The late, great Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton, sci fi novelist, social commentator, TV producer — and former Salk Institute medical researcher — died Wednesday of cancer at age 66.

I remember how blown away I was by Crichton’s first work The Andromeda Strain (the 1969 book) and especially the 1971 movie. I saw the movie in junior high, the most memorable movie since 2001. I also remember Rising Sun (the book, not the movie) and State of Fear (too politically incorrect to ever become a movie).

Michelle Kerns of Book Examiner has a good summary of Crichton’s written work, and also refers to Crichton’s final novel due next May. She doesn’t cover Crichton’s most ominiprescent work — not the reconstituted dinosaurs but 15 years of sex-starved Chicago doctors.