If the current literary rage for Young Adult, Paranormal, Zombies and all things Dystopian has you craving the straightforward, action-packed thrillers of the past, look no further than the early works of Michael Crichton and let the master show you how it’s done. It’s no wonder all of his books are bestsellers, or that most of them have been adapted into very successful films as well.
Random House has re-released some of his most popular and acclaimed works in discounted editions for Kindle, so it’s a great time to rediscover this master of the thriller genre.
Sphere (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99)
From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Congo comes a psychological thriller about a group of scientists who investigate a spaceship discovered on the ocean floor.
In the middle of the South Pacific, a thousand feet below the surface, a huge vessel is unearthed. Rushed to the scene is a team of American scientists who descend together into the depths to investigate the astonishing discovery. What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship, but apparently it is undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old, containing a terrifying and destructive force that must be controlled at all costs.
The Andromeda Strain (4/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99)
From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere
Five prominent biophysicists have warned the United States government that sterilization procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, a probe satellite falls to the earth and lands in a desolate region of northeastern Arizona. Nearby, in the town of Piedmont, bodies lie heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. What could cause such shock and fear? The terror has begun, and there is no telling where it will end.
One reviewer says:
“Some biologists speculate that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials, those life forms are likely to be–like most life on earth–one-celled or smaller creatures, more comparable to bacteria than little green men…the possibility exists that first contact might be our last. That’s the scientific supposition that Michael Crichton formulates and follows out to its conclusion in his excellent debut novel, The Andromeda Strain.”
Timeline (3.5/5 stars, currently priced at $5.99)
In this thriller from the author of Jurassic Park, Sphere, and Congo, a group of young scientists travel back in time to medieval France on a daring rescue mission that becomes a struggle to stay alive.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Compulsive reading . . . brilliantly imagined.”—Los Angeles Times
In an Arizona desert, a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world, archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretive multinational corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. And with history opened up to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival—six hundred years ago.
“Exciting . . . classic adventure . . . [a] swashbuckling novel . . . Crichton delivers.”—USA Today
“More screams per page . . . than Jurassic Park and The Lost World combined . . . The pace will leave many breathlessly grasping for oxygen masks.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune
“One of his best . . . [a] nonstop roller coaster of a novel.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Congo (4/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99)
From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a gripping thriller about the shocking demise of eight American geologists in the darkest region of the Congo.
Deep in the African rain forest, near the ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, a field expedition is brutally killed. At the Houston-based Earth Resources Technology Services, Inc., a horrified supervisor watches a gruesome video transmission of that ill-fated group and sees a haunting, grainy, man-like blur moving amongst the bodies. In San Francisco, an extraordinary gorilla named Amy, who has a 620-sign vocabulary, may hold the secret to that fierce carnage. Immediately, a new expedition is sent to the Congo with Amy in tow, descending into a secret, forbidden world where the only escape may be through the grisliest death.
Jurassic Park (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $5.99)
From the author of Timeline, Sphere , and Congo, this is the classic thriller of science run amok that took the world by storm.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Wonderful . . . powerful.”—The Washington Post Book World
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.
Until something goes wrong. . . .
In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.
“Frighteningly real . . . compelling . . . It’ll keep you riveted.”—The Detroit News
“Crichton’s dinosaurs are genuinely frightening.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“Full of suspense.”—The New York Times Book Review
Eaters of the Dead (4/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99)
KF on KND Editor’s Note: this is the book that was adapted into the film The 13th Warrior, starring a young Antonio Banderas.
From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes an epic tale of unspeakable horror.
It is 922 A.D. The refined Arab courtier Ibn Fadlan is accompanying a party of Viking warriors back to their home. He is appalled by their customs—the gratuitous sexuality of their women, their disregard for cleanliness, and their cold-blooded sacrifices. As they enter the frozen, forbidden landscape of the North—where the day’s length does not equal the night’s, where after sunset the sky burns in streaks of color—Fadlan soon discovers that he has been unwillingly enlisted to combat the terrors in the night that come to slaughter the Vikings, the monsters of the mist that devour human flesh. But just how he will do it, Fadlan has no idea.
One reviewer says:
“Though based heavily on the rediscovered manuscripts and references of the real Ibn Fadlan, Crichton clearly tells us the book is considered as fiction and was/is marketed as fiction…’Eaters Of The Dead’ is a riveting tale, with enough footnotes and factual base to make it a realistic peek at the ancient Norsemen and a quick, exciting read.”
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