ERUPTION | MICHAEL CRICHTON JAMES PATTERSON | BOOK REVIEW
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- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2024
- #erikhillreviews #erikjosephson #booktube
The new Michael Crichton er... I mean James Patterson book is out. My immediate thought is who will star in this movie.
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As a huge Crichton fan, I’m just super excited to see this unfinished manuscript come to life.
Same. Even though I had qualms with the book, I'm keeping my hopes alive for the movie.
Hi! Eric, an old friend here. One of the finest things about Crichton is the blending of science and humanity and presenting them in a techno-thriller style. However, I am only familiar with two of his novels, Andromeda Strain and Congo. So I think Eruption has the same style and it definitely will be my upcoming read. I would like to know what you think about Congo if you have read it. Happy reading, always.
I have not read Congo in many years, and I wouldn't trust my memory of it enough to give a proper opinion. But I do plan on reading it soon, so I will let you know. Good to hear from you, old friend 😀
Something I’ve wondered about for a couple years: What if Sherri authorized someone to train an LLM on all of Crichton’s written work, specifically, then have a pure sci-fi author like Andy Weir come in to give direction for each chapter to accomplish the larger narrative arc?
This would allow even the smaller concepts that Crichton may have just written briefly about to become full on books.
Is it really “him”? No, but understanding that an LLM is literally designed to algorithmically generate words means that it technically is the truest approximation we can get to Michael Crichton’s writing.
Well that sparked a fascinating look for me into LLMs. Thanks! I hadn't heard of that before, but I'd love to see the Crichton recreation attempt.
Great review as always! Your 3.5 score is higher than I expected given your verbal review. I feel like I'd only read this book after finishing every other Crichton book, if at all. I've never read Crichton because I've always struggled with feeling anxious about wasting my time on a bad book. It's a truly ironic and absurd gift that I got from my education.
Brandon Sanderson won me over because someone told me he thinks like I do. After reading several of his books, I consider their claim a great compliment. However, I'm still hesitant to read more in case I encounter a bad one. This strange phobia makes me prefer known boring activities (literally sitting and doing nothing at all) over the risk of reading a bad book. Your reviews are one of the few things that make me think, "Maybe me read more book now", but not this book. In my defense, I read primary scientific research on a daily basis.
Also, there was a subtle high-pitched squeal in the audio. It might be due to electrical interference or a sensitive mic. I've not heard it in any of your other videos. Just thought I'd let you know.
That's a reasonable paranoia. I'm routinely disappointed by authors, but i think what makes it worthwhile to me is writing a critique and making my case for what a book was missing. It's a fun exercise and most of the time, it's very satisfying to pinpoint where a book went wrong.
Yeah, the old microphone retired and I had to find a replacement. I didn't catch the audio side effects until it was too late. Unfortunately the next couple of videos are going to have that same quality.
@@erikhillreviews Just make sure that you give the next couple books bad scores, and then the audio artifact will subconsciously support your point. :D
I'm also a big Crichton fan, and I was very curious when they announced this because I wasn't sure how much of it would be Crichton and how much of it Patterson ( His work I've never read before this). While reading, it became clear that this was a Patterson novel more so than a Crichton one. It has many of the Crichton elements (the one thing I disagreed with about your review is that I do think it starts with an obscure event with the trees dying), it has the same cast of characters that a Crichton book would have, and the way it has a countdown is similar to what his previous books have done. It feels like a Crichton adventure. However, it does not have his voice. Patterson's voice isn't bad; it is quick and easy to read. I actually finished this book in one sitting.
