Sphere: Breathtaking
***Spoiler Alert***
Dr. Norman Johnson and the other scientists are ushered by the Navy Commander Hal. Barnes to site of the aircraft crash. But it turns out, lying on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is a military spacecraft of the USA from the future. It appears to be at least three hundred years old. As the crew explores the spacecraft, they find out that it has picked up an alien artifact, a sphere from the black hole outside our galaxy and has lost track of time and arrived a few hundred years prior to the launch.
Ted (the astrophysicist) wants to make contact with the alien and make a breakthrough in his field of science, Beth (the zoologist) wants to assert her feminism to her peers, Barnes (the navy commander) wants to acquire the ammunition and defense technology from the alien, Harry (the mathematician) wants to get the hell out of there before any disaster occurs and Norman ( the psychologist) is too old and scared to get himself involved in any adventure when the storm is striking the surface. After a long argument and vote taking, the crew decides to stay in the habitat, a thousand feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, to try and open the sphere.
With no communication to the surface, and adequate air and pressure to survive, the crew encounters danger in all forms after the sphere is opened by Harry. One by one, the crew members die by the manifestations sent by the alien. With only Harry and Beth alive, Norman finds out the root cause of the weird happenings. He explains to Beth that the alien is no one but the shadow (dark side) of Harry. Harry gets the power from the sphere to bring life to his imaginations and hence the monsters of the sea. The final twist in the story is when Beth blames Norman for the mishap and Norman finds out that Beth has also entered the sphere. Beth cracks up and sets explosives around the habitat. How Norman rescues the Beth and Harry and himself from the critical situation adds up to a very interesting climax.
It is the best adventure story I have ever read! I loved it from the very first page. It was definitely a page turner. I felt as if I was in the picture, making contact with the alien, exploring the spacecraft, descending in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.. The face of the alien during the attacks and manifestations of the alien sent to the habitat were nail biting moments..
It is similar to James Rollins' "Deep Fathom" in relevance to the submarine, the investigation on a crashed plane, the stumbling upon an artifact during the expedition in the spacecraft, the giant monster's interference during every tour in Pacific ocean bed by a crew member , the fact that the Earth is not ready for the alien artifact or its wisdom or its technology, the ending where everything goes to normal as if nothing happened.... It was similar but less boring.. Unlike James Rollins, Michael Crichton did not bother to stall the readers with too much technical specifications and he explained in layman terms to interest the readers when the chapters had to deal with scientific facts and theories or laws of physics, astrophysics, psychology zoology and mathematics.
The ending was a little long but the writer obviously knows how to hook the readers through a long climax. I waited with bated breath when the count down of the explosives started at the end. Harry's character was brilliant. Till the last line, the writer had surprise in store for the readers (Beth does not intend to lose the power and hence does not forget it when the others agreed to).
Needless to say, it is a must read for all book lovers!
Dr. Norman Johnson and the other scientists are ushered by the Navy Commander Hal. Barnes to site of the aircraft crash. But it turns out, lying on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is a military spacecraft of the USA from the future. It appears to be at least three hundred years old. As the crew explores the spacecraft, they find out that it has picked up an alien artifact, a sphere from the black hole outside our galaxy and has lost track of time and arrived a few hundred years prior to the launch.
Ted (the astrophysicist) wants to make contact with the alien and make a breakthrough in his field of science, Beth (the zoologist) wants to assert her feminism to her peers, Barnes (the navy commander) wants to acquire the ammunition and defense technology from the alien, Harry (the mathematician) wants to get the hell out of there before any disaster occurs and Norman ( the psychologist) is too old and scared to get himself involved in any adventure when the storm is striking the surface. After a long argument and vote taking, the crew decides to stay in the habitat, a thousand feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, to try and open the sphere.
With no communication to the surface, and adequate air and pressure to survive, the crew encounters danger in all forms after the sphere is opened by Harry. One by one, the crew members die by the manifestations sent by the alien. With only Harry and Beth alive, Norman finds out the root cause of the weird happenings. He explains to Beth that the alien is no one but the shadow (dark side) of Harry. Harry gets the power from the sphere to bring life to his imaginations and hence the monsters of the sea. The final twist in the story is when Beth blames Norman for the mishap and Norman finds out that Beth has also entered the sphere. Beth cracks up and sets explosives around the habitat. How Norman rescues the Beth and Harry and himself from the critical situation adds up to a very interesting climax.
It is the best adventure story I have ever read! I loved it from the very first page. It was definitely a page turner. I felt as if I was in the picture, making contact with the alien, exploring the spacecraft, descending in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.. The face of the alien during the attacks and manifestations of the alien sent to the habitat were nail biting moments..
It is similar to James Rollins' "Deep Fathom" in relevance to the submarine, the investigation on a crashed plane, the stumbling upon an artifact during the expedition in the spacecraft, the giant monster's interference during every tour in Pacific ocean bed by a crew member , the fact that the Earth is not ready for the alien artifact or its wisdom or its technology, the ending where everything goes to normal as if nothing happened.... It was similar but less boring.. Unlike James Rollins, Michael Crichton did not bother to stall the readers with too much technical specifications and he explained in layman terms to interest the readers when the chapters had to deal with scientific facts and theories or laws of physics, astrophysics, psychology zoology and mathematics.
The ending was a little long but the writer obviously knows how to hook the readers through a long climax. I waited with bated breath when the count down of the explosives started at the end. Harry's character was brilliant. Till the last line, the writer had surprise in store for the readers (Beth does not intend to lose the power and hence does not forget it when the others agreed to).
Needless to say, it is a must read for all book lovers!
The book really is spellbinding! I like the character analysis in the review. Put up more reviews of any other awesome books uve read so I can read too:)
ReplyDeleteThank you Nasreen :) Ya sure I will blog if I Come across any other good book...
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