At Long Last

At Long Last….
I am posting to this blog again.

At Long Last….
The Supreme Court declared gene patents illegal.

At Long Last….
the John Lange novels are back in print, and, as a result…

At Long Last….
I can stop feeling guilty for owning three copies of Odds On. All of my copies were obtained through eBay, but in the case of two of them, the sellers had no idea what they had—one cost $19.95, the other cost $9.99. Can’t imagine the sellers had any idea they were selling Michael Crichton’s very first novel.

The Crichton website has some links to reviews of the John Lange novels. I’ll write more about the books soon. While I've read all the John Lange novels several times, this year I’d like to read them in the order they were published. What will that tell me about Michael Crichton’s evolution as a writer? We shall see.

A Michael Crichton Christmas 2013

On the first day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
A T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the second day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the third day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the fourth day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the fifth day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the sixth day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the seventh day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Seven States a-Fearing
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the eighth day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Eight Airframes crashing
Seven States a-Fearing
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the ninth day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Nine E.R.s in peril
Eight Airframes crashing
Seven States a-Fearing
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the tenth day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Ten Congos drumming
Nine E.R.s in peril
Eight Airframes crashing
Seven States a-Fearing
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the eleventh day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Eleven Spheres a-humming
Ten Congos drumming
Nine E.R.s in peril
Eight Airframes crashing
Seven States a-Fearing
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

On the Next day of Christmas Michael Crichton gave to me
Twelve Micros munching
Eleven Spheres a-humming
Ten Congos drumming
Nine E.R.s in peril
Eight Airframes crashing
Seven States a-Fearing
Six Prey a-fleeing
Five Pirate Latitudes
Four Timelines
Three Rising Suns
Two Lost Worlds
And a T-Rex who tried to eat me

I wrote the original version of this on December 22, 2007. I intended it to be a fun treat for the holidays. With Michael Crichton's untimely death, it's poignant to think about what he gave us.

In 2009 I revised “A Michael Crichton Christmas” to include Pirate Latitudes. My good friend Erik and his friend Angel, with some help from their families, created a video based on it.



In 2011, I updated it to include Micro, Crichton’s posthumous novel that was completed by Richard Preston.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Michael Crichton: “What I Have Learned from Reactions to My Books”

Michael Crichton: “What I Have Learned from Reactions to My Books”

This is a publication of a speech that Michael Crichton made on May 21, 2007 at the "Who Owns Your Body?" symposium at the Kent School of Law in Chicago. It was published in the Chicago-Kent Law Review in 2009 and has recently been made available through Law Commons.

Five Years Ago

(I apologize for not posting something on what would have been Michael Crichton’s 71st birthday on October 23. It could not be helped, as my health has not been good lately. Mea maxima culpa, Michael, and to all my Musings readers.)

Five years ago today, we lost Michael Crichton. I still find it difficult to accept. I feel he is still a part of the universe somehow. Anything else would be unthinkable.

Here’s a comment I posted in the New York Times story about his death:

Michael Crichton was far more than a novelist. He was a brilliant philosopher who explored ideas and issues through fiction. On a wide range of important topics, he ignited analysis and debate among readers around the world as few writers have ever done. Crichton’s strength was not in the answers he provided, but in the questions he provoked. His death is a tragic loss, but his books will continue to entertain and educate readers.

I just went back to the article and found some other comments that illustrate how Michael Crichton will continue to live through his work. Many future readers will have their minds illuminated through his words.

I was an extra in the movie version of “Coma” which Crichton directed back in 1977. (It was filmed in and around Boston.) I remember being shocked the first time I saw him on the set – he was 6 ft. 7 and I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone that tall before! My memory of him as a director is that he was low key and in control, everything went smoothly during the production. It is so sad to hear of his untimely death.

— laurel

Michael was unassuming, good natured, and a friend, though we were separated by years and distance. We often breakfasted together on Saturday mornings on Kauai after the farmer’s market when we both lived there. He told me he always considered himself more of an anthropologists and each novel, a paper for class. He had a wonderful sense of humor. I miss him.

— Myles Ludwig

Michael Crichton is to a large degree responsible for at least one professional biologist – upon reading The Andromeda Strain as a small boy (and I still have that copy), I became enthralled with molecular biology. His writing launched me on my scientific career path thought MIT and Harvard, and I have read all of his subsequent books. Thank you so much , Dr. Crichton, and rest in peace. My life would have been much different without you. I see a last book was scheduled for publication in early December – was it near enough to completion to be finished and released?

John Greene, Ph.D.

