Review: Airframe by Micheal Crichton

Title: Airframe
Author: Micheal Crichton
Release Date: 1996
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Inc
Pages: 352
Source: Used Book Sale
Genre: Adult Adventure/ Suspense
Famous For???: Author wrote Jurassic Park, and created TV series ER




Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. . . .

At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner bound from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation.


AIRFRAME is nonstop reading: the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that has been a Crichton landmark since The Andromeda Strain. 
(Description taken from Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/Airframe-Michael-Crichton/dp/0963192574/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313866412&sr=1-1)


So, for my first review I went with a classic. Well, not quite a classic, but a classic author. Micheal Crichton is one of my favorites, and since the last books of his that I read were Time Line and The Andromeda Strain, I was expecting a lot.

To say the least, I shouldn't have built up my hopes so high, at least not to start. This book had a good hook, starting with a crash scene, but from there I just got kind of...well bored. There was a lot of in-depth mechanics talk (any one who is into specifics about airplanes would probably really like this book) that filled up pretty much the entire book. Luckily, even from the beginning there were hints of suspense and seriously shady business that kept me reading, just to see how it ended.

Even if some of the content was boring, being a Micheal Crichton book, it was written great, in laymans terms even I could understand (and that's saying a lot). There was great character development, with an awesome strong female lead, and written so that you felt as if you connected with even the minor characters.

I know I mentioned that I was kind of bored by the first, say, 240 pages of the book, but the ending completely blew me away. I hadn't expected much, so it was great to finally be thrilled my this book.  

I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to just anyone, but if you're either a Crichton fan, or someone with a love for planes, this is a great book, though it does take some patience.


Soooo, now that I've blabbed about what I've been reading, Crichton-wise, what's your favorite Micheal Crichton book? Or, if he isn't your style, which sci-fi writer is?