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134-1017: John Michael Crichton ( / ˈ k r aɪ t ən / ; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature technology and are usually within the science fiction , techno-thriller , and medical fiction genres. Crichton's novels often explore human technological advancement and attempted dominance over nature, both with frequently catastrophic results; many of his works are cautionary tales , especially regarding themes of biotechnology . Several of his stories center on themes of genetic modification , hybridization , paleontology and/or zoology . Many feature medical or scientific underpinnings, reflective of his own medical training and scientific background. Crichton received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1969 but did not practice medicine, choosing to focus on his writing instead. Initially writing under

268-761: A computer -like screen , computer viruses , video chat , tanning beds , home treadmills , and more. In 1963, the time travel-themed Doctor Who premiered on BBC Television. The original series ran until 1989 and was revived in 2005. It has been extremely popular worldwide and has greatly influenced later TV science fiction. Other programs in the 1960s included The Outer Limits (1963–1965), Lost in Space (1965–1968), and The Prisoner (1967). Star Trek (the original series), created by Gene Roddenberry , premiered in 1966 on NBC Television and ran for three seasons. It combined elements of space opera and Space Western . Only mildly successful at first,

402-560: A graphic adventure based on Congo . Because Crichton had sold all adaptation rights to the novel, he set the game, named Amazon , in South America, and Amy the gorilla became Paco the parrot. That year Crichton also wrote and directed Runaway (1984), a police thriller set in the near future which was a box office disappointment. Crichton had begun writing Sphere in 1967 as a companion piece to The Andromeda Strain . His initial storyline began with American scientists discovering

536-553: A graphical adventure game created by Crichton and produced by John Wells. Trillium released it in the United States in 1984 initially for the Apple II , Atari 8-bit computers , and Commodore 64 . Amazon sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time. It has plot elements similar to those previously used in Congo . Crichton started a company selling

670-481: A similarly named character Crichton had libeled him. Several novels that were in various states of completion upon Crichton's death have since been published. The first, Pirate Latitudes , was found as a manuscript on one of his computers after his death. It centers on a fictional privateer who attempts to raid a Spanish galleon. It was published in November 2009 by HarperCollins . Additionally, Crichton had completed

804-428: A space opera , went on to become a worldwide popular culture phenomenon , and the second-highest-grossing film series of all time. Since the 1980s, science fiction films , along with fantasy , horror , and superhero films, have dominated Hollywood's big-budget productions. Science fiction films often " cross-over " with other genres, including film noir ( Blade Runner - 1982), family film ( E.T.

938-439: A " sense of wonder ". According to Isaac Asimov , "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology ." Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on

1072-483: A 300-year-old spaceship underwater with stenciled markings in English. However, Crichton later realized that he "didn't know where to go with it" and put off completing the book until a later date. The novel was published in 1987. It relates the story of psychologist Norman Johnson, who is required by the U.S. Navy to join a team of scientists assembled by the U.S. Government to examine an enormous alien spacecraft discovered on

1206-581: A Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship from 1964 to 1965, which allowed him to serve as a visiting lecturer in anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School . Crichton later said "about two weeks into medical school I realized I hated it. This isn't unusual since everyone hates medical school – even happy, practicing physicians." In 1965, while at Harvard Medical School , Crichton wrote

1340-427: A U.S. House committee: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor... if your doctor tells you you need to intervene here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem. ' " Several commentators have interpreted this as a reference to State of Fear . Crichton's novels, including Jurassic Park , have been described by The Guardian as "harking back to

1474-579: A bestselling author. The novel documented the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that fatally clots human blood, causing death within two minutes. Crichton was inspired to write it after reading The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton while studying in England. Crichton says he was "terrifically impressed" by the book – "a lot of Andromeda is traceable to Ipcress in terms of trying to create an imaginary world using recognizable techniques and real people." He wrote

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1608-437: A century, with some practitioners still applying that term. Biological anthropologists look back to the work of Charles Darwin as a major foundation for what they do today. However, if one traces the intellectual genealogy back to physical anthropology's beginnings—before the discovery of much of what we now know as the hominin fossil record—then the focus shifts to human biological variation. Some editors, see below, have rooted

1742-471: A collaboration with CrichtonSun LLC. and author Daniel H. Wilson . It was released on November 12, 2019. In 2020, it was announced that his unpublished works will be adapted into TV series and films in collaboration with CrichtonSun and Range Media Partners. On December 15, 2022, it was announced that James Patterson would coauthor a novel about a mega-eruption of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano, based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton. The novel, Eruption ,

1876-563: A computer program he had originally written to help him create budgets for his movies. He often sought to utilize computing in films, such as Westworld , which was the first film to employ computer-generated special effects. He also pushed Spielberg to include them in the Jurassic Park films. For his pioneering use of computer programs in film production he was awarded the Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1995. In November 2006, at

2010-586: A computer virus in a movie. Crichton believed, however, that his view of technology had been misunderstood as being out there, doing bad things to us people, like we're inside the circle of covered wagons and technology is out there firing arrows at us. We're making the technology and it is a manifestation of how we think. To the extent that we think egotistically and irrationally and paranoically and foolishly, then we have technology that will give us nuclear winters or cars that won't brake. But that's because people didn't design them right. The use of author surrogate

