Ted: "Hello. This is Ted Fielding, here at the door of the unknown spacecraft which has been discovered--" Sphere is, in my opinion, Michael Crichton's most interesting book on two levels. First, the plot: a truly great parable on the endgame of technology, and the long-sought-after dream of Alladin's magic lamp. I don't want to go too deep, but I'll say that it is, in my humble hypothesis, the uncredited inspiration for the excellent show Lost. While the plot is a highlight, I personally keep this book high on my list of favorites, after all these years, because of the Essay, which breaks with/plays off Crichton's typical form: instead of a broken monologue with a human genius, it takes the form of an italicized, nearly stream of consciousness Socratic dialogue with... something. Again, the writing is problematic (Crichton manages to use the word "foam" 23 times or so in two paragraphs) but, even after all these years, the content still stirs me: the subject is consciousness and the power and meaning of the question mark... again I'll let him do the rest. You can (and should) disagree with his analysis, you can shrug aside his monosyllables, but if something in his notion of What Makes Humanity? doesn't stir you, then you are missing out. You have finally and irrevocably left the seventh grade, that painful age of wondering, in favor of a well-fortified adulthood... and as nice as that sounds, you probably left something essential behind. Rating Michael Crichton on his prose, either its subtlety or execution, is sort of pointless... there's no doubt that this man is a shitty prose writer, short on synonyms and prone to spend most of his energy on frenetic descriptions of action. He's basically writing scripts... which is why the man gets the Dan Brown money, but no respect from the smarties. The impact of their decisions is not inherently clear. As far as you know, nobody is trying to save the world or prevent some sort of disaster. This is a fact-finding mission where the stakes are subtle, giving the story a chance to breathe.

I liked how this was narrated in the pov of a psychologist with psychoanalysis being a major part of the narration. I loved all the speculations and the science/psychology in the book. Sphere lost it’s license to produce Star Wars books after Empire, which was instead passed to Futura for Return of the Jedi. However, the company’s output from that galaxy far, far away will live long in the memories, and hearts, of fans of a certain age. Publication Series: The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult". isfdb.org. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017 . Retrieved 19 June 2017.Elizabeth Halpern—a biochemist who is muscular, yet sometimes gentle and caring while simultaneously fierce, combative, and confrontational. She perceives herself as being dominated by the male scientists. But something was keeping me from investing in the characters. I just couldn't relate to any of them on a personal level, and I didn't much care who survived to the end of the book. Interesting premise that held my attention up until the middle of the book, where improbable things start happening and Crichton failed to make them feel real

A group of scientists (namely psychologist Norman Johnson, mathematician Harry Adams, zoologist Beth Halpern, astrophysicist Ted Fielding, and marine biologist Arthur Levine), along with U.S. Navy personnel, travel to a deep sea habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where an enormous spacecraft has been discovered.It creates a setting that is on the cusp of reality and stages it with a believable cast of characters. They may not be right for the job, but they use their unique skills and training to make the best of the situation.