In a few short hours I will be wending my way back to the US for the first time in over two years. I'll even be sharing the coast with Michael, albeit much farther north. To wax a little poetic, reading Sphere was a trip back, as well. I'm pretty sure I read this for the first time in high school and, though I read it more than once, it's still been quite some years since I perused the pages of this novel. I enjoyed the re-visit as I'm sure I'll enjoy re-visiting the other Crichton novel on our list this year.
For those that are new to our monthly series, this is when Michael reviews a film adapted from a book which gets a review here.
Click here for Michael's film review of Sphere
at It Rains... You Get Wet
Norman,
a psychologist, gets a call in the middle of the night to respond to
what he assumes is a crash site. After being ferried to somewhere in the
Pacific, he quickly realizes it's not a typical crash. At the site, he
meets with the other
members of the team to discover they have been called to join the
investigation of an unidentified craft buried beneath several feet of coral.
Norman
is the last to arrive but quickly surmises that the team assembled was
one of his making. Years ago, he'd been asked by the US government to
create a report regarding contact with alien life forms. It was an easy
money job and he
scouted a team that would be appropriate (according to his made up parameters,
cuz you know, aliens!). It becomes apparent that he's now a part of that
team and they are about to relocate to an underwater habitat to
investigate the craft.
Naval
Captain Hal Barnes heads the team of 4 and the habitat support crew.
Not long after gaining the ocean floor, they are able to enter the
spaceship. It's here that they encounter the sphere. The mathematician eventually works out
how to enter the sphere and the team makes first contact. "Jerry" is not
exactly what one might expect from an alien.
I
must admit I'm a sucker for Crichton's formula. I'd say up through The
Lost World I lapped up his work with avid, page-turning glee. His plots
were fun, his science was always topical - the gadgets just pushing the
edge of believability
- and his characters were usually hard workers just trying to figure
things out. What's not to love?
Sphere
combines all these great elements with a heavy dose of psychology. (And giant squid, can't forget to mention those!) I
did, at times, find Norman's assessments tedious (and, on the whole, the
characters are all just a bit too typical, too on the nose as
archetypes) but it was undeniably an essential part
of the first contact theme of high stress and how that affects group
dynamics.
"How much memory have you got?""Fair amount. Ten giga, something like that."
While
the nature of Crichton's work necessarily dates it, his books do have a
certain timelessness to them. I think it's that his plots can be
inserted into any time, and hardworking folk trying to solve a problem
almost never goes out of
style. Also, they're easy to read page turners that make you feel smart while you're enjoying yourself.
I definitely recommend this one to anyone with an interest in scifi or techno-thrillers. And that little smile on the last page is just a killer way to end this one.
rating: 3 of 5 stars
Click here for an index of the joint post series
