Airframe

Rating:
Summary: You'll at least be more attentive next time you fly!
Review: A trans-Pacific flight from Hong Kong encounters severe turbulence leaving several passengers dead and many more injured. Casey Singleton, who is in charge of Quality Control for the airplane manufacturer, is assigned to head the internal investigation into what went wrong. But it soon becomes apparent that someone doesn't want her to figure out what happened. Add to it a labor dispute, and not only is the future of the company in jeopardy, but Casey's life as well.

"Airframe" offers an amazing and interesting insight into several industries. I learned some very interesting things about how the airplanes are made and the tests and regulations required. While reading it I even felt a bit uneasy about flying, and found that I paid a lot more attention to the operations of the jet the next time I flew. But not only was the book informative (for a work of fiction, anyway), but it was also a lot of fun to read. Maybe not my favorite Crichton book, but I really enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: An Incredibly Intelligent Suspense!
Review: This was my first Michael Crichton novel, and since then I have read many others; I have yet to read one that surpasses this intelligent, thought-provoking, and technically spun suspense about an airplane crash that leaves a bizarre and gruesome scene behind. Crichton's superb writing reflectes the meticulous and educational research he must have gone through to depict a world in the aftermath of an airplane crash and the media's obssesssions with sensationalism.

The novel is centered on the heroine's relentless investigations in order to salvage the airline company's reputation and airplane manufacturer. The media, government, incompetent technical team, multi-billion corporations, and an elusive presence that clearly does not want her to find out the truth and many more heart-palpitating twists are incorporated in the story.

If you do not know which Crichton book you want to choose, I highly recommend AIRFRAME!

Rating:
Summary: Clean, sleek and engaging
Review: On average, I finish a novel every 3 days. I read all kinds of books. I loved this one and it prompted me to write a review for the first time. I love to get to know the characters, but I prefer to do it through their actions and dialogue. Not through endless descriptions and insights. This is my main problem with Koontz and King. Airframe allowed me to get to know the characters well but through the story. The story keeps moving and never gets side-tracked or bogged-down with endless, tedious descriptions. I loved this book. I loved the subject matter, the story, the twists and turns. Highly recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I hate reading. As a high school senior, there is no book that i would ever pick up and read on my own. After reading Airframe, i would re-read it again any day...UNBELIEVABLE BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: I'm sacared to fly now
Review: this one of his best books it a is a masterful work of flight literature

Rating:
Summary: An Aviation Novel that Gets It Right!
Review: Most news coverage about plane wrecks in grossly inaccurate. Even when solid facts emerge the media almost always gets it wrong. That is the real story of this book.

An aviation incident is turned into a fiasco by a press more concerned with sensationalism than accuracy. Getting down to reality is another matter. I've worked in the maintenance department of a major airline and I found the story, setting and characters to be very realistic. Crichton did his homework very well on this book. Perhaps the most realistic part was the maintenance people watching a news report outraged by the misrepresentations. Been there, done that.

If you want a realistic novel about the world of transport aviation this is it. One warning however, the language is straight from the shop floor too. Nothing gratuitous but just the way things are.

Rating:
Summary: Disapponting
Review: This is my first Crichton book and I must say I'm very disappointed. I have another one of his books on my shelf but I'm in no hurry to read it.

On the plus side the story was well researched and it provided, to a novice, an insight into crash investigation. However, the book was slow and only the fact that I'm stubborn I would have given up on it.

The ending is very good but it take a long time coming.

In summary, give it a miss. Good ending but you'll feel disappointed having sat through it.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Page-Turner
Review: When I first heard of this novel, the subject matter sounded uninteresting to me. Only after a friend strongly recommended it did I give it any consideration at all. And even then, I waited until there were no other books on my "to read" list before buying a copy. Well, I wish I hadn't waited so long. Airframe is a great book!

Michael Crichton brings his usual cinematic writing style to Airframe, reinforcing a suspenseful story with a level of technical detail that brings depth and additional interest to the events that take place. And while the book is primarily focused on an investigation into an airplace accident, which may sound dry and uninteresting, the character interactions and intrigue are more than enough to keep the story moving at a steady pace. In fact, there was never a point where I felt the momentum lull.

As an added plus, I particularly enjoyed Crichton's portrayal of the news media. I felt that his unforgiving commentary on the motives and methods of television "news" programs was dead on, and in fact has become even more accurate in the years since he wrote this novel.

Kudos to Crichton for this one - I would recommend that anyone read Airframe, and do so before they ruin it by turning it into a movie!

Rating:
Summary: Smooth Sailing
Review: Like a good neighbor, Michael Critchen is there. When you want to read a no hassle guaranteed good book, M.C.'S airframe is a book that can certainly share that tile along with many of his other novels. Airframe is as slick moving and as aerodynamic as one of planes described in his novel.
The story involves a plane that has an in air accident, people are hurt and questions need to be answered or heads will roll. Critchen takes a technical subject and makes it easy to follow. You will learn alot about the airplane industry, deregulation drawbacks, corrupt business men, union troubles and immoral reporters. Critchen pulls no punches on touchy subjects and makes it really entertaining. The last 100 pages read like a roller coaster ride, loops and all.
In a nutshell, an accident in the air causes many to be hurt. Now the question is cast: Is the plane unsafe? What caused the accident? Will this accident prevent a potentially large contract from being obtained? Who or what will prevent it? Critchen's heroin Casey, must put her reputation on the line as the airplane quality assurance rep, and dig through the mass of technical facts, bureaucracy and overzealous reporters. What will happen next you'll need to read to find out.

