Sphere

Reader reviewed by Arjun

Michael Chrichton seizes the reader's innermost self with his captivating novel Sphere. The main charecter, Norman, who is a psychologist, is thrust down to the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean by the United States Navy. He is sent on a mission to discover what the purpose of a gargantuan, "alien" spaceship is, and he is also supposed to explore it. The spaceship had apparently crashed into the ocean over 300 years ago! Norman is sent down with three other people and five other Navy personnel. The three people include a famous mathematician, a renowned astronomer, and a biologist. In the depths of the Pacific, Norman encounters betrayal, death, and a psychological object with powers of unimaginable capacities. What will become of Norman?

Michael Chrichton tries to explore the human psychology when faced against the most frightening of opponents. He places the conflict between a person's fear versus an entire group's survival. The only real time in the history of the United States where humans were faced with an alien invasion was when the book War of the Worlds was read over the radio. The reaction of many people was an unsurpassed amount of terror and panic. In the book the four charecters face the "alien" with fear yet an immense amount of excitement.

The book took people to the extremes of their emotions. It was suspenseful yet thrilling. It was terrifying yet humorous. Sphere was the ideal novel. Every author should aspire to write in Michael Chrichton's style. If a person does not enjoy this book, then they are probably not a connoisseur of great science fiction literature.

Reader reviewed by Chris Ely

This is the best book by this auther. It is not a young adult book but
I would highly reccomend it. It deals with mankinds greatest power: imagination.
The central charecter is Norman, a pyscologist who thinks he is called
into a plane crash in the middle of the ocean. But what it really is is
an alien spaceship over 300 years old. They discover through time that
the ship was made 50 years in the future by Americans to go into a black
hole. Inside the ship they find an alien shere. They go back to the habitat
to find that an alien is communicating with them from inside the shere.
This alien entity is called Jerry. Later, they make Jerry angry. Jerry
manifests a giant squid to attack the habitat with the haunting words
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL." Then only three people are left, Norman, Beth and
Harry. Norman finds out that Harry and Beth have been in the shere and
are subconciusly controlling Jerry. Harry goes into the Shere. And get
the Power. Imagination. In one of the most haunting parts of the book,
when Norman comes out of the shere it says:

His cheek rested on cold metal. He rolled onto his back and looked
at the polished surface of the shere, curving above him. The convulsions
of the door had changed again

Norman got to his feet. He felt relaxed and at peace, as if he was
sleeping for a long time. He felt as if he had a wonderful dream. He remembered
everything quite clearly.

He moved though the ship, back to the flight deck, and then down to
the the hallway with ultraviolet lights to the room with the tubes on
the wall.

The tubes were filled. There was a crewman in each one. Just as he
thought: Beth had manifested a single crewman---a solitary woman---as
a way of warning them. Now Norman was in charge, and he had found the
room full.

Not bad, he thought.

He looked at the room and thought: Gone one at a time.

One by one, the crew members in the tubes vanished before his eyes,
untill they were all gone.

Back, one at a time.

The crew members popped back in the tubes, materialising on demand.

All men.

The women had changed to men

All women.

They had all become women.

He had the power.

Reader reviewed by James Rodriguez

This is a great book. Its somewhat advanced for the not-so-avid reader but you will like it none the less. It has to do with a psychologist named Norman who thinks he is called in on an ordinary plane crash site when he finds himself in the middle of a miltary delema. They have un covered an "ALIEN" ship crashed at the bottom of the ocean over 300 years old! Little do they know that it is actually an American spacecraft from the future! This book will stun and amaze you while twisting your mind at the same time. If you are into SCI-FI acton and have a 10th grade reading level or above I really recommend this book. This book was not intended for young adults but I enjoyed thoroughly. I hope you fell the same way.