Sphere is a 1987 novel by Michael Crichton, his sixth novel under his own name and his sixteenth overall. It was adapted into the film Sphere in 1998. [1]

This is the kind of book where I’ll think about the scientific speculations mentioned for a long time to come. Sphere is not set in space, but it might as well be. It takes the reader deep into the darkest part of the ocean where unfathomable pressure forces threaten to crush and demolish, where the only breathable oxygen is what you bring with you, where the landscape is as alien and inhospitable as anything found in outer space. Damn, this was a trippy novel. I watched the movie when I was little but it turns out that I don’t remember much. Publication Series: Sphere Science Fiction Classics". isfdb.org. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017 . Retrieved 19 June 2017. A group of scientists (namely psychologist Norman Johnson, mathematician Harry Adams, zoologist Beth Halpern, astrophysicist Ted Fielding, and marine biologist Arthur Levine), along with U.S. Navy personnel, travel to a deep sea habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where an enormous spacecraft has been discovered.I still remember how boredom and disappointment grew, after the first few chapters showed the setting and some suspense was built up and then it got lengthy and neither the psychological inner character plot nor the other big mystery plot made much fun or sense, especially because the logic of motivations and thinking capacities and abilities of the protagonists were… average. Guthrie, Richard (2011). Publishing: Principles and Practice. SAGE. ISBN 9781446249994 . Retrieved 19 June 2017. Although it was sizable cast, each character had such a distinctive and memorable personality. The book to some extent was about how these different personalities would react in a crisis situation, and overall, I think Crichton did a good job fleshing that out. Harry Adams is a 30-year-old mathematician at Princeton, the youngest but most vital member of the team. His job is to communicate with the ULF. A prodigy in the field of probability, he has a chip on his shoulder, but is almost always right. He theorizes that the spacecraft is not from another planet. And after the team is briefed by Barnes, Harry confronts the commander for lying to them about divers still searching for the spacecraft door; Harry deduces they've already found it.

The plan after their submarine trip down to the pressurized habitat is to examine and explore the mysterious fin's exterior for seventy-two hours. No one expected the huge hurricane which drives off the Navy ships supporting the habitat - or sudden appearance of the door in the fin... I didn't picture Dustin Hoffman for the role of Dr. Goodman, no offense to Mr. Hoffman, which is an actor that I admired a lot, but I thought in Sean Connery for that character.

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Harry isn't that bad. He's actually competent, and when his powers get the best of him, it's because of normal human fears. And it's gratifying to see him survive. As interesting as the characters and plot were, there wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about the writing itself. I don’t know how much of it is due to Crichton’s style or to the nature of the sci-fi genre, but the writing was simple and straightforward. None of that flowery, descriptive language that I’m used to reading in fantasy books. On the plus side, it did make for an easier and faster read. Ted: "I think everybody knows how I feel. I feel that we should have some brief remarks for posterity." As I mentioned, I don’t think this is really a scary story, but there was definitely tension for me as I read it. Part of it was the underwater environment which for some reason tends to creep me out, more so than stories set in space where the atmosphere-related dangers are similar. There was also often a “noooo, don’t do that!” feeling when characters did things that weren’t always necessarily stupid, although sometimes they were, but that I was sure would lead to a bad end.

However, the danger which resides within the fin is much more enigmatic and sneakily awful than the alien vegetable in the movie. The book maintains a solid footing in speculative sci-fi from beginning to end, and although the dialogue reminded me of 'The Thing...' movie, the mystery behind the fin reminded me of Solaris During the descent, Levine becomes claustrophobic and is returned to the surface. The other scientists arrive safely at Habitat DH-8. After their arrival and subsequent pressurization to the habitat's exotic-gas environment, the Navy sends a robot to enter the spacecraft first, which locates and opens a panel near the spacecraft door. Well, I had no idea there was a Sphere book. I only saw the movie and thought that was it. Not to mention that the book is written by the same author as Jurassic Park. In August 2020, Entertainment Weekly reported that HBO would be developing a television series based on the novel. [4] Reception [ edit ]This book is a combination of psychological thriller and science fiction. It follows a group of scientists as they investigate what is thought to be an alien vessel that crashed on the ocean floor. Sphere is, in my opinion, Michael Crichton's most interesting book on two levels. First, the plot: a truly great parable on the endgame of technology, and the long-sought-after dream of Alladin's magic lamp. I don't want to go too deep, but I'll say that it is, in my humble hypothesis, the uncredited inspiration for the excellent show Lost. While the plot is a highlight, I personally keep this book high on my list of favorites, after all these years, because of the Essay, which breaks with/plays off Crichton's typical form: instead of a broken monologue with a human genius, it takes the form of an italicized, nearly stream of consciousness Socratic dialogue with... something. Again, the writing is problematic (Crichton manages to use the word "foam" 23 times or so in two paragraphs) but, even after all these years, the content still stirs me: the subject is consciousness and the power and meaning of the question mark... again I'll let him do the rest. You can (and should) disagree with his analysis, you can shrug aside his monosyllables, but if something in his notion of What Makes Humanity? doesn't stir you, then you are missing out. You have finally and irrevocably left the seventh grade, that painful age of wondering, in favor of a well-fortified adulthood... and as nice as that sounds, you probably left something essential behind.

Crichton's musings have a tendency to be deeply speculative of the human condition, but without using language that alienates the audience. I can follow his line of thinking easily without getting lost. Pop psychology. The whole Norman trying to analyze his colleagues, but failing, because his observations are written by someone who plainly didn't have knowledge of the field. If there's anything a psychology student hate more than the type of 'psychology' you see on Facebook..... Some seem to see some kind of deeper philosophical meaning in this one, especially towards the end with something one could call a subtle plot twist, but to me, it was a too constructed, not well designed novel. It tried to be mindfu**ing, but the realization was poor.

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In my opinion, you can only truly rate a Michael Crichton book by a) the depth and originality of the concept and b) the lucidity of the monologue/essay that will always occur, usually as a rant from some broken visionary genius or another, approx. 4/5 of the way through the book. A team of scientists is summoned to investigate the remains of a ship in the murky depths of the ocean. Everything goes awry when they find a sphere. What is it, and more importantly, how do they communicate with it? // The original Sphere Books was launched in 1966 by Thomson Corporation. [1] Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin. [2] The name was retired in 1990. [ citation needed]