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Posted by vacant (Member # 5659) on December 12, 2006 07:52 PM :

I am no way saying it was in anyway bad, im just saying it was his weakest book in my opinion. I felt it was too slow and did not make a large plot impact into much, much later into the book. Did anyone else feel this way?

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Posted by Latex Zebra (Member # 5668) on December 14, 2006 02:03 PM :

I have to agree. I can't even remember much about this at all.
I will try re-reading it after Christmas but I think this and Airframe are MC's two weakest books.
MC's weakest books, it should be noted, are still a **** of a lot better than some other authors masterpieces.

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Posted by ProfJohnston (Member # 5868) on February 27, 2007 11:18 AM :


quote:
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Originally posted by Latex Zebra:
I have to agree. I can't even remember much about this at all.
I will try re-reading it after Christmas but I think this and Airframe are MC's two weakest books.
MC's weakest books, it should be noted, are still a **** of a lot better than some other authors masterpieces.
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hm...ok, Airframe one of his weakest? Everyone has their opinions but that is one of his strongest, sorry. Now, even Prey? Maybe I could see that, but even Prey was better than SoF and Next...**** , even The Terminal Man. Airframe is one of his best novels to date.

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Posted by genwheeler (Member # 5953) on March 15, 2007 09:55 PM :

Been awhile since I read it but I thought Prey was really good. There was a kind of creepiness about what was going on with the wife until the plot began to unfold. Haven't read Airframe -- I'll have to read it next. I've read just about everything else -- reading State of Fear right now.

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Posted by Mukenko (Member # 4369) on May 07, 2007 02:37 PM :

I really liked it the first time, but less so the second. It doesn't lend itself to rereading as well as others.

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Posted by Lukaran9 (Member # 6029) on May 08, 2007 04:20 PM :

I liked Prey. There was alot of suspense. But thinking abuot those nanothings crawling all over you is an icky feeli

Prey was a very suspenseful, and plausible read. Although, thinking about nanorobots and some of the things they were doing left me feeling rather sick. However, I enjoyed the pace of the story, and I enjoyed some of the surprises in it. I really liked the fact that Mr. Crichton started the main character out as a house husband. That was great! I know several house husbands, and I believe it is rather more common these days. I thought the ending did not really wrap everything up very tightly, and it sort of left me feeling ambiguous about it, but I enjoyed the rest of it.

Richard Feynman believed that molecular-sized machines were possible. Check it out. There is even a very brief YouTube clip where he discusses it. And now that I know that the great Feynman thought about nanotechnology, I might give this book, Prey, another read. I didn't like it the first time around. A DVD by Feynman on this topic is available on Amazon, if you're interested.

???
Prey and Airframe are highly valued by me. I think they are very good. As a student 'social and political studies on the environment' I couldn't be without SOF as my favourite.

I feel all Crichton's books are good but IF I had to make a choice I feel I would choose Terminal man as a weakest book. But that could also because of the timebeing. Since the '70's a lot has happend. The pace in stories became higher so I guess this was a fast suspence in that time. I read it just recently and I could visualise the setting very good, but the pace of the story was slow and I thought to have spotted some overlap.

Hi onleesbar, great to see some more newcomers!
Well, about Terminal Man being the weakest novel, I in turn think it is one the stories that best pictures MC's worry about technology overtaking too many areas of our lives. There are some lines, when some doctor objects to the operation, that could well be MC speakig through one of his characters.
Of course, time has passed for both the book and the movie, but the topic is as actual as then...

Hi Eas, I agree on terminal man. the book is very "seventies" but the subject still very much up to date.

Another thing I'd like to mention is the website I found in your profile!
NICE! to say the least.

I loved seeing the covers of his pre-MC books as John Lange!
Maybe they made me nostalgic I don't know.
I used to read that "oss 117 Jean Bruce" sort of stuff.
So I decided to check it out and to my big big surprise discovered that my internet bookseller had two of the titles in stock, (with he same sort of covers) for bargain prices.!
I would have thought that they would be collector items by now, like the Jaspers Johns I'm trying to get.

