Sphere

Sphere is Michael Crichton at close to Jurassic Park levels. The biggest issue he tends to face when writing is making the dryness of his subject matter exciting. For Jurassic Park, it’s bringing the thoughts and theories about evolution, extinction, and biology into focus with an action packed story about surviving dinosaurs. These headier topics (proven or disproven) lend credibility to the story.

Sphere is the story about a group of different scientists getting together to investigate a crashed aircraft in the ocean. To do this, they must live in an underwater habitat under the sea (like astronauts do). Eventually, they figure out that the ship is actually from the future and (might have) come through a black hole into the past.

Really, the most interesting thing about this book is it takes the scaffolding of a Michael Crichton book, and tears away some of the more intricate points. The answers aren’t spelled out for you by a helpful scientist or on a computer page. Sure, some stuff is. But the bigger answers, the ones you really want to know about, are up to you. And that can be frustrating to some people, but, in the long run, makes the book better. Yes, you have to use your brain. I know, I know. Come up with a good answer when you read this book.