Michael Crichton (MC) had a profound impact on my life. I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and rememberences of him.

I would say that MC was the person responsible for sparking my interest in storytelling. When I was 12 years old, I went and saw Jurassic Park. I became totally gripped by the movie and ever since then, I have been a huge movie buff. Now I know MC did not direct the movie, but it was his story that grippd me. But I must say I was never much of a reader. I enjoyed movies, not books.

Later on, when I was in college, I was surfing the web and saw MC pariticpating in the IQ2 debate on global warming. I watched the debate and was really captured by MC. I knew he was a great storyteller and he wrote very popular books, but I did not know how much of an intellecutal he was. In my excitement, I bought State of Fear and read it. I then became acutely aware of the same qualities of MC I had already known about. Through State of Fear, MC challenged me to be a free thinker. He didn't challenge or even pressure me to think like he did. He wanted me to review the facts to the best of my ability and make up my own mind about the topic. As I did this, I also became aware of MC's hunger for knowledge. The more I investigated a topic, the more I wanted to learn. MC did this by example. You can see it how well researched his books are, (Next, Timeline, Prey, State of Feaer).

Not only did he challenge me to be an independent thinker, but State of Fear was a wonderfully engrossing story. The scene in Antarctica is such a thrilling read! I just could not get enough of the story. MC was at his best between the pages of a book. Never in my life had I read a 550 page book and just wanted more! He could totally engross you in a world and let that world challenge your mind in a way it has never been challenged before. I find myself reading more and more of his books as well as other books to quench my thirst for knowledge. I owe that to MC. You will be missed!