Review Detail

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.