(The Following Contains Hints of Spoilers, SO If anyone watching this video wants to go in blind, maybe don't continue)
However, there were some things that I didn't care for. I remember twice, instead of describing the character's look, he basically said, "He looks like this actor." Which feels a bit lazy, to be honest. There were also some moments in the book where I couldn't tell what group members were in on the contents of the military base. I could have sworn there was one character, the billionaire guy (I forget his name), who was not let in on it, but they started talking about the canisters right in front of him without trying to hide what they were talking about. I also felt like there were some moments where they were setting up some characters that didn't really pay off in the end. There was the old man in the hospital, which added an air of mystery, but that didn't last long because then the military showed up immediately afterward to explain to Mac what was going on. And then they brought back the woman from the opening with the trees, which was barely an inconvenience to anything the main characters did. Although she said she wasn't leaving the island, I don't think we ever saw her again after that. I was also kinda shocked by two characters that were killed, and other than trying to go for the shock factor, I'm not sure why they were killed off. Again, they went off to investigate something that I felt would play into the bigger picture, but in the end, it just seemed like they were sent off to die so the story could juggle fewer characters. But these are all more nitpicks than anything. Overall, I enjoyed the adventure, having read it in one sitting. And if they decide to make a movie, I'll be there to watch it.
Such a great comment! Thank you so much for bringing up those loose ends. I completely agree. That did bug me that old man in the hospital. Patterson didn't end up doing much with that. And they did just start killing off characters in the end and it just struck me as lazy. My heart wasn't in it by the end.
Side note, it's true it starts off with the black trees, but Patterson didn't give me any time to dwell on it like Crichton would have. We go straight to the imminent eruption.
@@erikhillreviews That's true about the trees. I'm currently re-reading Crichton's books. I recently read Congo and Pirate Latitudes before Eruption, and I'm presently reading Prey. Both Congo and Prey start with some pretty compelling mysteries, but you don't really get a real look at what those mysteries are until halfway or even longer into those books. Also, the trees turning black didn't strike me as out of the ordinary at first because I assumed it had something to do with the volcano and that the trees were turning ash.
I have read The Noise and Zoo by Patterson and Jurassic Park and The Lost World by Crichton. While I enjoyed all of those books, I also appreciated the authors' different approaches to writing. I think a Crichton/Patterson mashup would be too weird for me.😅
Yep, that's why after the first few pages, I just had to accept it as a Paterson novel :)
Actually it does not start with the action. It starts with the scene with the quirky dying of the banyon trees in the garden. The press conference isn’t held until halfway through the book.
Well there are a lot of press conferences in the book, but I'm talking about the one that Mack does in chapter 4 (out of 109). My point is the book starts off with everyone knowing there's going to be a massive eruption and they don't have much time.
3.5 stars? This book was just absolutely terrible. 1 star. Who stores radioactive chemicals in glass cannisters, that could wipe out all of mankind, inside of a lava tube, in a volcano, in an active zone? To me, that was the most ridiculous part of the book. And there was never any logical explanation to that. I know the government doesn't always make the right decision, but this is just too dumb to be part of a plausible storyline. This was written for the very low IQ. This would be good writing if it was done by ten-year-olds (slightly below average ten-year-olds). And the ending was one of the most anticlimactic endings I have ever read. The entire story literally resolved itself in one paragraph. It went from a 100mph to 0 in an instant. I had to check the page number and then re-read the paragraph just to make sure I didn't miss something crucial. It was almost like they just said: fuck it, let's just put this to rest and pretend it never happened. I wish I could.
You bring up some very good points here. The ending was way too abrupt and it did leave me wondering what the point of it all was. I thought the canisters that could wipe out all of mankind being placed next to an active volcano was absurd, but I give Patterson/Crichton some credit there for at least giving a backstory of how the chemicals got there in the first place. That element of absurd unintended consequences reminded me of Crichton's style. I don't think Crichton would have gone right to the extreme, though. "If we don't stop the lava from hitting these canisters, everyone on the planet is dead!" I mean it is an action book, so you have to suspend disbelief a bit, but you still can go too far. I was having fun with it while it lasted, but ...meh. In other words, you might convince me to go 3 stars.
Horrible sound here
My apologies. My last microphone broke and I tried out a replacement. Time to rebuy my old mic.