Friday, November 7, 2008

Tribute to Michael Crichton

Best-selling and world famous author, Michael Crichton passed away on the 4th of November 2008 at the age of 66. I think he was best known as author of Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World. Both of these were turned into highly successful and world-famous movies - who hasn't seen them, or at least heard of them? The total sales of all his books were in excess of 150 million copies worldwide. He was also the creator of the very successful TV series, "ER".

To me, Michael was a born storyteller, but also with a fresh slant on the "science thriller" genre. Some of his work may be classified as "science fiction", but he has usually put so much scientific research into his work that the "science fiction" became real and achievable science, if not now, then soon in the near future. However, never did his "science thriller" stories become boring due to the science contained in them, but the science became part of the story. He masterfully created a flow of events that encompassed the science without the reader getting the feeling that he or she was being peppered with a lot of dull facts.

To Michael, I salute one of the masters of the craft. Thanks for creating all those terrific unput-downable books!