Thanks for all the stories

Recently one of my favorite authors, Michael Crichton, died. if you've never read his work, you're likely still familiar with it & have probably seen at least one of the movies his books were turned into. Jurassic Park, Sphere, Timeline, Andromeda Strain, Eaters of the Dead(which became 13th Warrior on the big screen), Congo, Rising Sun, Disclosure, just to name a few. He was also involved in the movie Twister & the tv show E.R.

I first heard of him several years ago when he was on the Today Show one morning. There sat this polite, intelligent, well spoken man discussing a book he'd written about someone trying to bring dinosaurs to life & how they'd just began work towards making it a movie. I thought it was an intriguing possibility, ressurecting an extinct species & I set out to find the book. Like a lot of people do when trying out an author for the first time, I grabbed it not necessarily expecting loads. Sure, the premise sounded cool, but that didn't mean his style would be to my liking. Boy, was I wrong!

Since then, I've owned at least seven of his books, read one or two others & seen the bulk of his movies. He is, to my mind, a giant in fiction. And, the thing I loved about the books of his that I read was their tangibility. I'm a big sci fi fan, but this wasn't space ships or crazy aliens or ray guns, this was possible & that was what made them so thrilling...and sometime, so frightening. His stories were modern day science, things going on in labs today & just taken a step & a half beyond. They were plausible. Disturbingly so in some cases. They were filled with sharp characters & exciting action sequences & provided that perfect blend of science that wasn't someone talking clean over your head, nor someone talking down to you. It provided a life like premise to each scenario that offered you, the reader, a chance to decide whether you thought this or that char was right or wrong, whether possibility trumped right. It gave you a crisp, clean set up an then gave it just enough twist to make it fantastic.

The world needs more books like that. Thanks for the great reads.