But what a strange career the man had, from Harvard Medical School to the top of the book and movie charts to Hollywood blockbusters to odd best-selling jeremiads against Japanese businessmen and global warming activists. The consistent themes of his work are the consequences of man's own hubris and a thoroughgoing paranoia. Someone is always coming up with a brilliant notion in Crichton, and it always goes hideously kablooey. Bring dinosaurs back to life? Okay, but they'll escape and gobble you up. Organ transplants? Fine until the medical establishment starts harvesting them for profit. Robots? Forget about the robots: they'll shoot you down ("Westworld") or come after you with knives ("Runaway"). Plastic surgery, biotech implants, chasing tornadoes? All terrible, terrible ideas ("Looker," "The Terminal Man," "Twister").

I know. I used to really enjoy his books and stories until the underlying anti-science theme starting to come through with more obviousness. Did he really believe that science is so bad or was he just taking advantage of people's fear of new things?

I found his books enjoyable too, until I realized that the stories were all the same- like Stephen King....

But I guess it takes a real genius to make book after book and make them different enough to keep me reading them.