I read this book after receiving it as a rec from friends in book club after I asked for a sci-fi-fantasy horror/thriller pageturner. I can’t emphasize how exuberant some of the recommendation I got for this book were. They were in the vein of [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/13iqs5r/sphere_by_michael_crichton/) where someone literally says:
>> Sphere is one of the best books I have ever read — and I read a lot!
I just finished this book and I thought it was average *at best*. A lot of the science has been changed or debunked since publication so I don’t deduct points for that. But I had a fair amount of issues with this book.
First off – it was boring! I didn’t feel much anticipation to know what was coming next at all. I thought Crichton’s decision to focus on the interpersonal drama rather than the high-concept alien details didn’t pay off at all.
Also, the dialogue was very clunky. The main character is a psychologist surrounded by “hard” scientists, and there’s a whole lot of “Wow, Mr. Biologist is angry, if only he was more self-aware like me, the psychologist, we could solve this conflict.” The psychology plot lines felt very forced and really didn’t seem to add much at all.
This book was also recommended on a “scariest books of all time” thread on this sub with a whole lot of upvotes. ….what? I don’t think the light suspense ever crossed into any kind of horror. The Sphere itself was not even really presented as something to fear, and the central conflict isn’t even really introduced until 200+ pages in.
P.S. picking nits but several characters essentially free dive in 1000 foot water depths. That pressure would condense a human into a black hole. In such a science-heavy book why overlook that?!
What do you think about this book? Am I missing something?
by sexy_wash_bucket
45 Comments
Because he can’t write an ending?
3 MC novels were 3 too many.
I feel the same way, this book was a DNF for me, it WAS boring. I’ve read several of his novels and I think there were more fails than hits in my opinion. Jurassic Park was his best work that I read.
I checked and Jurassic Park was literally the next book after Sphere so it isn’t just a matter of him changing as he got older. I think he just had a strong enough reputation he could get almost anything published and sometimes he just didn’t pick a good idea. Neil Stephenson can be like that somewhat, although the two aren’t really comparable.
He was very successful getting his books on screen and I think that helped his reputation a lot.
some people say things like that but basically haven’t read the books that are scarier or are better for science. i haven’t personally read sphere yet but loved his Jurassic park and plan to read the rest just because i liked his writing style. i got suggested a book the other day that was supposedly the scariest book someone had ever read and it literally had fart jokes in the middle of scary scenes that throw you out of the book in terms of being engrossed. i think its probably the hype. i get alot of hype books suggested and i try to ignore them as they are usually under welling. I haven’t ever read a book that was truly scary.
So, some people believe Crichton borrowed the idea from Stanislaw Lem’s [Solaris](https://forum.lem.pl/index.php?topic=878.0). If so, maybe it was something Crichton was excited about and believed he was capable of as a writer, which then turned into too ambitious a project for Crichton, but he published the attempt anyway, because money.
I had several people recommend it to me as well. Hated it. Bored me to death. I did finish it and was annoyed with myself afterwards. I stopped taking recommendations from those people.
No idea why people think this book is so great.
I found it to be quite page-turning actually, I read it super fast. However, once I finished it it was like “that was fun, but no reason to ever think about it again”. The dialogue *was* clunky and the characters very cut and paste. I just think Crichton has a knack for writing page-turning thrillers, but even as i was enjoying it I was also like, ok but this isn’t actually a “good” book, if you know what I mean.
I have read and seen movie versions of ~8 Michael Crichton books. The movies are all fun, but he is an incredibly mediocre writer. His books are kind of unique in that they end up being page turners out of sheer annoyance and frustration waiting for him to build up to a damn point
I actually loved this book! Even reread it years later. I’m sure these are some valid criticisms, but I thought it was spooky enough for me 🙂
I absolutely love Sphere!
I think this is a really great book, it does read well, but like it’s good like how an 80s90s action movie is good. Where the book goes is completely crazy and nutty and it turned my skin inside it to think about the end and what the sphere is/does.
I love remembering this book, but like it’s not some lit masterpiece. It was a fun read that pokes fun at phds and told a really unique story.
I’m definitely not going into any underwater spaceships.
Also about the pressure and free diving, this is just my deep recollection but I remember MC had some dialog when they first went down regarding some drug or something special presurization process they did in a pressure equalization chamber that gave them sci fi magic for pressure. Maybe misremembering but I think there’s a wand for that.
So I get not thinking the book is very scary. But I’m not sure what you mean about focusing on interpersonal drama rather than high concept alien stuff.
The book is about a group who encounter an alien object which amplifies their subconscious. In other words, the interpersonal drama and alien stuff are heavily intertwined. The story doesn’t focus on one over the other, they are connected.
Norman does think he is superior to the rest of the crew because he is more self aware then them. He is completely wrong in this thought. Norman is so lacking is self awareness that he fails to notice he is talking to his own subconscious until it is pointed out to him.
He also fails to notice that he is talking to Henry, a man he feels superior to, and instead thinks that he is talking to an alien.
I guess I’m just confused, because the psychologist plot lines are the point of the book. The fact that none of these people were psychologically ready for what happened to them is the point.
They are faced with a technology that works in a way so tangential to ours that they aren’t ready for it and blow themselves up with it. Like if a primitive alien discovered one of our probes and killed itself on the power source. Which is a direct analogy given in the book.
I find Michael Chrichton’s writing dry at times. I couldn’t finish Sphere, despite being initially really interested.
I read 100+ pages of Prey (my 1st Crichton book) and was bored.. I put it down and moved onto Recursion instead.
The beginning of Sphere was some of the best sci-fi I’ve ever read. Then it just petered out.