2144-444: A delirious wreck; Peter Luchesi, a young man who severs his hand in an accident; Sylvia Thompson, an airline passenger who suffers chest pains; and Edith Murphy, a mother of three who is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. In Five Patients , Crichton examines a brief history of medicine up to 1969 to help place hospital culture and practice into context, and addresses the costs and politics of American healthcare. In 1974, he wrote

2278-474: A former student of Hooton, introduced a "new physical anthropology." He changed the focus from racial typology to concentrate upon the study of human evolution, moving away from classification towards evolutionary process. Anthropology expanded to include paleoanthropology and primatology . The 20th century also saw the modern synthesis in biology: the reconciling of Charles Darwin 's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel 's research on heredity. Advances in

2412-535: A great and influential film. In 1954, Godzilla , directed by Ishirō Honda , began the kaiju subgenre of science fiction film, which feature large creatures of any form, usually attacking a major city or engaging other monsters in battle . 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey , directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the work of Arthur C. Clarke , rose above the mostly B-movie offerings up to that time both in scope and quality, and influenced later science fiction films. That same year, Planet of

2546-520: A half, and be more satisfactorily amused than watching Doris Day . I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back." Crichton's fourth novel was A Case of Need (1968), a medical thriller. The novel had a different tone from the Lange books; accordingly, Crichton used the pen name "Jeffery Hudson", based on Sir Jeffrey Hudson , a 17th-century dwarf in the court of queen consort Henrietta Maria of England. The novel would prove

2680-669: A journey to the Moon and how the Earth 's motion is seen from there. Kepler has been called the "father of science fiction". Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form , Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) helped define the form of the science fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that Frankenstein was the first work of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including " The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall " (1835), which featured

2814-415: A male protagonist who is being sexually harassed by a female executive. As a result, the book has been criticized harshly by some feminist commentators and accused of being anti-feminist. Crichton, anticipating this response, offered a rebuttal at the close of the novel which states that a "role-reversal" story uncovers aspects of the subject that would not be seen as easily with a female protagonist. The novel

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2948-480: A mark of "B−". He later said, "Now Orwell was a wonderful writer, and if a B-minus was all he could get, I thought I'd better drop English as my major." His differences with the English department led Crichton to switch his undergraduate concentration. He earned his Bachelor's degree in biological anthropology summa cum laude in 1964, and was initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society . Crichton received

3082-474: A movie in 1972 . Around this time Crichton also wrote and sold an original film script, Morton's Run . He also wrote the screenplay Lucifer Harkness in Darkness . Aside from fiction, Crichton wrote several other books based on medical or scientific themes, often based upon his own observations in his field of expertise. In 1970, he published Five Patients , which recounts his experiences of hospital practices in

3216-614: A novel concerning eco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. The novel's central premise is that climate scientists exaggerate global warming . A review in Nature found the novel "likely to mislead the unwary". The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the No. 1 bestseller position at Amazon.com and No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005. The last novel published while he

3350-515: A novel, Odds On . "I wrote for furniture and groceries", he said later. Odds On is a 215-page paperback novel which describes an attempted robbery at an isolated hotel on the Costa Brava in Spain. The robbery is planned scientifically with the help of a critical path analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way. Crichton submitted it to Doubleday, where a reader liked it but felt it

3484-483: A pilot script for a medical series, " 24 Hours ", based on his book Five Patients , however, networks were not enthusiastic. As a personal friend of the artist Jasper Johns , Crichton compiled many of Johns' works in a coffee table book , published as Jasper Johns . It was originally published in 1970 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art and again in January 1977, with

3618-906: A post-doctoral fellowship study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California , from 1969 to 1970. He never obtained a license to practice medicine , devoting himself to his writing career instead. Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors. He experimented with astral projection , aura viewing, and clairvoyance , coming to believe that these included real phenomena that scientists had too eagerly dismissed as paranormal . Three more Crichton books under pseudonyms were published in 1970. Two were Lange novels, Drug of Choice and Grave Descend . Grave Descend earned him an Edgar Award nomination

3752-414: A precious artifact. The Venom Business (1969) relates the story of a smuggler who uses his exceptional skill as a snake handler to his advantage by importing snakes to be used by drug companies and universities for medical research. The first novel that was published under Crichton's name was The Andromeda Strain (1969), which proved to be the most important novel of his career and established him as

3886-544: A pseudonym, he eventually wrote 26 novels, including: The Andromeda Strain (1969), The Terminal Man (1972), The Great Train Robbery (1975), Congo (1980), Sphere (1987), Jurassic Park (1990), Rising Sun (1992), Disclosure (1994), The Lost World (1995), Airframe (1996), Timeline (1999), Prey (2002), State of Fear (2004), and Next (2006). Several novels, in various states of completion, were published after his death in 2008. Crichton

4020-497: A second revised edition published in 1994. The psychiatrist Janet Ross owned a copy of the painting Numbers by Jasper Johns in Crichton's later novel The Terminal Man . The technophobic antagonist of the story found it odd that a person would paint numbers as they were inorganic. In 1972, Crichton published his last novel as John Lange: Binary , relates the story of a villainous middle-class businessman, who attempts to assassinate

4154-443: A sequel novel as well as a film adaptation, stating that he had an idea for the novel's story. In 1996, Crichton published Airframe , an aero-techno-thriller. The book continued Crichton's overall theme of the failure of humans in human-machine interaction, given that the plane worked perfectly and the accident would not have occurred had the pilot reacted properly. He also wrote Twister (1996) with Anne-Marie Martin , his wife at