A big lost for the literature world! Today I’m a researcher, thanks to the Crichton’s works, not because I’m influenced, but because his books kept the paleontology “flames” burning inside me. And then I choosed paleontology as work. His books also had told us that we must never accept the obvious without think deeper about it, as most scientist do… Official mourning decreed…

— Henrique (Brazil)

I have never read a Michael Crichton book, but I am still a big fan of his. By the time my daughter Alice turned 12, she had read eight of Crichton’s books. I took her to see him at a book signing for the novel Prey. At the time, Alice was a shy girl, and she fretted about what to say to someone she looked up to so much. Mr. Crichton immediately made her feel at ease and was wonderfully kind to her, asking her questions about her favorites. Alice and I both left that meeting as enthusiastic fans of Michael Crichton.

— Maggie

I read all his books in high school, and still count Sphere as a top 5 book – always fascinating and engaging stuff – but his non-fiction book ‘Travels’ really changed the way I saw the world, made me very curious about things I’d never thought about. I have huge respect for him. His legacy for me and hopefully a lot of others is to let laziness and incuriousness be damned.

— Chris

after admiring him for many years, i met mr. crichton at a fundraising talk he gave for a community center. i was working the sound system for him. he was so incredibly gracious and appreciative toward me, the lowly sound guy. after it was over, he sought me out and thanked me for my work. he was not only a brilliant thinker and gifted storyteller. He was a genuinely kind & caring person. to his family, i’m so sorry for your loss.

— peter c

Now Online: Michael Crichton's 1969 Review of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

The New Republic has given us a very special treat: online publication of Michael Crichton's 1969 book review of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. Crichton wrote a number of book reviews in the 1960s, but most are not available on the web. I've had to scrounge around university libraries and wrestle with microfilm to find many of them.

From the review:

We live in an age of great seriousness. We are accustomed to getting our art in heavy, pretentious doses. Anything funny is suspect, and anything simple is doubly suspect. Here we come to the second difficulty with Kurt Vonnegut. His style is effortless, naive, almost childlike. There are no big words and no complicated sentences. It is an extraordinarily difficult style, but that fact is lost on anyone who has never tried to write that way.

HBO to Remake Westworld

According to Variety, HBO has given the go for the production of a pilot of a series remake of Westworld. Michael Crichton wrote and directed the 1973 film. Jonathan Nolan, who has written the films The Prestige and The Dark Knight Rises, plus the TV series Person of Interest, will be writing and directed the remake.

From Variety:

The HBO rendition of “Westworld” is described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” The pilot production commitment is a big one by HBO’s standards, indicated the depth of the pay cabler’s interest in the project.

While you’re waiting, check out Michael Crichton in “The Making of Westworld”:

John Lange Novels to be Published in Paperback

Ask and ye shall receive.

When the digital publication of Michael Crichton’s pseudonym novels was announced, many people said they wished they could get print editions. Most of the titles were out of print and the second hand copies were often quite expensive.

Especially Odds On, Drug of Choice, and The Venom Business.

Hard Case Crime, which republished Grave Descend in 2006 and Zero Cool in 2008, will be publishing the eight novels Crichton wrote under the name “John Lange” in October/November 2013.

Charles Ardai, the owner and publisher of Hard Case Crime, worked with Crichton in getting two of the books republished—Crichton even wrote two extra chapters for Zero Cool—but he was unable to persuade “John Lange” to reveal his true identity. In a recent interview, Ardai said:

Working with Michael (even if we had to keep it secret) was one of the great pleasures and privileges of my career, and ever since, I've wished we could have completed what we began. I've also wondered whether Michael might eventually have given in to temptation and written a whole new Lange novel for us -- no less persuasive a figure than Stephen King was encouraging him to do so! Alas, a new Lange novel will never be…but we’re very pleased to announce that five years later we finally will get to finish what we started. We’re going to be bringing all eight John Lange novels back to bookstores for the first time in more than four decades – and with the blessing of Michael’s family, the first time ever under the his real name.

I work in a bookstore and I remember telling several Michael Crichton fans about the John Lange novels we had for sale. Most were very surprised, having had no idea that Crichton had written under a pseudonym.

Odds On (1966)

Scratch One (1967)

Easy Go (1968)

Zero Cool (1969)

The Venom Business (1970)

Drug of Choice (1970)

Grave Descend (1970)

Binary (1972)

Unfortunately, Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1970) by Michael Douglas is still available only in digital or out-of-print editions.

A Case of Need (1968) by Jeffery Hudson was out of print but was republished in 1993 with Crichton’s name on the cover. It’s available in paperback and has been for years. There’s an interesting story behind that. (Coming Soon: “A Special Case of Need”)