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Jan 1, 2001 · Michael Crichton. 3.83. 189,648 ratings4,687 reviews. A psychological thriller about a group of scientists who investigate a spaceship discovered on the ocean floor. In the middle of the South Pacific, a thousand feet below the surface, a huge vessel is unearthed.
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Jul 8, 2022 · Sphere follows a small team of scientists and Navy personnel into the sea as they investigate a crashed spaceship in 1,000 feet of water. The spaceship is at least 300 years old, and everyone is tense at the possibility of encountering alien life.
Sphere is top 3 for sure. I think I actually like Jurassic Park and Congo more. I also really liked Pirate Latitudes, which is more historical fiction than sci-fi.
This summary and review of Michael Crichton's 1987 novel Sphere gives an overview of the plot and recommends the book as a suspenseful and fast-paced read that still makes you think.
- Invent Characters to Serve The Plot
- Set Up A Conversation Between An Expert and A Layperson
- Set Up A Conversation Between Two Experts
- Educate Yourself, Then Teach It to Your Readers
- Use Real Science to Persuade Readers
- Summarize Difficult-To-Understand Material
- Dump Information After A Character Introduction
- Writing Where You Hang Your Hat
- Write About Your Passions and The Reader Will Be Fascinated
- Use The Presentation Format to Deliver Exposition
The story’s protagonist, psychologist Dr. Norman Johnson, is brought to a Navy ship in the South Pacific to investigate a mysterious vessel, suspected of being a spaceship, found a thousand feet below the ocean’s surface. Norman specializes in anxiety disorders and was previously asked by the US government to write a report on how the public might ...
In order to deliver technical information in simple terms, Crichton sets up conversations between experts and people who know little about the topics of conversation. For example, the story’s mathematician asks Norman if he knows about the Drake equation. As a psychologist, Norman likely wouldn’t know, but the narrator claims that he does. “It was ...
Crichton delivers a great deal of scientific information via dialogue between well-educated, scientifically inclined characters. Early in the book, the characters become convinced that the vessel on the ocean floor is extraterrestrial. Crichton dumps information about a theory known as “The unique hypothesis.” “We’ve shot the ‘unique hypothesis’ to...
It’s practically a law in science writing that if you don’t understand the material yourself, neither will the reader. When authors don’t understand their subject matter, it’s reflected in the writing. It’s obvious that Crichton goes to great lengths to understand his material. Crichton educated himself on these subjects and then teaches them to th...
Crichton’s use of specific facts from scientific literature gives his work credibility and authority, which helps the reader overcome their natural skepticism and keeps them engaged with the story. In Sphere, Crichton’s writing is dense with concrete technical information. For example, he describes a boat “laying a new fiber-optics cable” with a “c...
Crichton often delivers an easy-to-understand summary paragraph after hard-to-understand material. In Sphere, the narrator explains a series of studies Norman conducted to study anxiety within groups. After almost two pages of exposition, the narrator sums up what’s been said in lay terms: “If you were trapped in an elevator, it was better to be wi...
Crichton effectively delivers scientific information after a character introduction. For example, after Crichton introduces the mathematician, Harry Adams, he dives into theory about how humans might communicate with extraterrestrials. “Adams appeared even younger than his thirty years; he was clearly the youngest member of the group—and arguably t...
Writers should write what they know, right? Crichton was a Harvard-trained medical doctor, so the science-based thriller was a natural genre for him. He was comfortable with the material, and his connection with the language of science gave his writing plausibility and authority. (Originality isn't everything.) In one scene in Sphere, Norman underg...
Crichton clearly derived pleasure from building stories around high-concept premises that involved cutting-edge science. The reader is interested because Crichton is passionate. For example, in Sphere, three characters walk along the ocean floor, a thousand feet below the surface, and they come upon a sea snake. The marine biologist says the snake ...
Crichton delivers a lot of science via presentations. In all his books, scientists explain their field or a discovery through a lecture, speech, usually during a meeting or conference. The reader understands the presentation ritual and can thus tolerate the information dump. In Sphere, a character explains Dalton’s law to a group of scientists. Gra...
In Sphere, the follow up to Congo, Michael Crichton asks the question: how do you top a techno-thriller that pits a team of parachuting scientists against extremely intelligent apes that protect a remote area of jungle in Congo?
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Jun 8, 1987 · SPHERE. A cotton-candy science thriller, Crichton's first novel in seven years matches neither the hardcore suspense nor the wit of his The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, or Congo. But this spirited tale of a science team sent to explore a spaceship found on the Pacific floor does engross via its rich seeding of techno/oceanic lore ...
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