All-Round Scariness

Sphere
(Michael Crichton, 1987)

3.5 Stars

I must admit I have something of a love/hate relationship with the late great Michael Crichton. Doubtlessly, Crichton was one of the finest novelists of the twentieth century, producing not only the groundbreaking Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, but also the delightful Congo, the thought-provoking NEXT (review coming soon) and also pioneering modern medical drama with ER.

So why the hate? Well, it’s simple really; Crichton’s exploits into scientific fiction are so addictive that one finds oneself ploughing through a six hundred page tome in a matter of days. Most frustrating indeed.

And so to Sphere, the first of two Crichton novels that have kept me transfixed over the last few weeks.

For those who haven’t seen the film version (of whom I must admit I am one), Sphere tells the somewhat farfetched tale of an air accident response team sent to the undersea site of what is believed to be an alien spaceship crash-landed over three hundred years ago. What they find is far more bizarre than any of the scientists could have ever imagined.

Unlike in many of his other novels, Crichton wastes no time here with character development or back story, instead plunging us 20,000 leagues within the first fifty pages, and allowing us to experience first hand the strangeness and claustrophobia of his underwater world.

The tale barrels along at speed, only slowing briefly on occasion to let both protagonist and reader recover from the terrifying exploits of the alien creature with which our heroes find themselves confronted with.

An exploration into the darkest recesses of the human psyche, and into not only the depths of the ocean, but that of human imagination, and the dangers that lie therein.