Airframe
by Michael Crichton
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Book Reviews of Airframe
Book Review: Brilliant in its Premise
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the years, Michael Crichton has evolved from being an excellent author of the scientific thriller into being an author who is also highly accurate in often acute social critiques. As he did once before in Rising Sun, Michael Crichton takes aim at the corporate world and the media in this harrowing novel about a plane crash and how the manufacturer and the media became involved in it.
Casey Singleton is a vice president at Norton, an aircraft manufacturer that has built up a reputation for quality and safety. At this time, Norton is preparing a multi-billion dollar aircraft sale to an Asian airline, which would help to boost the company, which has fallen on hard times lately. Also, workers at Norton's plant in California have heard that the company might possibly be outsourcing or closing down some plants, costing thousands of jobs and elevating tensions between the white-collar people who run the company and the blue-collar people who work there. The task is forced upon Casey to deal with percolating worker attitudes while maintaining a positive face to the media to ensure that the aircraft deal does not go sour.
Then a plane crash involving one of Norton's aircraft occurs. Casey must then deal with the aforementioned troubles and the plane crash, where she is now thrust into the spotlight as the public face of the tragedy and must find out what went wrong on Transatlantic Flight 545. As she delves closer to the answer of what went wrong, she realizes that she is being set up to take the fall. Casey must then race against time to find out what went wrong and to save her job and life.
Michael Crichton once again summons all of his formidable literary skill to write a novel that speaks not only of the unbridled nature of the press, but of the competitive world of corporations.
Book Review: A real Crichton, a fair reading but still a script.
Summary: 3 Stars
Ranging from dcumentary to fiction this book can only be characterised as a technological thriller. Crichton masters to this kind of books but we are going to see where he lacks. The book certainly is not an adventure, neither a charac- ter driven adventure since he presents to us a lot of these characters, but only on the surface and he takes them back and forth to a non stop action, putting them to cope with different situations, something that diffuses the attention of the reader, since these actions are not dense, while certainly are branched around a central idea, his plot. And here, the plot is not a mystery, it's straightforward, while Crichton in some places is very much expected and in some other places (few but well placed) unexpected. He also exaggerates a lot (e.g a handycam that is bouncing all over but never destroyed, his he- roes become comics superheores, justifications that are too simple, etc). As to characters we said that are surface attributed and not well placed, neither delved into and the book never becomes the brain-psychology type that a real novel requires. Crichton is still scripting, something that means a fast book, with tempos that are climaxing towards the end. The only real offer of the book is the documenary side of the aviation technology/manufacturing, where it really hits bullseye. You're gonna learn somethings. Narration is again simple and not literary, as we are used by the author and the scenes flow without any hinder. The book still becomes intense and this makes it an interesting reading, but not a real novel and not not a book for readers that expect much. It could be more dense, it could be more dramatised (I wonder how a man that writes/creates ER can not put that hind itno his books), less exaggerated. Still a fair reading and obviously a real Crichton.Book Review: Mixed Feelings about Airframe!
Summary: 4 Stars
I just finished reading Michael Crichton's `Airframe', and found it a little above average. I have never read any of Crichton's books, but I had read a lot of rave reviews on this works such as `Jurassic Park', `Congo' and `Andromeda Strain', a decided I would give the author a try by reading this book as my first.
The story starts off with TransPacific Airlines 545, a commercial airplane, which undergoes some catastrophe in the air, leaving 3 people dead and around 50 people badly injured. It is now up to Casey Singleton to find out the consequences that led to the disaster. However, while she and her research crew start working on the flight, Casey discovers other events that are happening in the background of company, and realizes that someone does not want her to succeed in her mission on the TPA 545. Meanwhile, a news agency starts writing a story on the flight, their main aim to bring down the company, adding to Casey's problems. Will she be able to solve the mystery of the flight and save the company from closing down?
While the story starts off fast paced and exciting, it slows down towards the middle, building up again towards the end and resulting in an anticlimax, leaving the reader a little disappointed. What made me give this book a 4-star rating was mainly due to the explicit information that Crichton provides about the Aircrafts and their manufacturing industries. It is obvious that Crichton has done a thorough research on the background and the workings of an aircraft, and for this reason I gave this book as 4 star rating. Now I have a better understanding of how the flight works, and have learnt some technical terms and their functions as well.
This book has its moments, and provides a lot of information, but I wouldn't put it as a very suspenseful thriller.
Book Review: Crichton's expert craftmanship does it again!
Summary: 4 Stars
I would define Crichton as a cerebral author. All his books are written as though he is an expert in whatever subject matter the story revolves around: DNA and cloning in "Jurassic Park", deep sea salvage operations and time travel in "Sphere", the intricacies of an 1800's criminal mind in "The Great Train Robbery", and now flight dynamics and airplane construction in "Airframe". True to Crichton's style, "Airframe" starts off running with a catastrophic airplane accident happening within the first few pages, and he leaves the reader guessing until the last page--literally.The story is a successful mix of well developed characters, suspenseful intrigue and mystery, and enough detail to allow you to understand the complexties of airframe manufracturing without overwhelming you with too much detail. I will not summarize the plot since the book is too much fun to start reading it with prior plot details. Just make sure you don't mind neglecting the rest of your life because once you pick up this book, you won't want to put it down.
I lopped off one star because the middle of the story wandered around a bit with one of the side stories focusing on a Union protest and teamster-type threats directed at the protagonist that was supposed to add an element of danger that wasn't really needed. Other than that one minor misstep, this tale is expertly written with all the Crichton-detail that make his books so enjoyable and (gasp) educational! You will not be disappointed with this one.
(On a personal note, I particularly enjoyed the way he accurately portrayed TV journalists. Having worked in the TV news field for five years, I can assure you that his depiction is right on the money.)
Book Review: An interesting, informational and exciting work.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Airframe" Author:Michael Crichton I find "Airframe" is a very interesting book, at least enough for the reader to finish it. Crichton, as in all his novels, did a lot of research. Despite this, I found many aspects in this novel tiring, specially the fact that there are too many technical details that almost dwarf the main story -of course they don't get to do it-. The characters (you can count over three thousand), except, maybe Casey Singleton, aren't sufficiently developed and at times they become essentially boring cartoons, because Crichton employs too much time in his techno babble. Not that the facts about the airplanes are so boring, but sometimes they take over the plot, slowing down its rythm. Anyway, I enjoyed this novel very much because it presents a chain of very exciting coincidences and events (Crichton succesfully keeps our attention making real life a lot more interesting), so many of them, that sometimes they can get exhausting. What I definitely liked the most was that the book makes a solid critic at modern life aspects such as sensationalistic media and industry management corruption. Like his "Lost World", at the end it makes us wonder: What's this world turning into?, because we realize that honesty and search for the truth -what Casey defends as an honorable person, even when it could cost her job- are just forgotten principles and all that rules powerful people's minds is search for money and more power. Happily, Casey triumphs at the end, but actually because of her luck, as her neighbor makes her see, "You were stupid. You should have lied" he tells her, and we think next time she will have no other choice.
A great novel from a great writer. I can't wait till the movie!