Sphere

Rating:
Summary: "Guaranteed to read all day or your money back!!"
Review: This is a great book for all sci-fi lovers like me. The concept of **** (I did that as to not give away the good parts of the book) is truly fascinating to me. If you are interested in UFOs, then this is a book for you. Anyone who hasn't read this book should read it, for the people who have already read it, READ IT AGAIN!!!

Rating:
Summary: great sci fi
Review: basically.....this book is GOOD. if u love sci fi and michael crichton....you'll love this too.....very suspenseful and it isnt boring for the first 100 pages like mosst books....it keeps you thinking and thinking untill the end.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I agree with other reviewers. Interesting story, easy to read. Good. But characters are too apparent (or stereotypical?). I couldn't believe they were professional scientists or expert (even the navy peoples too). they don't look like really trained scientific people. Just streotypical 'images' of scientists having many (stereotypical again) problems. I would say I enjoyed it but at many spots, I feel this was written somewhat amateurish. Maybe it was a mistake to read it with a book by Larry Mcmurtry (Lonesome Dove - classic). Conslusion: Fascinating idea/story but disapointing writing.

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Summary: Enter the Unknown
Review: I have recently read Sphere by Michael Crichton. I found this book to be filled with adventure and intrigue. It follows a very intelligent psychologist, Norman Johnson. He is sent to what he thinks is a plane crash site. He normally goes to them to help the families cope with the loss of loved ones. He thought it was just a routine job and that he would be home shortly, he was wrong. The government called him in to research an underwater spacecraft with a team of experienced scientists. He set up the team and went underwater into a habitat to study the craft. He gets more and more involved as the team enters the craft. The suspense starts to build up when they enter the ship and terrible things happen to the crew. As they venture further into the craft they find a shiny silver ball about the size of a large merchant ship. They enter the ship and that's when everything goes wrong. The sphere seems to be able to look into their minds and know what they are thinking. It will carry out the task that that person is thinking about. As the story develops more, each team member gets scared for their lives and starts to distrust one another. The sphere begins to carry out terrible tasks and many team members lose their sense of sanity. Norman has to take complete control of the team and make sure that the rest stays sane and in a working manner. As the sphere gets more and more violent, the team has to make a choice between leaving and forgetting about a scientific breakthrough or continue on with their important investigation.

Rating:
Summary: excellent sci-fi
Review: I really enjoyed reading the book Sphere. The novel is well written and well paced. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is an intriguing story from beginning to end. I highly reccomend it.

Rating:
Summary: a thrilling page-turner!
Review: Like others who have written reviews about Sphere, I could NOT put it down. I had to read the other half in one day before I even started my school work.

Sphere, of course, is about a group of men and women from different backgrounds selected by the Navy to go down to the depths of the Pacific in order to investigate a very large spacecraft..... possibly of alien origin.

Down there however, Crichton turns the novel into a thrilling mind game with a surprise in the last 20-30 pages.

Norman and the others must not only discover the purpose of this craft and any technology in it, but must also discover it before time runs out in the habitat and on themselves as well.

Typically, I'm not a fan of authors whose books are constantly turned into movies but Sphere was a different matter entirely.

Give it a read and see for yourself what a masterpiece Crichton has written!

-Travis S.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!!!!
Review: Michael Crichton is one of the best writers of our time. This book is a perfect example of this. If you're into science fiction you will like this for sure. This book is much better than the movie. It mixes a lot of technological science fiction with suspense in a well balanced way. If you're a fan of Michael Crichton and haven't read this book. Please do. You will not regret it. It's a must buy.

Rating:
Summary: Crichton at his best
Review: Psychologist Norman Johnson accepted a grant to predict the likely reactions of human beings to alien first contact because he needed money to buy his family a house. Not because he could take such a task seriously. The last thing he expected, years later, was to find himself applying his study's conclusions in real life. But here he is, nevertheless. On his way to a habitat beneath the Pacific Ocean, with a team he hand picked - just long enough ago so that its members aren't exactly the same people they were when he selected them. The habitat has been set up for easy access to a sphere that's been lying on the ocean's floor for 300 years.

No 53-year-old in average (less than optimum) physical health belongs where the Navy has decided Norman Johnson should go. He realizes that as he and the rest of the first contact team, of which he is a member rather than the leader, explore the ancient spaceship. When a storm forces the Navy to withdraw surface support, stranding the team, Norman finds out exactly how right he was in some of his theorizing. He also finds out how wrong he was.

Sphere is Crichton at his best. The ensemble cast of this novel rings true as the plot sweeps them from crisis to crisis, through twist after twist. Its ending is perfect, after a wild ride that's everything a sci-fi thriller ought to be.



Rating:
Summary: Rival to the Mighty Jurassic Park?
Review: Sphere was one of the few books I ever speed-read. I finished it in one three-day weekend in 7th grade and loved every minute of it. Although, as is usual for Crichton, the last 20 pages were disappointing, the last 2 pages made up for it completely. The ending leaves you guessing about who did what: Do they still have "The Power"? I've debated this with a friend of mine who has read the book, she thinks they all forgot it, I think only the one lady kept it, and it appears some people on here think they all remembered. I guess only the soon-to-be-released movie will tell us truly (hopefully). This is one of, if not the, greatest Crichton books ever written. Like all his other books, it has a different subject than most are used to and it is no way similar in subject to his other books. The style is mostly the same, and you can see big flashing signs of "CRICHTON" throughout the book. A true great.

Rating:
Summary: Sphere is one of the best science fiction novels written!
Review: This book is a must read!

It all starts out when Norman Johnson, a psychologist, is asked to come to a crash site in the middle of the Pacific. When he arrives at the site, the Navy informs him that it wasn't a plane that crashed but a spacecraft. When Norman asks when the spacecraft had crashed (assuming within the last 30 years), he is told that it crashed nearly 300 years ago.

What makes Sphere such a phenomenal novel is the unbelievable suspense. Sphere is one of those books that you cannot put down; there is not one dull part in this novel. Crichton writes so descriptively that the situation could be real. I found so many mysteries and questions in this book, and when they were resolved, the solutions blew my mind away.

Sphere is filled with action, suspense, and mystery and fills my imagination even now. Anyone who reads this book will definitely enjoy it, and will keep wanting more.