Airframe

Rating:
Summary: Absorbing--Deep Insights Into Airline Safety
Review:

If you are a frequent flyer, or afraid of flying, this is a riveting book that will easily cause several hours to pass and will have the added benefit of making you feel much safer as you fly.

The author has done a really outstanding job of first understanding and then explaining to a lay person the enormous complexity and rigorous attention to detail that go into building and testing commercial aircraft, and investigating mishaps when they occur.

The minor plot elements aside (the usual cast of media mediocrities, intra-office back-stabbers, etc.), this book makes aircraft safety *exciting.* I was completely absorbed in what this author has put together, and highly recommend this book as an intelligent thriller with a practical foundation.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre - But Do Read It On A Plane
Review: Reads like a made for TV movie, but a guilty pleasure, because I've worked in the industry. (See Pratt & Whitney) For lightweights I guess, but I'd still recommend it, especially for those who are actually going to fly. Better than an in-flight movie, you'll be finished with it by the time you arrive at your destination and it's a white-knuckler all the way. What bothered me was the author's use of the word stewardess throughout. The main character is a woman as are several supporting characters who are strong willed and determined. That one word seemed to stick out. As if the author was saying, I'll write it, but I won't mean it. Backlash or something or whatnotnot. Also use of the term weenyprick (See p. 206) left me completely befuddled. That is all.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! I loved this book......the absolute best..............
Review: This was the best book I've ever read. Crichton at his best. This must be the greatest book he ever wrote. Casey Singleton is a real and believable charicture. The airplane science is engrossing and easy to understand. READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!! GO!

Rating:
Summary: Gripping, but skewed view about the world outside US
Review: should admit that the book was gripping - a one sitting read,but one -especially if you are not from US - cannot ignore the racial overtones that are plenty in this book, it sounds more like the author could not resist adding them, because at some places he could have done without qualifying the characters with their racial descent, but he has added it.
The author often makes it a point to say that concern for quality and public safety is lacking outside US. but after having worked in the US for some time, i am convinced that most US companies care only for short term gain, and image, just like those TV guys in this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A Greaaat Read!!
Review: This is a great book!! The other reviewers have pretty much said it all, so just press the 'buy now' button and enjoy the best read you'll have in a long, long time.

Rating:
Summary: A distinctly low-altitude Crichton performance
Review: Cardboard characters, a stilted plot, wooden dialogue...where to begin? When Norton Aircraft VP (of Quality Assurance, no less!) Casey Singleton told another character that the wing of a particular plane was "two hundred feet long - almost as long as a football field" I knew I was in for a rough ride. Doesn't anyone edit this kind of dreck?

Aside from an amusing take on the media (particularly a TV newsmagazine reporter obviously meant to be Mike Wallace), the book slogs along for 431 pages before coming to a tepid conclusion.

I'm a sucker for books on airplanes and the aviation industry in general but I can't recommend this half-hearted effort.

Rating:
Summary: The Book, I loved it
Review: I opend it. It had arrived, finally after the long 24hour wait. I was shaking and read it that night. Since then i have begun my search for a better book, but believe me there is none under the sun of this timid world (at least in its genre). Michael Crichton simply blows all expectations. I thought that i would fall in love with all of his books. But NO just this one! 100% action packed fun and for those folks that didn't enjoy it there's tonnes of books from Michael Chrichton!! Enjoy.

This review is subjest to your taste in books. Do not blame me for ruining a perfectly placid evening.

Rating:
Summary: An all-around good novel for Michael Crichton fans
Review: Airframe captivated my attention after just reading one page. The suspense and drama of Airframe captures the reader's mind as the plot thickens. There isn't one dull moment in the book...not even when it comes to those long, technical descriptions of machines, charts, and numbers Michael Crichton includes in all of his books. In fact, if you read the technical details of Airframe closely you may be able to solve the mystery of the novel long before the main character, Casey Singleton, does.

