Barnes: "This is Captain Barnes. We are now about to open the hatch cover. Present with me on this historic occasion are Ted Fielding, Norman Johnson, Beth Halpern, and Harry Adams." Media Profiles: Thomson". Ketupa.net. April 2002. Archived from the original on 17 June 2002 . Retrieved 19 June 2017.

I don't know if happens to you, that sometimes if you are reading a novel that it hasn't being made into a film yet (I read the novel like 5 years before to be poorly adapted to a movie) sometimes I imagined some actor or actress to "play" the role of the character in my mind, an amusing thing was by then, in 1993, Sharon Stone was in hype due films like "Basic Instinct" and "Sliver", so when I imagined some actress to fill my image of Dr. Beth Halperin, I thought in Sharon Stone that she eventually got the role! A team of scientists is summoned to investigate the remains of a ship in the murky depths of the ocean. Everything goes awry when they find a sphere. What is it, and more importantly, how do they communicate with it? // Sphere is a 1987 novel by Michael Crichton, his sixth novel under his own name and his sixteenth overall. It was adapted into the film Sphere in 1998. [1] Terribly written characters. Crichton really overdid it on Beth, a woman scientist who has inferiority and self-esteem issues and talk a lot about how men is constantly being sexist towards her. Crichton has managed to make her into a whiny, insecure, overcompensating person on the issue of her gender. Surely a more complex personality can be used as a plot point/portrayal of imperfect woman/whatever he was trying to achieve?! than a caricature of a feminist which obviously is basically the author's negative impression of themSphere lost it’s license to produce Star Wars books after Empire, which was instead passed to Futura for Return of the Jedi. However, the company’s output from that galaxy far, far away will live long in the memories, and hearts, of fans of a certain age. Sphere (1987), a science fiction novel by bestselling author Michael Crichton, tells the story of a group of scientists, led by psychologist Norman Johnson, as they explore the ruins of a spacecraft discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Though the novel falls firmly within the science fiction genre, it contains—like many of Crichton's novels—a number of different plot elements, ranging from psychological thriller to philosophical inquiry.

But something was keeping me from investing in the characters. I just couldn't relate to any of them on a personal level, and I didn't much care who survived to the end of the book. This book is a combination of psychological thriller and science fiction. It follows a group of scientists as they investigate what is thought to be an alien vessel that crashed on the ocean floor. Harry Adams is a 30-year-old mathematician at Princeton, the youngest but most vital member of the team. His job is to communicate with the ULF. A prodigy in the field of probability, he has a chip on his shoulder, but is almost always right. He theorizes that the spacecraft is not from another planet. And after the team is briefed by Barnes, Harry confronts the commander for lying to them about divers still searching for the spacecraft door; Harry deduces they've already found it.

Myths had once represented the common knowledge of humanity, and they served as a kind of map of consciousness." // I did like that this book was focused on Psychology and that it explored the shadow self, but I thought I was going to be on the edge of my seat. Which I was not. I was half asleep. That being said, what I really love about Michael Crichton’s books is that he makes science really fun and explains it in a way that someone who isn’t scientifically inclined, AKA me, can understand and really enjoy it. I could also laugh at science-y jokes like I knew what was going one which made me feel smart and cool. This is the kind of book where I’ll think about the scientific speculations mentioned for a long time to come.

As I mentioned, I don’t think this is really a scary story, but there was definitely tension for me as I read it. Part of it was the underwater environment which for some reason tends to creep me out, more so than stories set in space where the atmosphere-related dangers are similar. There was also often a “noooo, don’t do that!” feeling when characters did things that weren’t always necessarily stupid, although sometimes they were, but that I was sure would lead to a bad end. I already mentioned the style and mood of the book, I just want to take the topic again to mention that it was a thrilling experience, since you feel that the story is taken very seriously from the scientific angle. Johnson exits the sphere, and though tempted to use a nearby submarine to escape DH-8, he knows he can't leave the surviving team members behind. He retrieves Adams and Halpern, and the three of them escape in the submarine before the explosives set by Halpern detonate.

I don't think Michael Crichton meant Sphere to come out sounding that way, but his characters are so paper-thin there's nothing left of them but their stereotypes.

The story unfolds in a very movie-like way, or at least it kept reminding me of the horror movies I enjoyed in my youth, around the same time this book was published in 1987. Not so much because it was scary, although there were some creepy and tension-filled moments, but because of the story-telling techniques. The main characters all have very distinct and rather cookie-cutter personalities, and they naturally clash with each other in their cramped and isolated environment. There are various twists as the plot unfolds, some of which I found obvious and some of which I didn’t. There’s a sense of tension almost from the beginning that slowly mounts and mounts, and naturally people start dying left and right. Then we end with the typical “is it really over?” style ending in which it’s blatantly hinted that Beth didn’t actually forget about the Sphere. We really can’t be 100% sure about Harry either. Our aim is to publish books for everyone, whether you’re in search of thrills and chills, epic escapism, something to make you laugh or cry or want to change the world – whatever you’re interested in, you’ll find a book you want to read at Sphere.I liked how this was narrated in the pov of a psychologist with psychoanalysis being a major part of the narration. I loved all the speculations and the science/psychology in the book. The impact of their decisions is not inherently clear. As far as you know, nobody is trying to save the world or prevent some sort of disaster. This is a fact-finding mission where the stakes are subtle, giving the story a chance to breathe. Well, I had no idea there was a Sphere book. I only saw the movie and thought that was it. Not to mention that the book is written by the same author as Jurassic Park. I like women villains. I know real women can be any one of sex-obsessed, power hungry, manipulative, hysterical (Crichton literally uses this word), incompetent, and bitter. But why is Beth all of these things? And she never misses a chance to mention she's a woman?