Michael Crichton was by far my favorite author as a child AND as an adult. I grew up reading all of his books from Jurassic Park to Sphere to my personal favorite, Travels. I know he held quite a few suprising and not well received scientific views, particularly regarding "global warming." Yet, I tend to agree with him on the issue. I have studied several classes in college regarding ecology and the environment and know from those classes we don't really know much about the environment. Add in the fact that we still can't accurately predict the weather...even the day of...and it's impossible to assume we have enough data or knowledge to claim the Earth is undergoing global warming. Moving those views, this loss looms huge in my life, as I always looked forward to his upcoming book. In light of the current political circus, this story will likely go mostly unnoticed, which is sad. My prayers are with his friends and family and I hope he passed on peacefully.

So, I decided to write a bit more on this. Here it is:

I read the majority of his works from the early 90s, 80s, and 70s during my

free time in high school. My favorites of these books were Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, and Travels. It's probably quite peculiar that Travels,

his nonfictional biography, was my favorite. However, while reading the

book, I came across the revelation that my worldly view was shared by

Mr. Crichton and echoed in length throughout the book. Additionally, it

was this book that led me to my college major, Biology (with a Pre-Med

focus). I ultimately decided to not pursue medical school and feel that

in some ways I shadowed Mr. Crichton's path in turning away from

medicine. I like to believe that it was due in part to his shift away

from the medical profession but I'll never quite know. In the book, he

focuses several sections on his, you guessed it, travels around the

world. Like Mr. Crichton, I've had the pleasure to visit several parts

of this country and the world including 3 continents, 27 countries, and

all 50 states (by the third grade!).

I also have found sentiment in knowing that an intelligent

writer of his stature has similar issues with the global warming

debate. I found his 2004 book, State of Fear, to be a beacon of

light in these seemingly apocalyptic times regarding the environment.

It was as if, once again, he was able to read my mind and convey my

thoughts via another of his stories. Mr. Crichton always had a

beautiful way of taking complex and elaborate scientific material and

interweaving them into the framework of a thoroughly enjoyable

fictional story.