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4288-416: A strongly critical review of State of Fear , focusing on Crichton's stance on global warming. In the same year, Crichton published the novel Next , which contains a minor character named "Mick Crowley", who is a Yale graduate and a Washington, D.C.–based political columnist. The character was portrayed as a child molester with a small penis . The real Crowley, also a Yale graduate, alleged that by including

4422-408: A subfield of anthropology, biological anthropology itself is further divided into several branches. All branches are united in their common orientation and/or application of evolutionary theory to understanding human biology and behavior. Biological Anthropology looks different today from the way it did even twenty years ago. Even the name is relatively new, having been 'physical anthropology' for over

4556-464: A thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method ." American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction." Another definition comes from The Literature Book by DK and is, "scenarios that are at

4690-620: A thriller originally conceived as a sequel to Jagged Edge . In 1988, Crichton was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . A book of autobiographical writings, Travels , was also published in 1988. In 1990, Crichton published the novel Jurassic Park . Crichton utilized the presentation of " fiction as fact ", used in his previous novels, Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain . In addition, chaos theory and its philosophical implications are used to explain

4824-495: A total estimated readership of at least 1 million), making it the world's most popular science fiction periodical . In 1984, William Gibson 's first novel, Neuromancer , helped popularize cyberpunk and the word " cyberspace ", a term he originally coined in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome . In 1986, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold began her Vorkosigan Saga . 1992's Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson predicted immense social upheaval due to

4958-516: A trip to the Moon . Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). In 1887, the novel El anacronópete by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine . An early French/Belgian science fiction writer was J.-H. Rosny aîné (1856–1940). Rosny's masterpiece

5092-529: A turning point in Crichton's future novels, in which technology is important in the subject matter, although this novel was as much about medical practice. The novel earned him an Edgar Award in 1969. He intended to use the "Jeffery Hudson" pseudonym for other medical novels but ended up using it only once. The book was later adapted into the film The Carey Treatment (1972). Crichton says after he finished his third year of medical school: "I stopped believing that one day I'd love it and realized that what I loved

5226-575: A very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written... Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well. In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith 's first published work, The Skylark of Space , written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby , appeared in Amazing Stories . It

5360-623: A world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state . It influenced the emergence of dystopia as a literary genre . In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science fiction magazine , Amazing Stories . In its first issue he wrote: By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in

5494-413: A writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960. During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor whom he believed was giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style. Informing another professor of his suspicions, Crichton submitted an essay by George Orwell under his own name. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with

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5628-470: Is Les Navigateurs de l'Infini ( The Navigators of Infinity ) (1925) in which the word astronaut, "astronautique", was used for the first time. Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction". His works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of

5762-704: Is a genre of speculative fiction , which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology , space exploration , time travel , parallel universes , and extraterrestrial life . It often explores human responses to changes in science and technology. Science fiction is related to fantasy , horror , and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres . Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Subgenres include hard science fiction , which emphasizes scientific accuracy, and soft science fiction , focusing on social sciences. Other notable subgenres are cyberpunk , which explores

5896-510: Is a historical novel set during the Bone Wars , and includes the real life characters of Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope . The novel was released in May 2017. In addition, some of his published works are being continued by other authors. On February 26, 2019, Crichton's website and HarperCollins announced the publication of The Andromeda Evolution , the sequel to The Andromeda Strain ,

6030-535: Is a recreation of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855 , a massive gold heist, which takes place on a train traveling through Victorian era England. A considerable portion of the book was set in London. Crichton had become aware of the story when lecturing at the University of Cambridge . He later read the transcripts of the court trial and started researching the historical period. In 1976, Crichton published Eaters of

6164-455: Is difficult to talk about." Crichton was a workaholic . When drafting a novel, which would typically take him six or seven weeks, Crichton withdrew completely to follow what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial. As he neared writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly early each day, meaning that he would sleep for less than four hours by going to bed at 10 p.m. and waking at 2 am. In 1992, Crichton

6298-449: Is investigated and electrodes are implanted in his brain. The book continued the preoccupation in Crichton's novels with machine-human interaction and technology. The novel was adapted into a 1974 film directed by Mike Hodges and starring George Segal . Crichton was hired to adapt his novel The Terminal Man into a script by Warner Bros. The studio felt he had departed from the source material too much and had another writer adapt it for

6432-525: Is mistaken for an assassin and finds his life in jeopardy. Crichton wrote the book while traveling through Europe on a travel fellowship. He visited the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix , and then decided, "any idiot should be able to write a potboiler set in Cannes and Monaco", and wrote it in eleven days. He later described the book as "no good". His third John Lange novel, Easy Go (1968),

6566-619: Is often called the first great space opera . The same year, Philip Francis Nowlan 's original Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419 , also appeared in Amazing Stories . This was followed by a Buck Rogers comic strip , the first serious science fiction comic . Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a " future history " science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon . A work of unprecedented scale in

6700-503: Is one of the most influential examples of social science fiction , feminist science fiction , and anthropological science fiction . In 1979, Science Fiction World began publication in the People's Republic of China . It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market , at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue and an estimated 3–5 readers per copy (giving it

6834-413: Is the story of Harold Barnaby, a brilliant Egyptologist who discovers a concealed message while translating hieroglyphics informing him of an unnamed pharaoh whose tomb is yet to be discovered. Crichton said the book earned him $ 1,500 (equivalent to $ 13,143 in 2023). Crichton later said: "My feeling about the Lange books is that my competition is in-flight movies. One can read the books in an hour and

