Sphere

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I like women villains. I know real women can be any one of sex-obsessed, power hungry, manipulative, hysterical (Crichton literally uses this word), incompetent, and bitter. But why is Beth all of these things? And she never misses a chance to mention she's a woman? Sphere doesn't mess about. It's a full on Sci fi horror. As you know by now, that's so far up my street it's in the front room of my house, sitting on the sofa. It comes with being a huge fan of movies like Terminator, Event Horizon and of course Aliens. This book hits all the right buttons if you're into those type of movies. At first, Jerry communicates with the scientists using a numeric code transmitted to the habitat's computer. While the team struggles to communicate with Jerry, increasingly bizarre and deadly events occur, including the appearance of impossible sea creatures that Halpern claims cannot exist (such as shrimp with no digestive organs), confirmed when Jerry informs them he is "manifesting" the creatures. Our aim is to publish books for everyone, whether you’re in search of thrills and chills, epic escapism, something to make you laugh or cry or want to change the world – whatever you’re interested in, you’ll find a book you want to read at Sphere.

Theodore Fielding—an astrophysicist and an enthusiastic opportunist, whose pretensions tend to cause conflict in his relationships with the others, despite his good intentions. It is later revealed his ambition is driven by anxiety and a conviction that he has to achieve fame and do so fast, as he believes that the time for him to do so is running out. And I think the answer is that we are, in reality, terribly frail animals. And we don't like to be reminded of how frail we are—how delicate the balances are inside our own bodies, how short our stay on Earth, and how easily it is ended." Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: The story unfolds in a very movie-like way, or at least it kept reminding me of the horror movies I enjoyed in my youth, around the same time this book was published in 1987. Not so much because it was scary, although there were some creepy and tension-filled moments, but because of the story-telling techniques. The main characters all have very distinct and rather cookie-cutter personalities, and they naturally clash with each other in their cramped and isolated environment. There are various twists as the plot unfolds, some of which I found obvious and some of which I didn’t. There’s a sense of tension almost from the beginning that slowly mounts and mounts, and naturally people start dying left and right. Then we end with the typical “is it really over?” style ending in which it’s blatantly hinted that Beth didn’t actually forget about the Sphere. We really can’t be 100% sure about Harry either. The group reaches the surface, where they are put in a decompression chamber. They discuss what to tell the Navy about their experiences with the sphere. They each recognize that the sphere has given them significant knowledge and insight—but it's simply too much for the rest of the world to understand and would even be dangerous to reveal. So, as a sacrifice to preserve human life as we know it, the group agrees to use the power the sphere has given them to remove all memory of it from their minds. In the place of those memories, they create a story about a routine technical issue that kept them stranded on DH-8. However, in his final words to Halpern, Johnson hints that maybe—just maybe—he did not entirely remove all of the power he gained from the sphere.I don't know if happens to you, that sometimes if you are reading a novel that it hasn't being made into a film yet (I read the novel like 5 years before to be poorly adapted to a movie) sometimes I imagined some actor or actress to "play" the role of the character in my mind, an amusing thing was by then, in 1993, Sharon Stone was in hype due films like "Basic Instinct" and "Sliver", so when I imagined some actress to fill my image of Dr. Beth Halperin, I thought in Sharon Stone that she eventually got the role! All the journey and process of exploring the alien ship is brilliant, you feel that you are there, down in the bottom in the ocean with them, walking with them. I did like that this book was focused on Psychology and that it explored the shadow self, but I thought I was going to be on the edge of my seat. Which I was not. I was half asleep. That being said, what I really love about Michael Crichton’s books is that he makes science really fun and explains it in a way that someone who isn’t scientifically inclined, AKA me, can understand and really enjoy it. I could also laugh at science-y jokes like I knew what was going one which made me feel smart and cool. However, the danger which resides within the fin is much more enigmatic and sneakily awful than the alien vegetable in the movie. The book maintains a solid footing in speculative sci-fi from beginning to end, and although the dialogue reminded me of 'The Thing...' movie, the mystery behind the fin reminded me of Solaris

Ted: "Hello. This is Ted Fielding, here at the door of the unknown spacecraft which has been discovered--" Jane Edmunds—a Navy petty officer and data processing technician who serves as the operation's archivist. She is responsible for recording events and transferring the tapes to the submarine at DH-7, which is pre-programmed to return to the surface if not reset before a failsafe 12-hour countdown reaches 0, intended to ensure that at the very least a partial record will survive in case of catastrophe.Myths had once represented the common knowledge of humanity, and they served as a kind of map of consciousness." //

I liked how this was narrated in the pov of a psychologist with psychoanalysis being a major part of the narration. I loved all the speculations and the science/psychology in the book. During the descent, Levine becomes claustrophobic and is returned to the surface. The other scientists arrive safely at Habitat DH-8. After their arrival and subsequent pressurization to the habitat's exotic-gas environment, the Navy sends a robot to enter the spacecraft first, which locates and opens a panel near the spacecraft door. Ted: "I think everybody knows how I feel. I feel that we should have some brief remarks for posterity."

Exterior

Promotional posters were also produced for use in bookshops, with two known versions, one featuring the novel itself, and the other with the Hildebrandt poster art and three images from the movie. Both feature the “ Now over 5 million copies…” tag line. I wrote, "My fave Crichton book at the end." - Not sure if this is a knee-jerk reaction or not, but I'll have to read it again in the future to nail that statement down. I'm going to say something that I don't normally say with Crichton and that is the characters in this one are really good and enjoyable. He focuses on Norman Johnson as the protagonist in this one, who's a psychologist and is able to provide a real psychological insight into each character. There's a lot of development for the three main characters and its a very engaging journey. Their inner psyche has an important impact on the story and Crichton fully explores each.