Hi Ingrid, thanks, I'm glad you liked the site!
I have a moth's holiday ahead, so maybe I come back with comments for most of the still empty entries on that web.

Well, I think it must be possible to get hold of most John Lange books at bargain prices: most booksellers have them in batches of books people give away or sell cheap to second hand stores when they move or make room at home (as I'm doing now - but not with the MC books!!!) Neither the owners nor the stores realize that there may be collectors items among them. So it is actually fun to shop around in second hand stores and find great treasures.
An exception is Odds On - that I had to pay a very high price for...but it's definitely worth it, it was the first edition of the first book by MC!

Have luck with Jasper Johns... and keep us posted on how you get on in the search!

Lucky You! To have the first edition of the first MC.
Now THAT is something I would like to have as well.

I have an uncorrected proof of Travels which (I'm told by a reliable source) are rare.

I'm sure it was Fate again which tossed it in my lap for I'm not as much of a collector as you obviously are.
I guess my Dutch attitude (some call it stingy ness, some call it thriftyness ) tells me that what the book is about or who it is written by doesn't change with the edition. (or not very much at least)
In effect I'm the owner of a lot of regular second hand paperbacks.
In fact my special edition of Travels was my first special edition buy ever!And I got it signed by MC.
Nope! Not for sale.

Perhaps we should open a MC book market here or at least a tip market on where we can buy certain books.
Admin?
I happen to know there are also people posting on this very board in other countries than Barnes & Noble land, who do not have that easy access to MC books.

Not that Holland is one of them; I even have the American bookshop 1 mile from where I live and then there's an even bigger one in Amsterdam.
And one of the advantages of being Dutch (not that many people speaking it) is that even our local book stores have a pretty big collection of books in other languages.

Something special like an affordable specimen of the revised edition of Jasper Johns however, will be hard to find here.

Anybody got a tip?

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?autho ... sper+Johns

http://www.exlibris.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1219433786/ ... ton&page=6

Well a signed uncorrected proof of Travels - that's a treasure. Not bat for not being a collector

Lucky you that there's a good market for books in English in Holland. Here in Spain it is non-existent! I have to rely completely on web stores in the US, but, on the other hand, it works quite fine this way.

Another tip for second hand MC books, perhaps even Jasper Johns:

abebooks.com (that's where I found that 1st edition of Odds On)

And a close look at those Amazon marketplace sellers that are not individuals but second hand stores will give you some more links.

Admin, I support the idea of a second hand book thread that could allow us to exchange tips as where to find stuff, or even exchange books... it would certainly boost visits to the site and the number of MC readers...

Gosh is it hot over here these days - can barely get out of the house...

Let's change to another thread then instead of this titled "least favorite MC book"

Hmmmmm and maybe we do airmiles? You know mileage for every trip we make to this site and then after so many miles you get a free booking....er...book.
Or is that a very Dutch thought?

But thanks on all the good book buyers tips.
I've found a few, even revised editions of Jasper Johns already for much better prices than the startling ones I found during my first search.
I'm scouting the terrains now, waiting for my kill.

Yeah, a new thread would be best - new visitors would never think we're discussing how to find old MC books under this therad's title. Shall we start it directly under "other books"?

I would suggest we also import there the last few entries of this thread, instead of ending up commenting the same ideas and tips again... Would that be possible?

I'll try it out now...let's see if I find out how to...Check it out under "other books..

By the way Ingrid, airmiles and so may be a Dutch idea, but certainly a good Dutch idea...! We could call it "webmiles" or even "MC-miles"...

Let's make that MC-smiles
Although.........this might earn us Admin -

See you at the other books.

I disagree with prey being a weak book. The matter of the science can be left out. The science was well researched as ever. But along with that it was classic Crichton, fast pace and good suspense. I read it through the night and I felt goosebumps as I read it. But I agree that it's not a great book to read over and over again. The start is just too uninteresting.