Word: crichtons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...TERMINAL MAN by MICHAEL CRICHTON 247 pages. Knopf...
...Michael Crichton, 29-year-old dropout physician and author of the bestselling novel The Andromeda Strain, is unleashing an entertainment epidemic. It is being spread through books and movies, only some of which bear his real name. Regardless of byline and credit, however, the Crichton strain is unmistakable...
Both The Terminal Man and Binary -written under the author's old Harvard Medical School paperback pen name, John Lange-share their author's distinctive touch. Crichton creations thrive on a scientific esoterica that owes more to fact than to fiction. Crichton people tend to be value-neutral technicians who, like sorcerer's apprentices, meddle with forces they cannot control. Above all, there is Crichton's almost compulsive awareness of time and his skill at explaining the complex without losing the reader's interest...
...Binary, which Crichton has just finished directing as an ABC-TV movie, a brilliant millionaire fanatic named Wright plots to destroy Richard Nixon. Wright believes that the President sold out the nation by breaking egg rolls with the Red Chinese. The Republican Party and the population of San Diego will have to go too, because Wright plans to saturate the city with nerve gas during the forthcoming national convention...
...characters and even the plot remain shadowy. Crichton is enough of a master to keep us unsure of the ending, but not enough to keep us worried about it. The concept of mind control is fascinating and terrifying, and, as Crichton notes. "The truth was that everybody's mind was controlled, and everybody was glad of it. The most powerful mind controllers in the world were parents, and they did the most damage...Newborn children were little computers waiting to be programmed." Unfortunately, such insight does not pervade the book; it merely provides token philosophy. If you're looking...