Of all of the authors I’ve read, Crichton always delivered readability, a great story, and made science subjects I thought I had a handle on even more fascinating than I could have imagined. He embodied the premise of genius, where it’s said that the mark of genius is understanding something and then explaining it to the rest of us. Star Trek inspired a generation of electrical engineers to figure out how to make communicators, and we have them. Jurassic Park alone has had the same effect; we have a generation of bio-scientists who know that somewhere somehow it’s possible to resurrect a T-Rex. Mr. Crichton was a cultural icon.
I’ve read a number of posts, largely from the environmental crowd, dismissing him as a “hack” due to his work on State of Fear regarding global warming. Ironically the most vociferous denunciations prove the underlying thesis of that book and also condensed in his speech comparing environmentalism to religion. I tended to think he had it assessed correctly, and the vitriolic piling-on confirms it. Crichton bashers, take note: it’s usually not a good idea to dismiss the smartest guy in the room out of hand.
