Michael Crichton Loses Battle With Cancer RIP

sink

It has just been announced that Michael Crichton has died of cancer.

http://www.crichton-official.com/

He was one of my favourite authors. Condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.

Dades

Jeepers! I never knew he was ill.

Was in Hoggis Figgis yesterday and even checked his spot on the shelf to see if there was anything new.

I always loved reading his books. Great escapism.
Sphere and Congo I loved as a kid!

RIP indeed.

g'em

This is terribly sad. I've loved Crichton's books ever since I got given Jurassic Park as a young teenager, sat down one night to have a flick through it and ended up staying up all night to finish it - brilliant stories, brilliant writer, I really enjoyed looking forward to his new books for a bit of entertaining escapism.

RIP

BossArky

Sad indeed.

Congo was a good one. He was only 66.

missingtime

I'm so sad. He was my favourite author.
I'm going out to buy a copy of Andromeda Strain - my favourite book.

The only person to have a number one bestselling book, movie and tv show at the same time.

Rest in Peace.

theCzar

I loved Sphere and the Great Train Robbery, I've read nearly all his books and while I had been put off by some of recent works, I'm sad that there'll be no more.

Well almost no more. Apparently there was one for the Christmas market but the publisher says it has been postponed indefinitely, which presumably means until the estate is tied up and they know who gets the royalties.

RIP

A talented writer with a love of science

oxygen_old

Soo, im problty looking at a ban or something for this, but like everyone I really liked his books, movie and tv. I was a fairly big fan, but lets not white wash his history here.

Recently he has gone off on his own tangent, using his fiction to push his republican anti global warming agenda with generally rubbish facts to back them up.

His book, State of Fear, while fiction, was intended to discredit global warming. It didn’t and alot of people, Al Gore included, critised him. One of these people, Michael Crowley was included in his book Next as a child molester. I mean wtf, it was a fairly disturbing chapter in the book. It was a light enough hearted novel about genetic engineering, and then bam, a child molester in the middle of the book, for no particular reason. I had said I wouldn’t read any more of his books after that.

Dades

The Michael Crowley thing was somewhat childish, I'll give you that. Though I don't even remember that chapter of the book myself (pretty forgettable as a whole).

As for pushing his own agenda, that is completely his prerogative. Whether or not it has any basis in truth is up for grabs. The Da Vinci Code did the exact same thing - also through fiction. He was writer. He wanted to sell books. Amazon is full of books by people pushing their beliefs.

I for one quite enjoyed seeing environmentalists getting it put to them!

oxygen_old

Dades wrote: »

The Michael Crowley thing was somewhat childish, I'll give you that. Though I don't even remember that chapter of the book myself (pretty forgettable as a whole).

As for pushing his own agenda, that is completely his prerogative. Whether or not it has any basis in truth is up for grabs. The Da Vinci Code did the exact same thing - also through fiction. He was writer. He wanted to sell books. Amazon is full of books by people pushing their beliefs.

I for one quite enjoyed seeing environmentalists getting it put to them!

I remember it. It was a detective's account of a rape of a 10 year old boy. Out of nowhere. It's really weird when you come across something like that in fiction. Far from childish, it was disturbing.

And as per the DaVinci code, I agree that was regarded as fiction, but Dan Brown intended people to take facts from that book. It's exactly the same with Michael Crichton, he was able to peddle his pseudo science opinion in this book. His books are know to blend fact with fiction, just this one was inaccurate.

Eoin

I thought that State of Fear was pretty poor as a novel in its own right, though like Dades, I thought it was good to see an alternative to the sandal-wearing, tree-hugging agenda.

theCzar

I have to say I don't remember that either, the book was just plain bad.

Whatever you may think about Global Warming, what I took from State of fear was the idea that you should:
A) make your own decisions and don't trust research without understanding who paid for it because ...
...Mainstream media's lust for easy copy means they don't verify ready made stories and
C) Scientific research funded by vested interest (e.g. BOTH oil companys AND GW advocates) is fundamentally flawed. As the saying goes, lies, damn lies, and statistics. If you want to, its very manipulate supposedly scientific data to say what you want to say. (anybody ever fiddle their leaving cert/uni physics results within their "margin for error" to better match what was supposed to happen if you had done the experiment better?)

So as a book, State of Fear was very disappointing but I took a lot from it nonetheless and don't believe what I hear quite so readily.

As for the R word... there's no need for profanity:p

Dades

oxygen wrote: »

It's exactly the same with Michael Crichton, he was able to peddle his pseudo science opinion in this book.

You mean he was able to peddle his pseudo science opinion in his book!

The key to critical thinking is the challenging of cherished beliefs. Like theCzar suggests, there are pertinent points to be taken from the book, even if you disagree with his interpretation of the science.

Besides, if one's views on Global Warming are based on a sci-fi writers fictional novel, those views don't count for much.

Gaspode

I also thought state of fear was a mediocre novel with some ludicrous scenarios, but agree about the whole notion of not trusting everything you read about global warming. (That's probably just because my own views on the subject fly against everything thats being pumped out by the media though!)

Timeline was far worse though, with some really bad plot errors. Any other of his books I've read (I dont think it's too many) have been OK though. Sad to hear of his death, I didnt realise he was ill.

Didnt he create the TV show ER? probably his best bit of work so.

theCzar

Dades wrote: »

if one's views on Global Warming are based on a sci-fi writers fictional novel, those views don't count for much.

Exactly, I'm going to stick with the opinion of the messiah, L Ron Hubbard.


somewhat irreverent:
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/jurassic_park_author_dies