Farewell, Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton died of cancer Wednesday night, he was 66. He was a most creative, science-fiction / thriller contemporary writer. Everybody will remember him for his novel Jurassic Park, taken to the screen by Steven Spielberg. I particularly enjoyed his novel “Eaters of the Death” later on published as “The 13th Warrior” and a motion picture directed by John McTiernan, with the most beautiful man on earth, actor Vladimir Kulich playing the role of Viking leader, Bulwyf. Michael Crichton was a very educated man, graduated from Harvard Summa Cum Laude and later on invited writer in the M.I.T. He used his scientific knowledge to support his writing, making us wonder if he was just writing fiction or some Government dirty secrets. He was versatile jumping from one topic to another, proving to be a most talented writer. His novel “Rising Sun” – a thriller about a murder committed on the table of a meeting room in a major Japanese corporation, while negotiations to acquire one strategic corporation (Japanese companies buying American ones) touched the problem of racism and ignorance, and he was severely criticized for the way he presented both Japanese executives (as heartless and willing to die for the company…) and Americans (naïve, ignorant and racist). Crichton will certainly be missed; few writers could use scientific knowledge the way he did, making it feasible before our eyes. Amongst his wonderful novels I recommend “Rising Sun”, “Eaters of the Death”, “Sphere”, “The Great Train Robbery” and “Timeline”. All of them taken to the big screen. For those of you who are not great fans of thrillers, he published “State of Fear”(2004) that is more like an essay, with the author´s points of view on the politics and world paranoia about ecological issues, such as Global Warming.