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6968-649: The Jurassic Park franchise . John Michael Crichton was born on October 23, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton, a homemaker. He was raised on Long Island , in Roslyn, New York , and he showed a keen interest in writing from a young age; at 16, he had an article about a trip he took to Sunset Crater published in The New York Times . Crichton later recalled, "Roslyn

7102-514: The Middle Ages . In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment with David Smith . Although he signed a multi-title publishing deal with Eidos Interactive , only one game, Timeline , was ever published. Released by Eidos Interactive on November 10, 2000, for PCs, the game received negative reviews. A 2003 film based on the book was directed by Richard Donner and starring Paul Walker , Gerard Butler and Frances O'Connor . Eaters of

7236-670: The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Crichton joked that he considered himself an expert in intellectual property law. He had been involved in several lawsuits with others claiming credit for his work. In 1985, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard Berkic v. Crichton , 761 F.2d 1289 (1985). Plaintiff Ted Berkic wrote a screenplay called Reincarnation Inc. , which he claims Crichton plagiarized for

7370-477: The Russian writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov presented a view of a future interstellar communist civilization and is considered one of the most important Soviet science fiction novels. In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein 's Starship Troopers marked a departure from his earlier juvenile stories and novels. It is one of the first and most influential examples of military science fiction , and introduced

7504-447: The information revolution . In 2007, Liu Cixin 's novel, The Three-Body Problem , was published in China. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014, and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel , making Liu the first Asian writer to win the award. Emerging themes in late 20th and early 21st century science fiction include environmental issues ,

7638-443: The science behind global warming . He testified on the subject before Congress in 2005. His views would be contested by a number of scientists and commentators. An example is meteorologist Jeffrey Masters 's review of Crichton's 2004 novel State of Fear : Flawed or misleading presentations of global warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for

7772-400: The urban heat island effect, and satellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually expected to increase in mass over

7906-451: The 17th to 18th centuries with the study of racial classification ( Georgius Hornius , François Bernier , Carl Linnaeus , Johann Friedrich Blumenbach ). The first prominent physical anthropologist, the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) of Göttingen , amassed a large collection of human skulls ( Decas craniorum , published during 1790–1828), from which he argued for

8040-418: The 1970s and 1980s, he consulted psychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his positive karma . As a result of these experiences, Crichton practiced meditation throughout much of his life. While he is often regarded as a deist , he never publicly confirmed this. When asked in an online Q&A if he were a spiritual person, Crichton responded with: "Yes, but it

8174-409: The 1974 film . ABC TV wanted to buy the film rights to Crichton's novel Binary . The author agreed on the provision that he could direct the film. ABC agreed provided someone other than Crichton write the script. The result, Pursuit (1972) was a ratings success. Crichton then wrote and directed the 1973 low-budget science fiction western-thriller film Westworld about robots that run amok, which

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8308-550: The Apes (the original), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle , was released to popular and critical acclaim, its vivid depiction of a post-apocalyptic world in which intelligent apes dominate humans . In 1977, George Lucas began the Star Wars film series with the film now identified as " Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope . " The series, often called

8442-491: The Dead is a "recreation" of the Old English epic Beowulf presented as a scholarly translation of Ahmad ibn Fadlan 's 10th century manuscript. The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park incorporate fictionalized scientific documents in the form of diagrams, computer output, DNA sequences , footnotes, and bibliography. The Terminal Man and State of Fear include authentic published scientific works that illustrate

8576-456: The Dead , a novel about a 10th-century Muslim who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement. Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript and was inspired by two sources. The first three chapters retell Ahmad ibn Fadlan 's personal account of his journey north and his experiences in encountering the Rus' , a Varangian tribe, whilst the remainder is based upon

8710-559: The Dead was adapted into the 1999 film The 13th Warrior directed by John McTiernan , who was later removed, with Crichton himself taking over direction of reshoots. In 2002, Crichton published Prey , about developments in science and technology, specifically nanotechnology . The novel explores relatively recent phenomena engendered by the work of the scientific community, such as: artificial life , emergence (and by extension, complexity ), genetic algorithms , and agent -based computing. In 2004, Crichton published State of Fear ,

8844-575: The Extra-Terrestrial - 1983), war ( Enemy Mine - 1985), comedy ( Spaceballs - 1987, Galaxy Quest - 1999), animation ( WALL-E – 2008, Big Hero 6 – 2014), Western ( Serenity – 2005), action ( Edge of Tomorrow – 2014, The Matrix – 1999), adventure ( Jupiter Ascending – 2015, Interstellar – 2014), mystery ( Minority Report – 2002), thriller ( Ex Machina – 2014), drama ( Melancholia – 2011, Predestination – 2014), and romance ( Eternal Sunshine of

8978-466: The President of the United States by stealing an army shipment of the two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve agent. The Terminal Man (1972), is about a psychomotor epileptic sufferer, Harry Benson, who regularly suffers seizures followed by blackouts, and conducts himself inappropriately during seizures, waking up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. Believed to be psychotic, he

9112-478: The Saturday-afternoon movie serials that Mr. Crichton watched as a boy and to the adventure novels of Arthur Conan Doyle (from whom Mr. Crichton borrowed the title The Lost World and whose example showed that a novel could never have too many dinosaurs). These books thrive on yarn spinning, but they also take immense delight in the inner workings of things (as opposed to people, women especially), and they make

