LIttle, Brown & Company
432 Pages
What happens when you cross one of my favorite writers with one of my least favorite writers? At the very least it should be a good book. If the former’s words were kept with the latter only adding limited passages, it could be great. Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson is the best of what I consider a thriller novel. So far, the books that James Patterson has written with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton have been my favorite books by him. Maybe this one with Michael Crichton could follow in the same vein.
Michael Crichton died in 2008. Before he died, Crichton was one of my favorite authors, going as far back as my first reading of The Andromeda Strain way back in the 1980s. Congo, Sphere, and Jurassic Park all intrigued me. I couldn’t get enough of his books. When he passed away, I was shocked, and I was sad that I wouldn’t get to experience anymore of his literary magic. Thankfully, there have been four posthumous publications, including Eruption.
We’ve seen it in the news - volcanoes erupting in Hawaii. But what if there was something more sinister happening during the eruptions? It’s a secret you’ll have to find out for yourself. I will not spoil it. However, there is probably some basis in reality as to the additional dangers that lurk beneath the surface. I would not put it past our government to do something as stupid as this book describes in an effort to “save” money for some other pet project. It’s a race against the clock as Armageddon on a volcanic scale looms in ever-growing volatile gas clouds.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I wanted to like this book. As I wrote earlier, I was a huge fan of Michael Crichton’s books. His books were always so well thought out and based in actual research and science. Even if futuristic, the reader could see how he got to those technologies as an evolution of our modern times. His characters were rich and full of life. I’m not sure how much of Crichton’s writing remains after James Patterson got ahold of it, but this book does not live up to the previous Crichton’s novels. To quote another reviewer, “there’s a lot of cheese on this one.”
“Cheese” is definitely the word for it. Instead of the well-thought scientific futures that Crichton used to create, we mostly get James Patterson’s thinly formed characters with sleazy undertones that have no place in the narrative. Plainly put, James Patterson isn’t an artist. He’s the guy who buys a paint-by-number art kit, sloppily throws some color on it and attempts to pass it off as art. It’s obvious that this book got great reviews based solely on name recognition rather than content and substance. It’s too bad that Patterson ruined Crichton’s dream novel.
Listen, there’s nothing wrong with James Patterson writing the tripe that he does. If it gets people into reading, that’s great. Especially if they move onto better authors. Think of James Patterson as the gateway to better novels. You have to start somewhere. Patterson’s true talent is in promotion, and in this he excels. Again, I just wish he hadn’t ruined what could have been a great book by Michael Crichton.
I wanted to like Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. It had a ton of potential. In some places, it exceeded my expectations, but they were very few and very far between. I always say that I read Patterson books as a way to pad my reading numbers for the year or the month. I do enjoy them, but they leave nothing behind when I’m done. I like being able to talk about a book after I’ve finished it, continuing the story in my mind. I did not get that with this book. And that’s unfortunate. If you’re looking for a quick read while you’re waiting at the airport between legs of a trip, or if you need to spend some extra time in the bathroom, this one will work for you. If you’re looking for something more fulfilling, look elsewhere.
Craig Bacon loves good thrillers. He’s always looking for new authors to promote. If you know of any, let him know.