Rating:
Summary: over-dramatic and unconvincing
Review: "Airframe" is meant to be topical: full of details and praised for being "ripped from the headlines" and "plausibly detailed". The Rotten Report knows better - topical novels are less cutting-edge than cut-and-paste of existing news stories. The result is less realistic than apparently realistic, which is just realistic enough to convince readers that a slim understanding of aviation will back up the slim plot.

"Airframe" centers on a fictitious airliner - the Norton N-22, a marvel of efficiency and safety. Popular opinion shifts when an N-22 encounters severe turbulence - killing three and injuring scores more. The media - as opposed to their practice in more recent disasters - blame Norton rather than the airlines (remember the hype over low-cost outfits like "ValueJet" and bloated dinosaurs like Pan-Am and TWA, and remember all of those "US-scare" jokes?), turning Norton into a target for ambitious reporters, "bottom-feeding" lawyers and other unethical, uninformed and non-credentialed "experts". "Airframe" could have been a great novel with which to explore issues like products liability, airlines and the media, but Crichton proves as prone as his media villains to unconvincingly sexing up the story. The N-22 becomes beset by every conceivable unethical character in America, sharing nothing more in common than greed and ignorance. Norton's Aero experts are his heroes, selflessly protecting aviation from the Knights of the Round Tort.

Using a fictitious story that makes no secret of its sympathies, Crichton rails against the media's uninformed depictions of the aviation industry, citing the history of the DC-10' - which was temporarily grounded following a string of accidents and bad press in the 1970's - as an example. Though DC-10s returned to fly, Crichton insists that McDonnell never sold another. I lived near an airport until '98 and routinely saw DC-10's in flight until they were phased out recently - nearly two decades after their "grounding" and about the same time as its competitor, the L-1011, a plane the DC-10 outsold. I even flew a DC-10 on a major airline in 1994 - I can't remember when I last flew an L-1011. (The DC-10 was more likely a victim - if at all - of airline deregulation, which created many airlines flying short routes with small planes like the 737, now one of commercial aviation's most popular jets; Strangely Crichton never explains how maligned MacDonnell managed to weather the DC-10 crisis enough to continue selling other planes and even try their hand at the MD-11, a next-generation jumbo jet.) Crichton sticks to his version of the DC-10 story so uncritically, it's almost impossible to take at face value. "Airframe" begins with a quote by a veteran journalist who warns against giving respectability to the uninformed, which does less to make Crichton's points than seize the moral high-ground of debate. Certainly "Airframe"'s details don't betray any more knowledge of aviation than any other layman who subscribes to "Aviation Week".

Like a poorly designed aircraft, "Airframe" never gets off the ground - Crichton quickly lets you know that he's less interested in aviation than the media's sway over America...on any subject. In fact, "Airframe" is so removed from actually flying planes, that it could have been written about anything - choose your widget, and you've got a book. "Airframe" might as well have originated as a novel about mopeds or cars until TWA 800 or ValueJet made it a more marketable to add chapters and use find/replace to swap small, wheeled vehicles for jets. The heroes of "Airframe" - experts involved in designing and building airplanes - are almost as removed from flying as the villains. Though he pays lip-service to the wisdom of pilots (check that other quote before the first page) Crichton either won't or can't make a pilot one of his main characters, and Crichton's aero-engineers - N-22 partisans who know airplanes - are kept around only to add the veneer of scientific correctness to his screed against the uninformed media. This is not Craig Thomas' "A Different War", where the hero redeems the suspected airliner by flying it. The flight in one simple chapter of that book is enough to banish any hint of mopeds. Crichton's holds airliners in a perspective no different from that of the dim laymen he populates his books with - as vehicles. Alas again that the plot heaps scorn on the media even though corporate espionage has more to do with Norton's problems. Despite often using "corporate" as synonymous with "sinister", "Airframe" is at best a flaccid indictment against corporations, let alone the media.

Knowing he lacks enough plot to remind readers (and perhaps himself) that "Airframe" is about something exotic and beyond his grasp, Crichton falls back on his usual suspects - corporate intrigue, as if he can keep things going with a dash of "Rising Sun" and "Disclosure". When the plucky heroine, a Norton exec, wants to clear the N-22, she's saddled with an unwanted intern (and likely a corporate spy) named Bob Richman. As far as Crichton is concerned, Richman is dead-meat the minute he appears: if his blue-chip upbringing, top-flight education, and high-priced (and foreign! ) car aren't enough warning, his youth makes Richman enemy number-one (not that he does anything apparently evil, but Crichton's villains are seldom as evil as ambitioned, arrogant or just unlikable). At first, I expected a surprise - make a hero out of the sleazy ivy-leaguer and confound readers primed for the Richman's fall. Instead, "Airframe" remains boldly unsurprising (the brat's name is the perfect example - I guess "Richboy" would have been too obvious), and there isn't a thrill to be had. Throw in a "twist" ending that's blatantly lifted from a true incident that the media responsibly reported, and you've got a book that deserves to be grounded - for good. If you've got to read Crichton, read the first Jurassic, the Andromeda Strain or Sphere. If you've got to read about flying, pick up Coonts or Craig Thomas.