An exciting thriller at the bottom of the sea!

Norman Johnson is a psychologist specialized in how stress affects group dynamics. He is often called out by the FAA to help survivors of plane crashes and their families deal with the aftermath. So when he's escorted by the US Navy out to the South Pacific he assumes a plane has crashed into the ocean.

It turns out to be something far stranger.

Once upon a time, a younger Norman, desperate for grant money, wrote a report for the government about how to handle first contact with alien intelligence. He said abject terror would be the result when humans were confronted with the unknown. Now, he is about to put his hypothesis to the test. A thousand feet beneath the ocean, something has been found. A craft that has been down there for at least 300 years.

A team of scientists, recommended by Norman, and a group of navy personal are tasked with uncovering what is and, if anything is alive, how to communicate with it. Staying in cramped quarters, surrounded by the crushing depths of the sea where a small mistake could get them all killed, the pressures are incredible. Can Norman keep the group functional when the discover the Sphere lurking in the heart of the craft?

Crichton's Sphere is an interesting take on the first contact with aliens story. It's told from the psychologist point of view and it delves into many aspects of emotional reactions and Jungian's theory of the shadow self. Personalities conflict and clash. The unknown lurks around them, affecting them all as they struggle to understand just what they have discovered.

And that's before things start going weird. Cricton goes a great job setting up the mystery and how it affects the characters. The answers for the story are found if you read carefully. But that's not what the story is truly about. It's about how people handle stress and how they can rise to the occasion, or break beneath the strain. It's about what people can do when they're taken to their limits. The Sphere, the mystery of it, is merely the catalyst around which Crichton has penned this excellent character study.

One of my favorite Crichton novels, blending suspense, emotion, and wonder with a pervading miasma of dread hanging over everything.

68 people found this helpful

Crichton: Good storyteller, Bad writer

Seems like an oxymoron but Crichton is a bad writer. EVERY expression of dialog is "he said" "Beth said" "Ted said" "said" "said" "said" "SAID" No "replied", "asked", "retorted", "exclaimed", "laughed", or any other word in the dictionary that describes a character's spoken word.

That is why I gave it 4 stars. The story is great. Very interesting, a good twist(s?), decent suspense, good character actualization (the things the characters do and say even though they always "said" them). AMAZING RESEARCHER. There were several places that he could have skimmed over details but you can tell he took the time to research what would actually happen and wrote it. I appreciate that.

But anything and everything thing a character says is" SAID." Even if it's a QUESTION!!! HOW DO YOU "SAID" A QUESTION!?!?

64 people found this helpful

Sphere

Any additional comments?

Written by Michael Crichton way back in the mid 1980s, this unabridged audiobook edition was released in 2015 and is narrated by Scott Brick - about thirteen hours of listening.

If you’re looking for a written duplication of the movie, this is not gonna work for you! Although trite, I’ll say "The book is better."… and Hollywood’s twist completely messes with the story.

In a plot similar to Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, written in 1969, a diverse group of scientific people are brought together to what they all believe to be a plane crash in the mid-Pacific. A biologist, mathematician, astrophysicist, etc., in addition to Norman - the group psychologist and the lead character of Sphere, are tasked with determining what happened - and they are soon to understand, determining what exactly rests 1000 feet below the surface, since it is not an airplane. Crichton even repeats the physical examinations required to handle the sea habitats of Sphere as apposed to the bio-habitat of the Andromeda Strain. Albeit completely different stories, these initial fundamentals are virtually identical.

Sphere is a decent SciFi, written with the somewhat pedestrian style of Crichton. Not earth shattering prose, just good storytelling that will hold your attention. If you like SciFi or if you like Michael Crichton, you’ll enjoy. Author of such mega-hits as Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton died in 2008. His books are slowly moving into the SciFi classic category and are must reads for anyone interested in the genre. SciFi nerds will approve of considerable techno-babble detail and Crichton’s attempt at credibility.

Scott Brick does a terrific job, nice reading.

A fun listen.

103 people found this helpful

not worth the read

Literally the book to no where. I wanted to love this book so much, just kept waiting. got to the end dissapointed

19 people found this helpful

20,000 leagues under the Sea with the Sphere

I don't remember the depth of the lab but it was deep and what happened there was strange and left you guessing till the very end. I don't think that this is one of Crichton's greatest pieces but it is brings up powerful fears for readers. The ocean isn't very well understood in places and the imagination can be even stranger. When the two come together you get a wild ride into the unknown and left helpless while the characters are struggling. Great book if a little weird.

17 people found this helpful

Said, Said, Said

Bad dialogue tagging, ending disappointed. Had a good plot, great chekov's gun structures. Failed emotional arcs. Character development was mediocre at best.

14 people found this helpful

Fun sci-fi page-turner

Very entertaining page-turner, it brings up interesting ideas about aliens, black holes, time travel. Mostly though it's about the characters and their struggles to deal with the menace and survive. Enjoyed it a lot.

22 people found this helpful

Undersea life

Loved being propelled into life at 1000 feet under the sea. The mix of people on this navy experiment allow me to explore several scientific studies through the characters that were on the trip. Narration was excellent. Kept me fascinated through out the story.

9 people found this helpful

If I'd wanted to listen to children squabbling...

I thought I knew what I was in for. I was cool with Jurassic Park, et cetera. But hour after hour of petty 4th and 5th grade squabbling, between 'scientists' and alleged other 'professional' adults. The exceedingly immature, at best junior high level of the "dialogue" and social discourse ruined what might otherwise have been an interesting, enjoyable work.

7 people found this helpful

Exciting even if you've seen the movie

What did you like best about this story?

I'm going to admit that I committed the ultimate sin and read the book because I enjoyed the movie rather than vice versa. Even though I knew the basic story I found the book suspenseful and exciting. The characters are better developed and more three dimensional in the book. Their motives were more understandable and their characters were more diverse.

Any additional comments?

Even though I will always enjoy the movie I feel like it did the book a disservice. The book gives more scientific explanation. The characters are more intelligent. Those touches made the whole world feel more believable. They were trapped for a reason. The manifestations all happened for a reason. The giant squid was a character in the book rather than a plot device. I loved it.

35 people found this helpful