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Book cover of Sphere
Science & Technology - Fiction, Nautical & Maritime Fiction, Settings & Atmosphere - Fiction, Teen Fiction - Mysteries & Thrillers, Space Exploration - Fiction, High Tech and Hard Science Fiction, Teen Fiction - Science Fiction, Teen Fiction - Movies & TV

Sphere

by Michael Crichton
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Overview

In the middle of the South Pacific, a thousand feet below the surface of the water, a huge vessel is discovered resting on the ocean floor. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old.

But even more fantastic—and frightening—is what waits inside . . .

Synopsis

"A page-turner...Chichton's writing is cinematic, with powerful visual images and nonstop action. This book should come with hot buttered popcorn."
NEWSWEEK A group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. What they find defines their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old....
"The suspense is real."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Robin Mckinley

No one can ask more of a thriller, except maybe that it be a little longer....Part of the fun of ''Sphere'' is that it keeps you going even when you're pretty sure of what will happen next....The last 10 pages are exactly what they should be. Take this one with you for your next long plane ride. -- New York Times

About the Author, Michael Crichton

It stands to reason that someone with as many pursuits as Michael Crichton (novelist, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, director, software engineer, M.D.) might achieve only modest success in any of them. But Crichton somehow excelled at them all. His books, suffused with his scientific research and knowledge, never failed to present imaginative, chilling scenarios that jumped from historical capers to futuristic sci-fi. He died on November 4, 2008, after a long battle against cancer.

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Editorials

Robin Mckinley

No one can ask more of a thriller, except maybe that it be a little longer....Part of the fun of ''Sphere'' is that it keeps you going even when you're pretty sure of what will happen next....The last 10 pages are exactly what they should be. Take this one with you for your next long plane ride. -- New York Times

Library Journal

Crichton has rolled the present, past, and future into one highly technical and confusing science fiction adventure. The present features, among others, a pompous astrophysicist, a female zoologist, a black mathematician, and a 53-year-old psychologist, who are summoned by the Navy to examine a plane crash in the South Pacific. The past is manifested in the stranded object resting on the sea bottom where it has been for some 300 years. When the four scientists, who carry their emotional minority baggage of sex, color, and age along with them, descend to the deep in their submersible, they discover the wreck to be no less than a spaceship from the future that fell through a black hole, defying time and space. Strange things begin to happen as one by one the cast of characters diminishes. Disappointing. Literary Guild dual main selection. Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib.

School Library Journal

YA As in Crichton's Andromeda Strain Knopf, 1969, the focus of this science adventure tale is humankind's encounter with an alien life form. Within a space ship lying on the sea bottom is a mysterious sphere that promises each of the main characters some personal reward: military might, professional prestige, power, understanding. Trapped underwater with the sphere, the humans confront eerie and increasingly dangerous threats after communication with the alien object has been achieved. The story is exciting and loaded with scientific and psychological speculations that add interest at no cost to the action, including an intriguing sequence in which human and computer attempt to decode the alien communication. As the story races to an end, suspicions of evil-doing fall as many ways as in a detective novel. Young adults should find this book both accessible and satisfying. Mike Parson, Houston Public Library

Book Details

Published
March 29, 2011
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
544
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780061990557

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