The main character was one of my favorite things about the book. Smart, tomboyish, courageous, determined, and hardworking all describe Casey Singleton. Her life describes the lives of females who work in jobs that are usually held by men. She proves that she can do her job just as well as the men she works with can.

Overall, I strongly suggest Airframe for all fans of Michael Crichton novels.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Read This On An Airplane
Review: I've read a number of novels by Michael Crichton, and he really does his research, making somewhat complex subjects understandable to most readers. Whether it's cloning and dinosaurs ("Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World"), sexual harassment ("Disclosure"), or even quantum physics ("Timeline"), he can really hold your attention while you learn a thing or two. Too bad he can't come up with a well thought out plot to go with any of his "topics du jour".

"Airframe" is a good example of this. As a result of reading this novel, I know more than I ever would about the building of airplanes, the operation of airlines, and how well (or badly) commercial airliners are maintained. Crichton also gives us a glimpse of how the FAA and its European equivalent, the JAA, operate, especially in the post regulation climate that we live in. If you read this book before taking your next flight, you may end up wanting to drive or ask if you can store a parachute in the overhead compartment.

Casey Singleton is the Vice President of Quality Assurance for Norton Airplanes, a builder of commercial jets. One of the Norton planes encounters a serious problem in flight resulting in several deaths and a number of injuries. Casey is named to the team investigating this occurrence. In addition to her seeming role as a one woman investigator of the incident, or at least the only one with a clue of what to do, she is appointed to be the person talking to the media, even though the company has people whose job this is.

What Casey doesn't know is there are sharks in the water. She is surrounded by evil executives, evil co-workers, evil union types, and that old stand by, the evil media, this time in the person of a story producer for a national, "60 Minutes" type, TV news magazine. People are out to destroy her professionally and personally or otherwise advance their interests or their careers. With all of this going on around her, there's only one thing she can do.

Run, Casey Run!

And she does. She runs here, and she runs there. She runs all over the Norton plant. She dodges one group of stalkers by climbing down a cable. Another group throws her off the ill fated airliner, now in a Norton hanger for testing, but fortunately she lands in some netting. (Whew! That was close.) Clues indicating that nothing is what it appears to be just drop into her lap, but it takes her awhile to put them together. (Well, long enough for Crichton to have typed a sufficient number of words to put "Airframe" out as a novel.)

Then there are the coincidences. One character's has an evil plan to get control of and then wreck the company. Fortunately for this person, the airliner event happens through a series of freak occurrences, too silly to have been planned, right when he's about to make his move. Then a second, non-fatal incident involving the same airplane model happens THE VERY NEXT DAY. (How's that for timing?) Then, Al Pacino (no, really) walks out on an interview for the TV news magazine, and, in desperate need of a new story, the producer gets wind of the problems at Norton. If that's not enough, the producer, only caring about making a big ratings splash, chooses to completely ignore the fact that most of her sources are clearly lying to her, not credible, or pushing their own agendas, while she dismisses factual information that contradicts the story she wants to tell. Wow, the main villain couldn't have planned it better. (And trust me, little that happens here is planned by anyone. Everything just seems to happen on its own.)

I did like the Casey Singleton character. She is bright, imaginative, and courageous. She has to be. She has been set up to "take the fall". In the end she outsmarts everyone, saving her job and the company. She almost saves this mess as well, but that would have been too much to ask of anyone.

I realize that Crichton is a very popular and successful writer. However, "Airframe" is not a very well thought out novel. I knew what was going to happen long before it did and the cause of the original incident was so obvious by the middle of the book that I almost didn't feel the need to finish it.

Finally, the use of a series of coincidences as a means to advance the plot is a symptom of lazy writing. It strikes me as odd that Crichton clearly put so much time and effort into researching the airplane industry and so little into creating a story that follows a logical series of events.

Rating:
Summary: The safety of airplanes
Review: With this book you will learn some things about airplanes and TV networks, is a good book but I don't recommend to read it in a flight, just kidding, the writer keeps you reading all the time except when he describes the preparation for the people for the TV show and the epilogue, but that is a short chapter, is a good reading.