Sphere

This is a serious study in how to keep a reader on edge. Maybe I'm just easily scared, but I find surprising that such a simple concept can generate such a strong reaction from me.

Four scientists are called to a crash site. It turns out to be the site of a spaceship that has been there for more than three hundred years. As they explore, mysterious events and messages begin to appear around the site of their habitat. The mission becomes a race to discover who or what is causing these attacks and why, before it kills them all.

For me, Sphere derives a great deal of its power from the veneer of science that it layers over the entire experience. We're placed among a group of intellectuals who knife away at the problems using the tools they show more are normally accustomed to. The origin of the ship, the nature of the codes, their mutual behaviours - I could spot no obvious, immersion breaking discrepancies and I was consequently quite vulnerable to the feelings that the book generates. Crichton uses Sphere as a way to indicate the issues surrounding alien contact, caricatured somewhat but still a real indicator to someone who is not aware of the situation. I think it would be best not take his novels too seriously, though. Not everything is quite as clear cut as he makes it out.

The other issue I would mention is the relative lack of feelings that the characters have. The main character is a psychologist, but I don't think that you can explain the weird reactions of the scientists to deaths and inexplicable events as just hiding from the reality. I think most people would have some kind of more extreme reaction than that. It makes Beth and Harry, in particular, feel like constructions more than people.

The "message" of the book then, if there is one, would probably go something like this. We're looking at a clash between the soft and the hard sciences, and their ways of interpreting problems. Norman ends up proving that the hard scientists that ignore psychology and their own psychological problems are a danger to themselves and others (although the sequence of deductions that he generates is enough to make any reader feel inadequate). The other topic is the power of the human imagination. Norman decides that the ability to control our thoughts and maintain self-control is the factor being tested by the sphere. As a species, we have to learn this kind of restraint if we are going to explore the stars.

Highly recommended if you have a little time on your hands. No literary masterpiece, but thoroughly enjoyable and it will get you thinking hard about a great deal of increasingly relevant issues. show less

This is the third Crichton I've read that underwhelmed, and I think it heralds the end of my Crichton reading. Like other reviewers, I think there is a solid framework for the story - unidentified spacecraft with mysterious, if recognizable features, discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, investigated by a team of scientists at the top of their fields. But the story devolves into psychology and philosophy debates once too often, and the entity doesn't end up that frightening in the long run. Made into a film version in the late 90s, and maybe that was the better way to tell the story. And maybe that's the problem for Crichton in the long run - good ideas with a problem fleshing them out with real meat for the length of a novel show more as opposed to a screenplay.

3 bones!!! show less

This is my second time reading this one and it remains one of my favorite Crichton titles, I think because it forces him out of his infodump comfort zone and into a more philosophical place. While there are a few things that don't entirely hold up (some of the racial and gender dynamics are cringey at best) its still something that provokes me to think about long after I've finished.

I think I liked this one best of those of his I've read. More of a mystery with a science fiction background. It really was a page turner. I am, however, beginning to wonder if he really likes women at all. He keeps writing these power-mad, driven, hard-edged opportunists. His women are just not very nice. Oh well. At least he's writing juicy parts for women.

This was my first Crichton and I haven’t read it since it first came out and I needed to read it again. This really showed just how small our species is. We’re barely conscious of anything, much less intellectually superior in any way. This was a fast mover with great dialogue. The “alien” intelligence was so childish and petulant not caring if his manifestations hurt or killed the scientists and crew. I liked the subtle interplay of Beth’s manifestations with regard to her looks. Also, Harry’s alteration of Norman’s looks was interesting.

I liked the references to War of the Worlds – our only documented reaction to an “alien invasion”. What would we do? We can barely tolerate each other. We’re the only species to show more practice wholesale extermination of other species. I wonder whom we’d react to the same treatment? I keep singing that song by Porno for Pyros – We’d make great pets – if only we could truly imagine a species so far above us, that we’re only viewed as pets or zoo exhibits? It seems Crichton created one. The power he describes is one we certainly couldn’t handle. We don’t know anything about our own subconscious minds so anything we imagine either consciously or unconsciously would manifest itself. We don’t have the necessary control. It’s a good thing it takes effort for us to make thoughts reality. We’re destructive enough as it is. show less

A decent but unspectacular thriller, Sphere at first threatens to be extremely exciting. The sci-fi mystery at the start, with the ancient alien spaceship found buried in the ocean, containing an enigmatic alien sphere, is the sort of thing where you read on wanting to know more about it. Unfortunately, Michael Crichton veers away from this into a sort of high-pressure psychological thriller, and the explanation for the sphere proves rather weak (and the spaceship is more or less forgotten about). It's all readable enough, and the pages keep turning, but the lack of payoff on the high concept means the book ultimately proves underwhelming. It's a B-movie in book form, and while that's fine to chew on, you'd be well within your rights to show more want something more. show less

It seems strange to write a review for a novel that I've read over twenty times, but I'm determined to keep up with my resolution to review every book I read.

A small team of scientists are hastily assembled in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in order to investigate an aircraft that has crashed in the middle of the ocean. What they don't realize is that ship appears to have crashed over three hundred years ago, and that its alien cargo presents a danger to them unlike anything they've ever experienced. (Oh, and there's a giant squid, too.)

Michael Crichton seems to be an author that other people frown upon in the ever-present rift between "popular" fiction and "literary" fiction. I have very little patience for this argument, as there is show more no writing style that is more valid than another, and Crichton's writing is extremely well suited for his genre of choice.

Sphere delivers all of the features that Crichton fans can expect from his writing: snappy dialogue, a cinematic story that moves at a breakneck speed, and wildly speculative, yet seemingly plausible science. This last aspect is one of the main reasons why I've devoured Michael Crichton novels since middle school - even though the science is way beyond anything I could ever hope to truly understand, he does a great job at making the story accessible for the average reader. In this case, the science involves space, time travel, and black holes, as well as the power of psychology. And as always, there are philosophical issues to consider as well. What is the price of discovery? Will the power of discovery prove to be too much for humans to handle responsibly?

The main action takes place 1000 feet under the ocean in a military underwater habitat, so there's a distinctly claustrophobic feel to the entire story. And as the danger mounts and suspicions are raised, the claustrophobia increases.

Surprisingly, the ending for Sphere is unusually open-ended, which some readers find frustrating. I didn't mind the ending, since much of the book centered around psychology, which is not a "hard" science and does not lean towards neatly-wrapped conclusions. But if the reader has a strong preference for books where everything gets explained and tied up by the last page, Sphere might not be the best option. But thriller and/or Michael Crichton fans will likely find themselves staying up into the wee hours of the morning finishing this book.

Recommended for fans of: "soft" science fiction, scientific thrillers, novels with a strong psychological element, cinematic stories, sea monster stories.

Readalikes: Just about any of Michael Crichton's other novels would work as readalikes, but novels like Jurassic Park, State of Fear, or The Andromeda Strain best demonstrate Crichton's signature style of blending speculative science with philosophical and ethical issues.

Deception Point by Dan Brown: Both fast-paced thrillers focus on mankind's fear of extraterrestrial life, as well as the government's role in covering up the existence of extraterrestrial life. Deception Point, however, has more of a political focus. show less