Michael Crichton - Renaissance Man

I am always on the hunt for new authors and good books. Recently I found a new author called Neal Shusterman who wrote a pretty well-reviewed young adult dystopian trilogy (actually maybe a quarlogy since he has four books in the series) starting with the book "Unwind" and it was pretty good and it introduced new concepts of what a horrible future might hold, but the characters were not memorable Nor outstanding enough, compared to The Hunger Games or Harry Potter or even Lord of the Rings.

Next I should logically have gone on to borrow the next book in the series called "Unwholly" but as it was mostly borrowed out, I hunted through the shelves for my favourite authors and found a new book I had not read from a tried and tested good author -Michael Crichton, called Congo. I must say the title didn't really attract me Nor appeal to me and I would have definitely picked another title if available, but alas I had read all the other Michae Crichton books on the shelf - Micro, State of Play, Disclosure - so I just grabbed it. I mean, a story about some violent evolved gorilla in the Congo rainforest in Africa, it just could not be more unrelatable to a hectic working mom in the city state of Singapore.

However, that is where the hands of a master changes everything. The book was so well-researched and introduced a far-off, alien world in such a layman, accessible and interesting manner, with a sense of grandeur and not even much trying (the subject matter is grand and mysterious enough) on the back of tight, polished writing and a fascinating plot, that you just get easily transposed into the world without much effort (the resistance was picking up the title in the first place) and find your mind being expanded, made to think of science and biology and geography and tribes and cannibalism and early exploration and jungle expeditions, alongside a whopping good story. The action and introduction of new material never stops, and I wonder how he finds out all these new information - if he has been in the Congo rainforest himself, made a trek, climbed a volcano, interacted with gorillas. I also loved the exchanges between the gorilla and the trainer, and understanding how intelligent they can be.

So, suffice to say I am duly impressed by Michael Crichton as a writer and a scientist and geographer and anthropologist and just - all round renaissance man! He makes me feel that this is another genre of writing I could go into - which is something like Lisa Genova - Writers who introduce you to a topic that is not as well understood but immensely relevant to modern day living. Another writer who achieves that is Robin Cook, another one of my favourites because he introduces medical dilemmas, ethical problems associated with medicine and the practice of it, and also the world of doctors and the inner workings of hositals and morgues and police investigations, that is also not as accessible to the common man but also endlessly fascinating. I love reading! And I hope to contribute to this expanding body of work too, in my own way. Perhaps a story on Singapore government and scientific dystopia? Hahaha. Could make for a fun writing assignment.