| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Michael Crichton has passed away of cancer today in Los Angeles. I read a number of his books, enjoying them most when I was a teenager. His later works read much like embelished screenplays, but he wrote some interesting thrillers, mostly idea-driven. His strange and at times beautiful book TRAVELS, a collection of his adventures, anecdotes of life, and his exploration of psychic phenomenon is well worth a read. A popular entertainer. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Sad. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.30.86 |
Very sad. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
RIP. Never read any of his books, but I'm a huge fan of WESTWORLD and the JURASSIC PARK films. Didn't he also write DEMON SEED? Another terrific film. | ||
| Simon_b (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Demon Seed was Dean Koontz, Gary, or at least the novel was. Damn. He did some good stuff. 2008's been a sad year for talent. Studs Terkel passed away last week too. A brilliant guy. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Travels is a wonderful book. For a while the book I most encouraged people to read, it was so varied and absorbing. I wasn't nut on his books but enjoyed Jurassic Park - it had a straightforward Jules Verne feel, but one that still filled you with wonder and excitement, two underrated things. What's really shocked me is that my son Billy started reading JP only last week (he bought it hiumself from a charity shop) - he's NUTS on dinosaurs and for him this book, reading something so adult and BIG, is a huge step. I have never seen him as excited with say, a movie. Watching him read it last week, carrying it all over the place with him, really took me back. The fact the guy dies a week later really makes me feel sad, and realise that anyone really can go at any minute. (And for the record, TRAVELS is a much better, more enriching read than Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
As Mark said, he was mostly an ideas guy, and some would say one who kept rejigging the same idea. For me he's the guy who wrote Travels. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 204.104.55.244 |
I didn't know he had directed Coma. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
I know! He did a pretty god job, too. Good atmosphere that moie had. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Moie? | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
That's the script for an air kiss. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Is an air kiss what clowns with speech impediments fumble and goon around in under a big top? | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
He also directed "The First Great Train Robbery", which I thought was excellent. Of his books, I've only read "Jurassic Park" and "Travels" - the first was okay, the latter was bloody brilliant. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
He wrote that too, the novel the Train Robbery movie was based on. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.25 |
I have Travels too, Tony. Lovely book. I remember reading The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man in the seventies when they came out, and I think I read most of his stuff after that. He wrote some decent scientific/futuristic thrillers. I was surprised to learn of his death. |