13 Best Michael Crichton Books

Are you enthusiastic about reading and exploring new books? Not every piece of literature is worth reading, and not every writer deserves to stand on the list of exceptional writers. But, Michael Crichton is one of the best writers who have visionary and innovative mindsets.

 Michael Crichton is a brand himself having a high profile in the world of literature and fiction. He is a multi-talented writer. He has made a good name in all literary fields like novels, screenplays, essays, speeches, and nonfiction books. Michael Crichton novels are highly ranked and top among the list.

 You can see the reflection of a wonderful imaginary world in Michael Crichton novels that engages the readers till the end by inciting their curiosity. Interestingly, the motive of Michael Crichton revolves around the betterment of humanity, either dealing with their problems or answering critical questions. 

Now, let’s go through the Best Michael Chrichton books.

List of 13 best Michael Crichton Books

This series covers the Prominent and most popular books written by Michael Crichton. It is mainly embodied in two classic books.

The first Crichton book is Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park is the most sparking techno-thriller created by Michael Crichton. It is science fiction intensifying the scientific glimmer of Michael. 

The story of Jurassic Park revolves around a billionaire’s dangerous endeavor of inventing a theme Park colonized by genetically engineered Dinosaurs. The technique of cloning the DNA of dinosaurs was threatening yet an interesting thing that was supervised by a company named InGen. They decided to locate All those newly engineered Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park where humans could see their pastimes.

 Hammond, who was the owner of InGen, believed that he could control his amazing creations. However, he could not compete against nature, and at the end of the novel, dinosaurs took control over Jurassic Park. They killed a lot of humans. Jurassic Park was the only Crichton novel that quickly turned into a film. 

The second part of the Jurassic Park book series is The Lost World. It is a sequel to the most popular novel of Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park. It is an adventurous story mainly dealing with the answers to deep scientific mysteries.

 The story of this novel begins after five years of disaster in Jurassic Park. The story of the lost world is based upon the hypothesis that dinosaurs still exist in certain sequestered, undeveloped parts of the world. 

So, these two books are very interesting and thought-provoking. It would be best if you went for them as your priority. 

Timeline is another science fiction novel by Michael Crichton. It is a mixture of technical elements, actions, and scientific facts that all are combined historically. Timeline is grappling with modern scientific concepts like quantum and multiverse theory. Moreover, you will know about relativity and time travel morphs.

 The beginning of the story presents a man in the Arizona desert. He is crawling in a bewildering manner, uttering some things that are not making any sense. Then, he died after twenty-four hours.

 The author did a good job in this novel by highlighting some of the interesting truths of science. It connects the past with the future, letting you travel in the past to know what was happening there. You will be deeply involved in every single line of Timeline to fulfill your desire to know more. 

Congo is another blockbuster novel that comes under the best Michael Crichton books. This book presents a group of people who traveled towards the African Congo to reinstate Gorilla to her motherland. And their second main goal was to find out the lab blue diamonds. 

They came across a hidden city named Zinj on their way and a new lineage of killer gorillas. Their next challenge was to overcome these threats for their survival. 

However, a mystery happened there, and all people were killed and attacked by grey-haired gorillas. 

Thus, we can analyze that this book is full of actions depicting a challenging situation and fight between men and animals for diamonds. 

The atmosphere created in Congo is unique by Miachel Crichton that entirely changes the perception of thinking and analyzing things in the usual way. Rather it gives a dramatic touch that leads you to think differently. 

State of Fear portrays the thrilling views about global warming. This novel is about eco-terrorists who plot mass murder to disclose the peril of global warming. 

That eco-terrorist group named Environmental Liberation has no skepticism about how many populations are killed in their planned “natural” disaster. They brutally murder anyone who gets in their way.

Crichton presents a biography of 20 pages, many editorials, and graphs to support his unusual beliefs about global warming. He also faced criticism for not presenting the facts and certain misguiding ideas in a state of fear. However, it is also among the crichton books that are on the top-selling list. So, it has something interesting, swinging its demand all over the world.

 It was published in 2004 owing to a special and unique touch. It has a kind of story where a reader can travel to the sights he is discussing throughout the novel. He adopts an amazing style of storytelling and plotting, making an emotional connection between reader and writer. 

06. The Andromeda Strain

Michael Crichton has been given the title of “father of modern techno-thrillers” for writing a masterpiece like The Andromeda Strain. It was published in 1969 and included more than three hundred pages. Moreover, it is transformed into a film as well. 

The book notifies the tale of the Wildfire Project, an endeavor to scrutinize a dreadful alien organism in Arizona. The Andromeda strain is a code name of an alien organism that is supposed to kill the people in satellites. 

Members of the Wildfire project took that alien organism into the laboratory to examine its nature. They encountered different mutative effects of Andromeda Strain in a highly secured lab.  

This novel is excessively mysterious, representing a world that is too different from our one. The Andromeda strain illustrates an inventive approach that elicits the novelty of exploring the alien world to determine whether they benefit the human community or are only a threat. 

07. Eaters of the Dead

 It is historical fiction representing the era of A.D 922. Through this novel, Michael Crichton hopes to portray the living style of Vikings in the year 922 AD. Eaters of the dead are filled with an exciting and adventurous storyline that entertains the readers. 

Ibn-Faldan is the main character in this book. He is a civilized Arab Courtier, illustrating the powerful Caliph of Baghdad. The storyline is entirely based upon the travels of Ibn-Falda. He is sent to Bulgar land that is culturally odd from Islamic norms. Ibn-Faldan’s motive is to educate the king in Islamic religion and familiarize him with Islamic laws. 

