of science. [16]He provides two examples of the disastrous combination of pseudo-science and politics, the early 20th-century idea of eugenics, which he directly links to be one of the theories that allowed for the Holocaust and Lysenkoism. The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position at Amazon.com and #2 on the New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005. However, Crichton was widely criticised for his views on global warming.
His final novel, published while he was still living was Next, printed in 2006. The novel follows many characters, including transgenic animals, in the quest to survive in a world dominated by genetic research, corporate greed, and legal interventions wheregovernment and private investors spend billions of dollars every year on genetic research. In his novel, Crichton introduces a minor character named "Mick Crowley" who is portrayed by Crichton as a child molester with a small penis. There is a real person named Michael Crowley, who is also a Yale graduate, and a senior editor of The New Republic, a left-leaning Washington D.C.-based political magazine who had written an article strongly critical of Crichton for his stance on global warming in his novel, State of Fear, earlier in March 2006.
Non-fiction
Aside from fiction, Crichton wrote several other books based on medical or scientific themes, often based upon his own observations in his field of expertise. In 1970 he published Five Patients, a book which recounts his experiences of hospital practices in the late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The book follows each of five patients through their hospital experience and the context of their treatment, revealing inadequacies in the hospital institution at the time. The book relates the experiences of Ralph Orlando, a construction worker seriously injured in a scaffold collapse, John O'Connor, a middle aged dispatcher suffering from fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck, Peter Luchesi, a young man who severs his hand in an accident, Sylvia Thompson, an airline passenger who suffers chest pains, and Edith Murphy, a mother of three who is diagnosed with a life threatening disease. in Five Patients, Crichton examines a brief history of medicine up to 1969 to help place hospital culture and practice into context, and addresses the costs and politics of the national healthcare service. As a personal friend to the artist Jasper Johns, Crichton compiled many of his works in a coffee table book, published as Jasper Johns. It was originally published in the 1970 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art and again in January 1977, with a second revised edition published in 1994.
In 1983, Crichton authored Electronic Life, a book that introduces BASIC programming to its readers. The book, written like a glossary, with entries such as "Afraid of Computers (everybody is)," "Buying a Computer," and "Computer Crime", was intended to introduce the idea of personal computers to a reader who might be faced with the hardship of using them at work or at home for the first time. It defined basic computer jargon and assured readers that they could master the machine when it inevitably arrived. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation; "In my experience, you assert control over a computer—show it who's the boss—by making it do something unique. That means programming it....If you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterwards". In the book, Crichton predicts a number of events in the history of computer development, that computer networks would increase in importance as a matter of convenience, including the sharing of information and pictures that we see online today which the telephone never could. He also makes predictions for computer games, dismissing them as "the hula hoops of the '80s", and saying "already there are indications that the mania for twitch games may be fading." In a section of the book called "Microprocessors, or how I flunked biostatistics at Harvard," Crichton again seeks his revenge on the medical school teacher who had given him abnormally low grades in college. Within the book, Crichton included many self-written demonstrative Applesoft (for Apple II) and BASICA (for IBM PC compatibles) programs. He once considered updating it, but the project was canceled.
Then in 1988 he published Travels, which also contains autobiographical episodes covered in a similar fashion to his 1970 book Five Patients.
Computer games
Amazon is a graphical text adventure game created by Michael Crichton and produced by John Wells under Trillium Corp. Amazon was released in the United States in 1984 and it runs on Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and the DOS systems. Amazon was considered by some to be a breakthrough in the way it updated text adventure games by adding color graphics and music. It sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time. It featured plot elements similar to those later used in Congo.
In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment with David Smith. Despite signing a multi-title publishing deal with Eidos Interactive, only one game was ever published, Timeline. Released on 8 December 2000 for the PC, the game received poor reviews and sold poorly.
Source and additional information: Michael Crichton