Michael Crichton
I am quite a bit late to the Crichton book party. For me, his name has always been associated with Jurassic Park (as a movie) and now I find that quite surprising! It took a combination of Westworld (the current series version) and a couple of “science fiction you must read” lists to get this book into my shelf.
I really liked the premise. When one thinks of an extra terrestrial “invasion”, the usual suspects are a highly advanced species arriving in spaceships. But this book shows that first contact could actually be anything. In this case, it is less the physics of space travel, and more biology. As one character explains, any form of radiation would lose its potency over space, but a living cell can retain its characteristics if it is made with that end in mind.
It all begins in Piedmont, Arizona, a small town where a probe has crash-landed. The probe is part of
Project Scoop, whose objective is to collect organisms from the fringes of space for study. The fear of contamination by returning space probes has also led to the formation of Wildfire, a team that can handle a contingency at a specially created facility.
The team is called upon to handle exactly that when something starts killing off humans in seconds. The characters who make up the team are not completely fleshed out beyond their professions, but have enough details to take them beyond names and roles. The underground facility that the team operates in is thought through in great detail and has a part to play in the climax.
This is one of his earlier works and is quite an engaging thriller. The number of days I took to finish it is a testament to that. The pace really quickens towards the end and gives it an edge-of-the-seat feel even though the narration indicates clearly that humanity will survive. But anyway, that does not really take away from the gripping story.
