Written in 1969, The Andromeda Strain put Michael Crichton on the literary map. Not his first novel, this is his first attempt at trying to incorporate science into the thriller genre, and it received a great deal of acclaim upon publication, and has stood the test of time as one of his better known books. And I found it largely uninteresting and dry. I’m not sure when my tastes changed, but there was a period in middle school when I devoured Michael Crichton, Dean Koontz, […]
Bad Bond Knock-off
I was so sad when Michael Crichton died. I loved his novels, even the ones that weren’t so great (ahem…Timeline) and of course, he’s responsible for two of my favorite things to ever hit the screen: ER and Twister. So I was delighted to discover that he had a writing career prior to becoming Michael Crichton, under the pen-name John Lange. Unfortunately, the first (and probably only) book I’ve read of the 8 written under the Lange name kind of…sucked. Scratch One begins with a series of assassinations across Europe as a […]
McSweeney’s #10 (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #10)
I saw the cover of this book at a book sale and I fell for it, hard. It’s a compilation of “genre” short stories: westerns, sci-fi, horror, crime, etc. The reason for my instant need to own? Contributing authors include: Michael Chabon (who also edited), Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Stephen King, Michael Crichton (who sadly contributed a rather lame tale), Dave Eggers, Harlan Ellison, and more. Love at first sight, I’ll tell you. It mostly lived up to my expectations as well. The majority […]