It is impressive to read someone criticize a most popular and bestseller novelist with simple, logical and convincing arguments.
I liked this one : http://www.tnr.com/article/michael-crichtons-scariest-creation?page=0,0 and this one even more : http://www.tnr.com/article/cock-and-bull
I thought I'd read all of MC's novels until I chanced upon Micro and Pirate latitudes - published posthumously. After Micro (about a bunch of Harvard Ph.D. (Biotech) students - nice to read how EXOTIC Ph.D. life can be in a novel), it once again reinforced in me admiration for him - MC is a novelist with tremendous imagination and presentation skills. 'Gripping' would suffice to describe his books. He takes up an issue that intrigues him; after quite a bit of research, he picks up facts favoring his stand on the issue (ignoring the rest) and gives them to the reader in the most palatable fashion - in an absolutely amazing plot. I must admit, though, that I can see through his knack for biased selection of facts only in his 'biotech' plots (Next, Micro). It is amusing but not surprising that people (Politicians!!) quote from his novels and imagine that they are making a scientific argument - as Crowley puts, it is scary.
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