9246-457: The Spotless Mind – 2004, Her – 2013). Science fiction and television have consistently been in a close relationship. Television or television-like technologies frequently appeared in science fiction long before television itself became widely available in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The first known science fiction television program was a thirty-five-minute adapted excerpt of

9380-548: The States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and The States and Empires of the Sun (1662), Margaret Cavendish 's " The Blazing World " (1666), Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Ludvig Holberg 's Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) and Voltaire 's Micromégas (1752). Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Somnium the first science fiction story; it depicts

9514-510: The Worlds (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion , biological engineering , invisibility , and time travel . In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes , military tanks , nuclear weapons , satellite television , space travel , and something resembling the World Wide Web . Edgar Rice Burroughs 's A Princess of Mars , published in 1912,

9648-515: The bed of the Pacific Ocean, and believed to have been there for over 300 years. The novel begins as a science fiction story, but rapidly changes into a psychological thriller, ultimately exploring the nature of the human imagination. The novel was adapted into the 1998 film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman . Crichton worked—-as a director only—on Physical Evidence (1989),

9782-436: The book then selling it. He eventually managed to finish the book, titled Congo , which became a best seller. Crichton did the screenplay for Congo after he wrote and directed Looker (1981). Looker was a financial disappointment. Crichton came close to directing a film of Congo with Sean Connery , but the film did not happen. Eventually, a film version was made in 1995 by Frank Marshall . In 1984, Telarium released

9916-442: The book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $ 1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross. Warner Bros. and Tim Burton , Sony Pictures Entertainment and Richard Donner , and 20th Century Fox and Joe Dante bid for the rights, but Universal eventually acquired the rights in May 1990 for Spielberg. Universal paid Crichton a further $ 500,000 to adapt his own novel, which he had completed by

10050-418: The book, Crichton predicts a number of events in the history of computer development, that computer networks would increase in importance as a matter of convenience, including the sharing of information and pictures that we see online today, which the telephone never could. He also makes predictions for computer games, dismissing them as "the hula hoops of the 80s," and saying "already there are indications that

10184-517: The case of Kessler v. Crichton that actually went all the way to a jury trial, unlike the other cases. Plaintiff Stephen Kessler claimed the movie Twister (1996) was based on his work Catch the Wind . It took the jury about 45 minutes to reach a verdict in favor of Crichton. After the verdict, Crichton refused to shake Kessler's hand. Crichton later summarized his intellectual property legal cases: "I always win." Crichton became well known for attacking

10318-613: The clockwork mechanics of his experiments—the DNA replication in Jurassic Park , the time travel in Timeline , the submarine technology in Sphere . The novels have embedded in them little lectures or mini-seminars on, say, the Bernoulli principle, voice-recognition software or medieval jousting etiquette ... The best of the Crichton novels have about them a boys' adventure quality. They owe something to

10452-436: The collapse of an amusement park in a "biological preserve" on Isla Nublar, a fictional island to the west of Costa Rica. The novel had begun as a screenplay Crichton had written in 1983, about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur. Reasoning that genetic research is expensive and that "there is no pressing need to create a dinosaur", Crichton concluded that it would emerge from a "desire to entertain", which led him to set

10586-413: The concept of powered armor exoskeletons . The German space opera series Perry Rhodan , written by various authors, started in 1961 with an account of the first Moon landing and has since expanded in space to multiple universes , and in time by billions of years. It has become the most popular science fiction book series of all time. In the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave science fiction

10720-506: The creation of microrobots and micromachinery , nanotechnology , smartdust , virtual reality , and artificial intelligence (including swarm intelligence ), as well as developing the ideas of "necroevolution" and the creation of artificial worlds. In 1965, Dune by Frank Herbert featured a much more complex and detailed imagined future society than had previously in most science fiction. In 1967 Anne McCaffrey began her Dragonriders of Pern science fantasy series. Two of

10854-421: The division of humankind into five major races (termed Caucasian , Mongolian , Aethiopian , Malayan and American ). In the 19th century, French physical anthropologists, led by Paul Broca (1824–1880), focused on craniometry while the German tradition, led by Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), emphasized the influence of environment and disease upon the human body. In the 1830s and 40s, physical anthropology

10988-439: The episodes, ran from 1959 to 1964. It featured fantasy , suspense , and horror as well as science fiction, with each episode being a complete story. Critics have ranked it as one of the best TV programs of any genre . The animated series The Jetsons , while intended as comedy and only running for one season (1962–1963), predicted many inventions now in common use: flat-screen televisions , newspapers on

11122-399: The fantasy adventure fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , Jules Verne , Edgar Rice Burroughs , and Edgar Wallace , but with a contemporary spin, assisted by cutting-edge technology references made accessible for the general reader." According to The Guardian , "Michael Crichton wasn't really interested in characters, but his innate talent for storytelling enabled him to breathe new life into

11256-527: The field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech " B-movies " and with low-quality pulp science fiction . By the 1970s, critics within the field, such as Damon Knight and Terry Carr , were using "sci fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction. Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers." Robert Heinlein found even "science fiction" insufficient for certain types of works in this genre, and suggested

11390-538: The field even deeper than formal science. Attempts to study and classify human beings as living organisms date back to ancient Greece. The Greek philosopher Plato ( c. 428– c. 347 BC) placed humans on the scala naturae , which included all things, from inanimate objects at the bottom to deities at the top. This became the main system through which scholars thought about nature for the next roughly 2,000 years. Plato's student Aristotle ( c. 384–322 BC) observed in his History of Animals that human beings are