I’d say it’s second-tier Crichton. I’d put Rising Sun, Jurassic Park, and maybe Timeline in the first tier (I’ve only read about half of his books, by the way). But I still had fun with it. It’s been more than 5 years since I read it and I still remember some details about the characters, so it must’ve made an impact on me. I think the people who recommended it to you misled you; I wouldn’t say it’s scary either.
Its one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I don’t blame you.
I loved Crichton when I was 12, and even I was bored to death by Sphere. I want to say the movie was also not that good.
For a short time they all remembered the power they had, then they chose to forget again.
I like the premise of Sphere, but I’m afraid of starting it and hating it.
I liked Jurassic Park okay, but the second JP book bored me to tears and I DNF’ed it.
When I read it, I felt like I was watching an old, black and white B-movie. It’s meant to be a little campy while still being entertaining. You’ll probably never watch it again unless you find it playing in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep, but it was something fun to pass the time.
I read this book for the first time in middle school. I remember being quite scared of the “manifestations” for some reason, but I’ve gone back to this book numerous times, the most recent being about 2 years ago, and I still enjoy it. I find it to be a slow burn kind of book, which I really enjoy over something with constant action from the beginning.
Because different people get different reactions and feels from the same book. It’s ok.
I read it in high school and I loved it. There were so many twists! Who’s lying? Who’s crazy? Who’s gaslighting who? (Spoiler: pretty much everybody.) Then a few years ago I tried listening to the audiobook. It very quickly devolves into basically: “Harry,” said Norman. “Norman,” said Beth. “Beth,” said Harry. “Harry,” said Norman. “Norman,” said Beth. “Beth,” said Harry. “Harry,” said Norman. “Norman,” said Beth. “Beth,” said Harry. If I heard the narrator say “said” one more time I was going to scream, so I turned it off. That pretty much ruined the book for me and I can’t even read it now.
I had the exact same thought. Badly written, caricatures instead of characters, sexist. It felt like he was contractually obligated to write this and just crammed out the bare minimum… the core concept was okay, but everything else was subpar.
I’ve read almost anything from Crichton and “Sphere” is a pretty good representation of his books though I wouldn’t put it over “Prey”.
For me I read it shortly after seeing the movie…. which made it very boring. The movie was so true to the book that it was dull. I remember the movie added an affair which was the only real difference
I read it in my 20’s (many moons ago) and remember liking it okay. Nothing spectacular. Would have made a decent psychological thriller/horror movie.
His books are entertaining page-turners. They have the facade of hard science fiction but none of them are. They reward imagination and a reader’s ability to get lost in the story while reading. If you need everything to be factual, you probably want to stick to hard-science fiction. I’ve never read Sphere but really enjoyed Congo, Terminal Man, and Jurassic Park. Two of those ended up blockbuster movies so he has to be doing something right.
It’s an alright book. I enjoyed reading it. Definitely not the best anything, and *definitely* not scary in any way.
Yeah I unfortunately feel the same way about Crichton in general. Great ideas but the structure, characters and writing itself fall well short of the top tier thriller authors like Robert Harris or Ken Follett.
(I know you are not asking for recs but a sci fi pageturner – interesting – fun- book you might like is The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi. It leans into comedy elements, but is a fast read and quite interesting . It’s probably mostly sci fi but possibly could be considered horror/ fantasy (or horror/ fantasy adjacent).
I should say- I love Sphere so I don’t know if that affects the value of my rec 🙂
I haven’t read sphere but have never been able to get into Crichton despite really wanting to. Eaters of the Dead was OK but it was very short compared to his others.
I don’t think any of Crichton’s books I’ve read have had a narratively satisfying ending. He has good pace and pacing for most of the book though, which I think is a big draw.
I found it really bad as well. I too was disappointed after reading rave reviews. I almost couldn’t believe that this was written by the same guy who wrote JP and Lost World (which I like). It read like some cheapo Dan Brown novel.
Fantastic writer. He just got distracted by his next project before finishing the one he was working on, which made the endings meh
I love Sphere! When I was younger, Michael Crichton was my favorite author, and this was my favorite of his works.
Ultimately, these books are formulas. Meet interesting science characters, learn science stuff, meet science monster, battle/escape science monster after losing a few characters.
For Chrichtons work, the characters in Sphere are quite well written and memorable imo. I’ve read almost all Chrichtons books and can only remember a handful of characters.
The real strength of this book is pacing. I couldn’t put down the last half, and that’s really all I’m looking for from a thriller.
Great book. Terrible ending.
Diving at 1000 feet does not compress a human into a blackhole. Saturation divers do that stuff for a living working on and fixing deep underwater structures. They live in a pressurized habitat when they’re aren’t in the water so they don’t have to go through decompression after each dive.
Agreed. Average book at best. I don’t understand the hype
I want to love it because the initial concept is so cool to me – a derelict alien ship deep under the sea is an awesome setup. However, my excitement was immediately extinguished when we learn that the alien intelligence is actually one of the characters’ subconscious. I really wanted genuine aliens and we got another “man is the true monster” type of boring tales.
I enjoyed the movie but also I have a crush on Liev Schrieber.
If you think the book is bad, wait till you see the movie!
I like a fair amount of Crichton- I did not like Sphere at all. Like you said, I also found it boring and was generally uninterested. It’s been years since I read it, but I do not recall it being scary at all. The movie was also seriously annoying (just pointing that out, not judging the book by its movie).
When I read this as a younger MadHatter, I thought it was incredible.
When I read this a few years ago as a seasoned MadHatter, I realized how poorly it is written. Simple dialogue, shoehorned romance and flawed characters who never grow, just embrace their flaws.
There are other Crichton books that I feel the same way about, but the gulf between what I used to think about the book and what I think about it now is widest with Sphere.