Michael Crichton was an American author, filmmaker, and screenwriter. Best known for his sci-fi and techno-thriller novels, Crichton was also a talented scientist, coder, director and med student. Among his most famous works are The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Westworld, and ER.
I first discovered Michael Crichton through Jurassic Park - this should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone, ever. I loved the movie from a very young age, and when I was a teenager, decided I wanted to read the novel. It was very different, but it gripped me. Certain scenes still stick in my mind years later with memories of my first time reading them; the Compies eating the baby, Nedry's death, Malcolm's reveal of the dinosaurs breeding. I read Jurassic Park, and its sequel The Lost World, a few years before discovering my Dad's Crichton collection. I decided to give another novel a go - Next - and loved it just as much. It's been a while since I had the time to do much reading, but last year I decided that I wanted to start trying to read more again, and decided that Crichton's work was a great place to start.
I love the style of Crichton's writing - it's direct and succinct, detailed, and so grounded it makes it easy to believe the science fiction within them. A few have immersive details that I really enjoy - computer readouts, graphs, diagrams. And many of them have reference lists at the end, which as a scientist delighted me to look through. Overall, I truly think I have yet to find an author whose writing and stories I enjoy quite as much as Crichton's.
I decided to make this webpage to document my thoughts on Crichton's novels as I read them, just for fun and ease of reference, since my memory is crap. And hey, maybe this will persuade you to go and give Michael Crichton's novels a chance! So keep an eye out for any book you think sounds up your alley.
First Read Jun 2010 | Most Recent Read: Apr 2020
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First Read 2011| Most Recent Read 2013
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First Read 2016| Most Recent Read *In Progress*
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First Read 2016| Most Recent Read 2016
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First Read Sept 2025 | Most Recent Read Sept 2025
I'd been meaning to read The Andromeda Strain for quite a while, but then I was gifted it for my birthday and thought ah! Perfect! So I pretty much devoured it in a couple of weeks. The occasional in-text citations were delightful to me, and I really did find myself intrigued by the science of this novel. The pacing was perfect for keeping up the tension, and I really genuinely found it hard to put down. This is also the novel where I realised one of the things that I like about quite a few of Crichton's novels, which is the immersive aspect of including printouts and diagrams from within the story. I think just that little extra touch is so interesting, and I think also means that if you have the mind for it, you can find clues to the mystery a little faster. The ending was maybe a little anticlimatic, with nothing happening, but after sitting with it a little while I actually enjoyed it for that - it lent a sense of realism, that sometimes things don't end in a big cinematic catastrophe like they do in books. Really really good read, I think I'd probably put it up as one of my
First Read Dec 2025 | Most Recent Read Dec 2025
I really enjoyed this one!! The technology explored was absolutely fascinating, with the use of micro-organisms to aid in the creation of nanotechnology. I also enjoyed the combining of coding with biological systems, it made for an interesting perspective. I think the reveal of the bot-controlled humans was a bit too foreshadowed to entirely be a surprise, but hey, that is how foreshadowing works so. But the slow figuring of how the microbot swarms work, how they've evolved, and how their behaviour changes with learning, is so cool. I really did find myself absolutely entranced by the mystery and the way its slowly unravelled. I also really enjoyed the inter-character drama and the tension of the growing strain. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this one, I can imagine coming back to read it again.
First Read Jan 2026 | Most Recent Read Jan 2026
While I did enjoy the story and concept of this book, I feel like you can tell the latter part was written by another author. Admittedly at least the first half of the book was good, but I feel like towards the end I started noticing Preston having trouble keeping up with Crichton's style. Still, it was a fun read - some awesome gore and body horror in here! The descriptions of the micro-world were so interesting, especially pertaining to the physics of being so small. The exploration of insect life was also pretty cool. While the common Crichton themes are present, I feel like they're not quite explored as well as they could be - the students don't really change their views on the science they do and the exploitative potential of Nanogen, don't really discuss as much the actual ethics of the problems they have seen. I also found myself a bit sad that so many characters died - the death of MC Peter Jansen halfway through was a shock, but a fun twist to disrupt expectations - but I feel like I would have preferred some of the other students, like Erika, to have survived, and for Drake to have faced justice. Still, definitely a good read!
Fun Crichton Fact:
The dude was fucking huge. I constantly forget and then re-discover just how tall Michael Crichton was and it blows me away every time. He was 6'9", which is insane. It also means there are some wonderful photos like this:
