Eruption

My latest sci fi read from the library is Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. As Wikipedia notes, the novel is ...

based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton at the time of his death. It is Crichton's 29th novel, the nineteenth under his own name and the fourth of his novels published posthumously. A thriller about an eruption of Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, the novel was unfinished at the time of Crichton's death in 2008, but was completed years later by Patterson, at the behest of Crichton's widow Sherri. In June 2024, it was reported that Steven Spielberg was in talks with Sherri Crichton about a possible film adaptation.

Crichton's two Jurassic Park novels are among my most favorite books, so I was guardedly hopeful that this would be good. I had to wait a long time, too - I was like # 300+ on the hold list at the library!

The story started out kind of so-so, and the main character, named John "Mac" MacGregor, cannot help but remind mo of MacGyver in both name and can-do personality ;)

But it's getting better. Right now I'm reading about Mac saving people from a helicopter that crashed in the crater of the lava lake, Puʻu ʻŌʻō ...

If you like the writing of Michael Crichton, or of James Pattersn, or are interested in volcanoes, you may find the book worth a read. Here's a bit from a book review in The Washington Post ...

James Patterson finishes Michael Crichton’s book, with explosive results

[...] As author partnerships go, this is Godzilla’s head grafted onto King Kong’s body. Of course, Hollywood is already buzzing around it, and why not? Together, these two authors — or their brands — have sold an estimated 675 million copies, one for every year since the Neoproterozoic era ....

36-year-old John “Mac” MacGregor hears a deep rumbling and feels the beach shaking. As director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Mac understands what that means. “He’d always known this day would come.” Steam is already wafting up from the top of Mauna Loa, the planet’s biggest active volcano, a colossus that rises almost six miles off the ocean floor. “The eruption was only days away.” ....