Word: crichtons
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...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...
...Crichton has also written a reputable work of nonfiction, Five Patients, exposing conditions he witnessed during his medical training. Clearly, he knows his stuff, and making science engrossing is an admirable venture. An unnecessarily pretentious forward states: "There has been so much ominous talk and frivolous speculation for so many years that the public now regards mind control as a problem removed to the distant future...
...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...