Reviews

Crichton has rolled the present, past, and future into one highly technical and confusing science fiction adventure. The present features, among others, a pompous astrophysicist, a female zoologist, a black mathematician, and a 53-year-old psychologist, who are summoned by the Navy to examine a plane crash in the South Pacific. The past is manifested in the stranded object resting on the sea bottom where it has been for some 300 years. When the four scientists, who carry their emotional minority baggage of sex, color, and age along with them, descend to the deep in their submersible, they discover the wreck to be no less than a spaceship from the future that fell through a black hole, defying time and space. Strange things begin to happen as one by one the cast of characters diminishes. Disappointing. Literary Guild dual main selection. Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib.

YA As in Crichton's Andromeda Strain (Knopf, 1969), the focus of this science adventure tale is humankind's encounter with an alien life form. Within a space ship lying on the sea bottom is a mysterious sphere that promises each of the main characters some personal reward: military might, professional prestige, power, understanding. Trapped underwater with the sphere, the humans confront eerie and increasingly dangerous threats after communication with the alien object has been achieved. The story is exciting and loaded with scientific and psychological speculations that add interest at no cost to the action, including an intriguing sequence in which human and computer attempt to decode the alien communication. As the story races to an end, suspicions of evil-doing fall as many ways as in a detective novel. Young adults should find this book both accessible and satisfying. Mike Parson, Houston Public Library