11524-743: The first science fiction novel . Some of the stories from The Arabian Nights , along with the 10th-century The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Ibn al-Nafis 's 13th-century Theologus Autodidactus , are also argued to contain elements of science fiction. Written during the Scientific Revolution and later the Age of Enlightenment are considered true science-fantasy books. Francis Bacon 's New Atlantis (1627), Johannes Kepler 's Somnium (1634), Athanasius Kircher 's Itinerarium extaticum (1656), Cyrano de Bergerac 's Comical History of

11658-445: The first time. It defined basic computer jargon and assured readers that they could master the machine when it inevitably arrived. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation: "In my experience, you assert control over a computer—show it who's the boss—by making it do something unique. That means programming it... If you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterward." In

11792-640: The first true science fiction novel . Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are pivotal figures in the genre's development. In the 20th century, expanded with the introduction of space operas , dystopian literature, pulp magazines , and the Golden Age of Science Fiction . Science fiction has been called the "literature of ideas ", and continues to evolve, incorporating diverse voices and themes, influencing not just literature but film, TV, and culture at large. Besides providing entertainment it can also criticize present-day society and explore alternatives, and inspiration

11926-499: The following year. There was also Dealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues written with his younger brother Douglas Crichton. Dealing was written under the pen name "Michael Douglas", using their first names. Michael Crichton wrote it "completely from beginning to end". Then his brother rewrote it from beginning to end, and then Crichton rewrote it again. This novel was made into

12060-480: The genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years. In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction , an event that is sometimes considered the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction , which was characterized by stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress . The "Golden Age" is often said to have ended in 1946, but sometimes

12194-399: The human form. His research showed that head shape was malleable to environmental and nutritional factors rather than a stable "racial" trait. However, scientific racism still persisted in biological anthropology, with prominent figures such as Earnest Hooton and Aleš Hrdlička promoting theories of racial superiority and a European origin of modern humans. In 1951 Sherwood Washburn ,

12328-472: The implications of the Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about biotechnology , nanotechnology , and post-scarcity societies . Recent trends and subgenres include steampunk , biopunk , and mundane science fiction . The first, or at least one of the first, recorded science fiction film is 1902's A Trip to the Moon , directed by French filmmaker Georges Méliès . It

12462-410: The inevitable breakdown of "perfect" systems and the failure of " fail-safe measures" can be seen strongly in the poster for Westworld , whose slogan was, "Where nothing can possibly go worng" [ sic ], and in the discussion of chaos theory in Jurassic Park . His 1973 movie Westworld contains one of the earliest references to a computer virus and is the first mention of the concept of

12596-405: The interface between technology and society, and climate fiction , addressing environmental issues. Precedents for science fiction are argued to exist as far back as antiquity, but the modern genre primarily arose in the 19th and early 20th centuries when popular writers began looking to technological progress and speculation. Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein , written in 1818, is often credited as

12730-477: The intersection of other more concrete subgenres. Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "Science fiction is what we point to when we say it." Forrest J Ackerman has been credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy " hi-fi ") in about 1954. The first known use in print was a description of Donovan's Brain by movie critic Jesse Zunser in January 1954. As science fiction entered popular culture , writers and fans active in

12864-415: The late 1940s and the 1950s are included. In 1942, Isaac Asimov started his Foundation series , which chronicles the rise and fall of galactic empires and introduced psychohistory . The series was later awarded a one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series". Theodore Sturgeon 's More Than Human (1953) explored possible future human evolution . In 1957, Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by

12998-483: The late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The book follows each of five patients through their hospital experience and the context of their treatment, revealing inadequacies in the hospital institution at the time. The book relates the experiences of Ralph Orlando, a construction worker seriously injured in a scaffold collapse; John O'Connor, a middle-aged dispatcher suffering from fever that has reduced him to

13132-399: The mania for twitch games may be fading." In a section of the book called "Microprocessors, or how I flunked biostatistics at Harvard," Crichton again seeks his revenge on the teacher who had given him abnormally low grades in college. Within the book, Crichton included many self-written demonstrative Applesoft (for Apple II ) and BASICA (for IBM PC compatibles ) programs. Amazon is

13266-491: The movie Coma . The court ruled in Crichton's favor, stating the works were not substantially similar. In the 1996 case, Williams v. Crichton , 84 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1996), Geoffrey Williams claimed that Jurassic Park violated his copyright covering his dinosaur-themed children's stories published in the late 1980s. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Crichton. In 1998, A United States District Court in Missouri heard

13400-562: The next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to the IPCC . Peter Doran , author of the paper in the January 2002 issue of Nature , which reported the finding referred to above, stating that some areas of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000, wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times of July 27, 2006, in which he stated "Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel State of Fear. " Al Gore said on March 21, 2007, before

13534-456: The novel in a wildlife park of extinct animals. The story had originally been told from the point of view of a child, but Crichton changed it because everyone who read the draft felt it would be better if told by an adult. Steven Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989 while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would later be developed into the television series ER . Before

13668-504: The novel over three years. The novel became an instant hit, and film rights were sold for $ 250,000. It was adapted into a 1971 film by director Robert Wise . During his clinical rotations at the Boston City Hospital , Crichton grew disenchanted with the culture there, which appeared to emphasize the interests and reputations of doctors over the interests of patients. He graduated from Harvard, obtaining an MD in 1969, and undertook

