I think I commented about this before, but I have a love-hate relationship with Michael Crichton. I loved all his early books (maybe I was too young to know any better? I haven't tried reading them again lately) but his later ones haven't been that great. I was a little shocked at Airframe, at how obvious his tirade against journalism was, but still thought it was a good read. Loved Timeline. Even liked Prey, although by that time I was enough of a scientist to not be blinded by his fake-science magic tricks and was truly perplexed at the basis of the experiment-gone-awry. I think State of Fear was where it went weird for me -- a pretty good read at face value, but a disturbing diatribe against global warming, under the pretense that he as a scientist has the capacity to decipher all the published research on the topic. I honestly don't think I'm even going to bother with Next -- plus I've heard it got bad reviews.
But all that would be fine and forgettable except for the fact that I read his autobiography, Travels, and it revealed that he is a huge asshole, a spoiled prick who isn't happy with his sad, rich life. Ugh, it makes me sick. I haven't been able to think about him the same way since. Actually, I just realized that I read that book after State of Fear, and that began my hatred of him.
I dislike him as a spoiled human being, as an MD who exploits his degree (he never practiced), and as a self-proclaimed scientist/doctor who likes to preach his beliefs to people but I don't truly believe he has any scientific sense in him at all.
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I think I commented about this before, but I have a love-hate relationship with Michael Crichton. I loved all his early books (maybe I was too young to know any better? I haven't tried reading them again lately) but his later ones haven't been that great. I was a little shocked at Airframe, at how obvious his tirade against journalism was, but still thought it was a good read. Loved Timeline. Even liked Prey, although by that time I was enough of a scientist to not be blinded by his fake-science magic tricks and was truly perplexed at the basis of the experiment-gone-awry. I think State of Fear was where it went weird for me -- a pretty good read at face value, but a disturbing diatribe against global warming, under the pretense that he as a scientist has the capacity to decipher all the published research on the topic. I honestly don't think I'm even going to bother with Next -- plus I've heard it got bad reviews.
But all that would be fine and forgettable except for the fact that I read his autobiography, Travels, and it revealed that he is a huge asshole, a spoiled prick who isn't happy with his sad, rich life. Ugh, it makes me sick. I haven't been able to think about him the same way since. Actually, I just realized that I read that book after State of Fear, and that began my hatred of him.
I dislike him as a spoiled human being, as an MD who exploits his degree (he never practiced), and as a self-proclaimed scientist/doctor who likes to preach his beliefs to people but I don't truly believe he has any scientific sense in him at all.
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