Airframe
by Michael Crichton
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Book Reviews of Airframe
Book Review: riveting and fast paced
Summary: 5 Stars
I am constantly amazed by the breadth of Michael Crichton `s interests and by his remarkable skill in researching his subjects. I also find his indirectly expressed issues of more than passing significance. In Jurassic Park the issue is the arrogance of science in its manipulation of nature and the tendency of Western science to eschew accountability for the spillover costs to society when things go wrong. Airframe is another example of it. Here the issue of the freedom of speech and the lack of accountability of the media, particularly television news, is explored. In a society that has come to stress individual rights, little emphasis has been placed on individual responsibility. In order to be a functional culture, there has to be a balance of both rights and responsibilities. Airframe makes this abundantly clear. As so often with Crichton's central characters, a uniquely placed individual must come to grips with the inherent difficulties of fighting an uphill battle against society's inertia. The heroine, Casey Singleton, is given the task of deciding how a disasterous air accident happened before a crucial business deal collapses and takes the company she works for and all of its employees down with it. It is by no means clear what is taking place, and ultimately she must come to trust her own personal interpretation of events to bring things to a head.
The detail is impressive. The characters are well developed and real. The story is riveting and fast paced. A thoroughly enjoyable book.
Book Review: Good read, but not his best
Summary: 4 Stars
After finishing Michael Crichton's latest book Airframe, I have to conclude that, while the book was pretty entertaining, it was not quite up to the standards set by Crichton's previous novels. Other books by this author including Jurrasic Park and Andromeda Strain became bestsellers because of the suspensful writing combined with interesting characters and detailed technical explanations. While Airframe does deliver on the technical interest, which I greatly enjoyed, the tense scenes were not written quite as well and were fewer in number. Despite the relative lack of action scenes, there were enough to make the book satisfactory entertainment, and there were some insights into the media world that were both unexpected and apprecaited, as I find that subject to be very interesting. The technical explanations that Crichton is famous for were also very well done in this book, and I found th obeservations on the aircraft manufacturing industry and the airline industry to be very interesting. Parts of the novel also managed to invoke emotion into the reader, mainly outrage at the behavior of the media in the novel. The plot of the book was reasonably well organized, with a decent-sized pool of characters. The events were connected well and were easy to understand, but character development was fairly limited. We only get a good understanding of one character since the author focuses primarily on the events. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I wouldn't rank it among the best novels that I've read.Book Review: A Crichton, but not at his best...
Summary: 3 Stars
Admittedly, I was dismayed at the storyline for Airframe. Having read and been hooked on other Crichtons such as The Lost World, Jurassic Park, and Timeline, I found Airframe to be one of his lesser works of fiction.As usual, Crichton backs up his story with scientific gobbledegook. If he doesn't thoroughly research his topic before writing it, he does an excellent job of making things up from what he already knows. Airframe is no different; it contains a plethora of technical terms, most likely in regular use within the aerospace industry.
I found the book frustrating, in much the way as one finds with an Agatha Christie novel: the plot is shrouded in mystery because one simple fact is concealed until the final stages of the book. There were also doubtful segments in the book, things that would never occur in real life. For example, the "common workers," the engineers in Norton aircraft factory, seem to want to murder a senior member of staff (Casey Singleton, the hero of the story). In fact, she knows about their dramatic tendencies even before they are focused on her. Like anyone would stay in a job like that!
Despite these shortfalls, the book is entertaining, and had me gripped for some long nights, albeit to find out what the final mystery was (don't worry - I won't spoil it). And, as usual, the scientific side is well explained to the average-intelligence human being!
But in the words of Simon Callow, "a distinctly average performance" by a superb author. Better luck next time, Mike.
Book Review: This is why you need to keep your seat belt fastened
Summary: 4 Stars
As the novel opens we see a young family nearing the end of a very long flight across the Pacific. The sun has come up, the passengers are waking to the sounds of the crew getting the breakfast service ready when suddenly, and without warning, the plane hits very rough turbulence. By the time the makes an emergency landing there are deaths and over 50 injuries.
The manufacturer of the plane, Norton, finds itself blamed for the event by the FAA, the carrier and the media. Casey, the vice-president in charge of Quality Control begins the detailed investigation into the cause of the accident, one that she soon discovers to be complicated by various hidden agendas that have nothing to do with passenger safety.
AIRFRAME is written in the usual Crichton taut style of short sections, some only a couple of paragraphs, that jump from character to character, as they progress in chronological order over the course of a week. Unfortunately although Crichton has stuck to his trademark style and done his usual thorough research this one is just not as compelling as JURASSIC PARK or ANDROMEDA STRAIN. The novel starts out strong but begins to drag towards the middle and by the end, this reader at least, was at the 'only a few pages to go, might as well finish' stage. Still, a less than average Crichton novel is better than many other authors' best effort so AIRFRAME is an excellent read. Just not the best choice for a reluctant flier to take on their next flight.
Book Review: One Of Crichton's best books
Summary: 4 Stars
A terrible accident has occurred on a transpacific N-22 flight. The plane is able to land but the interior cabin has been torn to shreds. Casey Singleton, the public relations and quality assurance for Norton is assigned to find out what happened on flight 545. This is a very untimely accident when the company has a multi-billion dollar deal going down with China. The N-22 is one of the best planes in the business, but this doesn't make it look good when there seems to be an error with the slats in the wings. Things only get worse when Casey views video footage of what happened in the cabin. But as things look their grimmest, stress and tensions rise as Jennifer Malone, a producer from Nightline finds out about this horrible occurrence. Now Malone is producing a story that could and will jeopardize the big China deal, and possibly put Norton under for good. Casey is the only one who can save the company, but when the workers start putting force on her, can she manage to do it?
This book has vivid, life like descriptions that make you never want to travel in an airplane ever again. It is a brilliant thriller that truly will make you view aviation in a whole new light. A "cat and mouse" strategy leaves you guessing what will happen next and who might slip up causing their empire to fall. It turns out to be either Norton goes under or Malone's producing career is terminated. This is one of Crichton's best books.