13802-472: The novellas included in the first novel, Dragonflight , made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula Award . In 1968, Philip K. Dick 's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published. It is the literary source of the Blade Runner movie franchise . In 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin was set on a planet in which the inhabitants have no fixed gender . It

13936-498: The only animals to walk upright and argued, in line with his teleological view of nature, that humans have buttocks and no tails in order to give them a soft place to sit when they are tired of standing. He explained regional variations in human features as the result of different climates. He also wrote about physiognomy , an idea derived from writings in the Hippocratic Corpus . Scientific physical anthropology began in

14070-445: The outline for and was roughly a third of the way through a novel titled Micro , a novel which centers on technology that shrinks humans to microscopic sizes. Micro was completed by Richard Preston using Crichton's notes and files, and was published in November 2011. On July 28, 2016, Crichton's website and HarperCollins announced the publication of a third posthumous novel, titled Dragon Teeth , which he had written in 1974. It

14204-603: The play RUR , written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek , broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios on 11 February 1938. The first popular science fiction program on American television was the children's adventure serial Captain Video and His Video Rangers , which ran from June 1949 to April 1955. The Twilight Zone (the original series), produced and narrated by Rod Serling , who also wrote or co-wrote most of

14338-758: The premise point. Crichton often employs the premise of diverse experts or specialists assembled to tackle a unique problem requiring their individual talents and knowledge. The premise was used for The Andromeda Strain , Sphere , Jurassic Park , and, to a lesser extent, Timeline . Sometimes the individual characters in this dynamic work in the private sector and are suddenly called upon by the government to form an immediate response team once some incident or discovery triggers their mobilization. This premise or plot device has been imitated and used by other authors and screenwriters in several books, movies and television shows since. As an adolescent, Crichton felt isolated because of his height (6 ft 9 in, or 206 cm). During

14472-429: The science fiction thriller." Like The Guardian , The New York Times has also noted the boys adventure quality to his novels interfused with modern technology and science. According to The New York Times , All the Crichton books depend to a certain extent on a little frisson of fear and suspense: that's what kept you turning the pages. But a deeper source of their appeal was the author's extravagant care in working out

14606-587: The series gained popularity through syndication and extraordinary fan interest . It became a very popular and influential franchise with many films , television shows , novels , and other works and products. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) led to six additional live action Star Trek shows: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999), Voyager (1995–2001) , Enterprise (2001–2005), Discovery (2017–2024), Picard (2020–2023), and Strange New Worlds (2022–present), with more in some form of development. Biological anthropology As

14740-483: The story of Beowulf , culminating in battles with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a relict group of Neanderthals . Crichton wrote and directed the suspense film Coma (1978), adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name by Robin Cook , a friend of his. There are other similarities in terms of genre and the fact that both Cook and Crichton had medical degrees, were of similar age, and wrote about similar subjects. The film

14874-515: The term speculative fiction to be used instead for those that are more "serious" or "thoughtful". Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times , when the line between myth and fact was blurred. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian , A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms , interplanetary warfare, and artificial life . Some consider it

15008-474: The time Spielberg was filming Hook . Crichton noted that, because the book was "fairly long", his script only had about 10% to 20% of the novel's content. The film , directed by Spielberg, was released in 1993. In 1992, Crichton published the novel Rising Sun , an internationally bestselling crime thriller about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation. The book

15142-470: The time of writing technologically impossible, extrapolating from present-day science...[,]...or that deal with some form of speculative science-based conceit, such as a society (on Earth or another planet) that has developed in wholly different ways from our own." There is a tendency among science fiction enthusiasts as their own arbiter in deciding what exactly constitutes science fiction. David Seed says it may be more useful to talk about science fiction as

15276-415: The time. In 1999, Crichton published Timeline , a science-fiction novel in which experts time travel back to the medieval period. The novel, which continued Crichton's long history of combining technical details and action in his books, explores quantum physics and time travel directly; it was also warmly received by medieval scholars, who praised his depiction of the challenges involved in researching

15410-638: The world—or the made-up world, anyway—seem boundlessly interesting. Readers come away entertained and also with the belief, not entirely illusory, that they have actually learned something" Crichton's works were frequently cautionary , his plots often portrayed scientific advancements going awry, commonly resulting in worst-case scenarios. A notable recurring theme in Crichton's plots is the pathological failure of complex systems and their safeguards, whether biological ( Jurassic Park ), militaristic/organizational ( The Andromeda Strain ), technological ( Airframe ), or cybernetic ( Westworld ). This theme of

15544-431: Was a feature of Crichton's writings from the beginning of his career. In A Case of Need , one of his pseudonymous whodunit stories, Crichton used first-person narrative to portray the hero, a Bostonian pathologist, who is running against the clock to clear a friend's name from medical malpractice in a girl's death from a hack-job abortion. Crichton has used the literary technique known as the false document . Eaters of

15678-538: Was a popular success. Crichton then wrote and directed an adaptation of his own book, The Great Train Robbery (1978), starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland . The film would go on to be nominated for Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers , also garnering an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture by the Mystery Writers Association of America. In 1979, it