The lifestyle of Vikings is highly shocking for Ibn Falda. Their indifferent attitude about cleanliness and hygiene and horrible sacrifices stunned Ibn Falda. Eaters of the dead tell us a fact about how it could be challenging for a person to survive in an odd culture where everyone else has different views about religion and God except you. It admires the reader for becoming more flexible and versatile in confronting every kind of situation.

08. Next

Michael Crichton has written too many books throughout his career. But the novel” Next” written by Michael Crichton is so fascinating that you can’t bring any other book owing to the same level of intellectualism and wisdom. 

In this novel, Michael is tackling the question of the consequences of biological research on the world’s population. Crichton presents various situations, encompassing the subject of possession of one man’s cell and modern therapies in humans without animal testing. He also discussed the notion of crossing human DNA with that of animals.

According to Michael’s point of view, you can find answers to everything in the world enacted by genetics. Besides, Next is enlightening the fact that this future world is a world of now.  Many tragedies, turmoils, and obstacles we have confronted will become part of the past one day. 

Next is full of exciting events manipulating the interesting results of genetics. It is worth reading a book full of scientific knowledge. You should go for it. 

09. Sphere

The sphere is a novel about deep-sea exploration and discovering an alien spaceship at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The book was initially published in 1987, and it sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 37 languages, and it won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1988 and Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1989.

The novel is not only based on scientific facts and theories about deep-sea exploration and near-future technology, but it also contains elements from other disciplines such as anthropology and psychology. The sphere is a suspenseful story with many twists and turns. 

You will not be able to put this book down.

The sphere is a novel that we would recommend to anyone who loves science fiction, suspense stories, or thrillers. It is a book that is full of action and adventure written by Michael Crichton.

10. Prey

Michael Crichton’s novel, “Prey,” is a suspenseful thriller about an environmentalist who becomes the prey of remote-controlled animals. The protagonist, Dr. Susan Tyler, has been studying animal behavior for years. She believes that humans affect their instincts by releasing them into areas where they do not naturally live. 

Her hypothesis is confirmed when she witnesses two coyotes attacking a woman in California’s Angeles National Forest. After surviving the panthers, Susan realizes that her worst fears have come to pass as she witnesses a swarm of robots killing people on Los Angeles’ freeways. 

Her research project has been carried out by someone else who is determined to destroy the environment. She can save the freeways and finally capture her assailant.

 Prey is the best novel to read because of its clean, simple writing style, which is easy to understand. Michael Crichton’s novel also has a great ending that leaves the reader satisfied with the story. A major theme of prey is that scientists trying to help the environment can become targets of people who do not want them to succeed.

11. Airframe

The airframe is the debut novel by Michael Crichton, and you will not be able to put it down. Airframe follows the story of a company that builds airliners and what happens when one crashes due to design flaws.

The story of Airplane revolves around an air crash investigation. It’s an epic tale that everyone should read at least once. The novel follows a team investigating a plane accident.

 The airframe has everything you would want in a thriller: suspenseful dialogue, personal drama, corporate intrigue, and an ending that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

 Crichton does an excellent job of making the plane crash seem real and terrifying; you can almost visualize yourself in that same situation.

12. The Rising Sun

The Rising Sun is a classic novel by the late author Michael Crichton. The book was published in 1992 and has been translated into many different languages since then, with various degrees of success. 

This book is about a group of scientists who are sent to investigate the development of advanced technology discovered on an island in the Pacific Ocean. They gave the project this name because it seemed like they lived in paradise, with no worries or concerns. However, their visit turns into something more than they could have imagined when one gets murdered, and another goes missing. 

The story follows these two characters as they start to uncover some unsettling truths about what’s going on inside the compound. They soon realize that they are dealing with an unknown technology and with people who will stop at nothing to keep its secret safe. 

Most who have read it agree that it is one of Crichton’s best novels, if not his very best. It’ll teach you that even if something seems perfect on the outside, there could be an ugly truth behind it. 

13. Dragon Teeth: 

Michael Crichton’s “Dragon Teeth” is a fascinating novel about the future of science and technology. The story follows two main characters: Jack Stapleton, a doctor specializing in epidemiology and forensics, and his brother George, an expert on medieval history. 

When their niece died from leukemia at the age of nine, they set out to investigate what caused her death.

 In doing so, they found evidence that suggests that certain environmental factors may be causing cancer rates to rise dramatically in children living near power lines or other sources of electromagnetic radiation. 

They attempt to uncover the truth behind this phenomenon while also saving the other children who have leukemia. 

Dragon teeth is a fascinating choice for the reader because of the writer’s unique approach throughout the story. 

About the Author:

Michael Crichton is an American writer, director, and producer best known for his thriller and science fiction genres. He is also well-known for his books which have sold over 200 million copies worldwide and have been translated into thirty-five languages. 

Crichton was born on 23rd October 1942 in Chicago. As a child,  he enjoyed reading novels by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, H.G Wells, and comics such as Tarzan. He later went on to study at Harvard Medical School, where he obtained a degree in Anthropology. 

He also served time at sea with the United States Navy. His work includes the books “Five Patients,” “Looker,” “Sphere,” “State of Fear.” Many of Crichton novels are currently being developed into films with Jurassic Park in production. Crichton also directed movies such as “Westworld” and produced several other movies, including the popular ‘Twister.’

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Final note:

We try our best to picture the theme, summary, and important features of top-rated books by Michael Crichton. If you have not read his book till now, go for it as you are missing something amazing. Michael Crichton has written unmatching and inspiring books according to readers’ interest. You learn something new that feeds your deprived soul and curious brain whenever you come across his books.