15812-483: Was adapted into the 1993 film directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes ; it was released the same year as the adaptation of Jurassic Park . The theme of his next novel, Disclosure , published in 1994, was sexual harassment—a theme previously explored in his 1972 novel, Binary . Unlike that novel however, Disclosure centers on sexual politics in the workplace, emphasizing an array of paradoxes in traditional gender roles by featuring

15946-402: Was also involved in the film and television industry. In 1973, he wrote and directed Westworld , the first film to use 2D computer-generated imagery . He also directed Coma (1978), The First Great Train Robbery (1978), Looker (1981), and Runaway (1984). He was the creator of the television series ER (1994–2009), and several of his novels were adapted into films, most notably

16080-460: Was also through Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment that John Wells was attached as the show's executive producer. In 1995, Crichton published The Lost World as a sequel to Jurassic Park . The title was a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle 's The Lost World (1912). It was made into the 1997 film two years later, again directed by Spielberg. In March 1994, Crichton said there would probably be

16214-438: Was announced that Crichton would direct a movie version of his novel Eaters of the Dead for the newly formed Orion Pictures . This did not occur. Crichton pitched the idea of a modern day King Solomon's Mines to 20th Century Fox who paid him $ 1.5 million for the film rights to the novel, a screenplay and directorial fee for the movie, before a word had been written. He had never worked that way before, usually writing

16348-514: Was another world. Looking back, it's remarkable what wasn't going on. There was no terror. No fear of children being abused. No fear of random murder. No drug use we knew about. I walked to school. I rode my bike for miles and miles, to the movie on Main Street and piano lessons and the like. Kids had freedom. It wasn't such a dangerous world... We studied our butts off, and we got a tremendously good education there." Crichton had always planned on becoming

16482-409: Was his feature film directorial debut. It was the first feature film using 2D computer-generated imagery (CGI). The producer of Westworld hired Crichton to write an original script, which became the erotic thriller Extreme Close-Up (1973). Directed by Jeannot Szwarc , the movie disappointed Crichton. In 1975, Crichton wrote The Great Train Robbery , which would become a bestseller. The novel

16616-404: Was influential on later filmmakers , bringing a different kind of creativity and fantasy . Méliès's innovative editing and special effects techniques were widely imitated and became important elements of the cinematic medium . 1927's Metropolis , directed by Fritz Lang , is the first feature-length science fiction film. Though not well received in its time, it is now considered

16750-480: Was known for its embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously " literary " or " artistic " sensibility . In 1961, Solaris by Stanisław Lem was published in Poland . The novel dealt with the theme of human limitations as its characters attempted to study a seemingly intelligent ocean on a newly discovered planet . Lem's work anticipated

16884-420: Was made into a film the same year, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore . Crichton was the creator and an executive producer of the television drama ER , based on his 1974 pilot script 24 Hours . Spielberg helped develop the show, serving as an executive producer for season one and offering advice (he insisted on Julianna Margulies becoming a regular, for example). It

17018-417: Was not for the company. Doubleday passed it on to New American Library, which published it in 1966. Crichton used the pen name John Lange because he planned to become a doctor and did not want his patients to worry that he would use them for his plots. The name came from cultural anthropologist Andrew Lang . Crichton added an "e" to the surname and substituted his own real first name, John, for Andrew. The novel

17152-465: Was prominent in the debate about slavery , with the scientific, monogenist works of the British abolitionist James Cowles Prichard (1786–1848) opposing those of the American polygenist Samuel George Morton (1799–1851). In the late 19th century, German-American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) strongly impacted biological anthropology by emphasizing the influence of culture and experience on

17286-539: Was ranked among People magazine's 50 most beautiful people. He married five times. Four of the marriages ended in divorce: Joan Radam (1965–1970); Kathleen St. Johns (1978–1980); Suzanna Childs (1981–1983); and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987–2003), the mother of his daughter (born 1989). At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander (married 2005), who was six months pregnant with their son, born on February 12, 2009. Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to SF or sci-fi )

17420-417: Was released on June 3, 2024. In 1983, Crichton wrote Electronic Life , a book that introduces BASIC programming to its readers. The book, written like a glossary, with entries such as: "Afraid of Computers (everybody is)," "Buying a Computer" and "Computer Crime," was intended to introduce the idea of personal computers to a reader who might be faced with the hardship of using them at work or at home for

17554-454: Was still living was Next in 2006. The novel follows many characters, including transgenic animals, in a quest to survive in a world dominated by genetic research, corporate greed, and legal interventions, wherein government and private investors spend billions of dollars every year on genetic research. In 2006, Crichton clashed with journalist Michael Crowley , a senior editor of the magazine The New Republic . In March 2006, Crowley wrote

17688-400: Was successful enough to lead to a series of John Lange novels. Film rights were sold in 1969, but no movie resulted. The second Lange novel, Scratch One (1967), relates the story of Roger Carr, a handsome, charming, privileged man who practices law, more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Carr is sent to Nice , France, where he has notable political connections, but

17822-408: Was the first of his three- decade -long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels , which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero . These novels were predecessors to YA novels , and drew inspiration from European science fiction and American Western novels . In 1924, We by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin , one of the first dystopian novels, was published. It describes

17956-405: Was writing." He began publishing book reviews under his name. In 1969, Crichton wrote a review for The New Republic (as J. Michael Crichton), critiquing Kurt Vonnegut 's recently published Slaughterhouse-Five . He also continued to write Lange novels: Zero Cool (1969), dealt with an American radiologist on vacation in Spain who is caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking

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