There are a lot of naysayers here, but I really liked this book. It's a thriller novel with suitably short chapters about the problems of an aircraft company, Norton, as it tries to deal with the media, business partners, engineering problems, the mysterious provenance of an accident, and many others. It doesn't sound immediately enticing, but I enjoyed this book more than Sphere - it felt somehow more tangible and the characters more convincing.

This was not actually my first read, but the last time was sufficiently long ago that I couldn't remember any plot details. The story is largely presented from the viewpoints of two characters - Casey Singleton, a press officer for Norton tasked along with others with finding out what happened on a flight incident which left many passengers injured and a few killed, and Jennifer Malone, reporter for Newsline, looking to tear apart Norton for a 15 minute story. Events unfold and Crichton is able to push his message that the media is getting too powerful, while maintaining tension and keeping me awake (I read this in one sitting!) ( )

new bestseller. Quick good read

Sample was interesting but reviews said it was boring and dry. Might come back to this one someday.

Nice book.Book where creative writing meets technical writing.It was on the slower side intially, but gradually picks up pace. Lot of aeronautical verbiage can be daunting. But Crichton did an admirable job. ( )

This was a suspenseful, fast-paced page-turner. I haven't read anything by Michael Crichton for many years, but I really enjoyed this. There is lots of information and technical details about airplanes--how they're built, tested and maintained--and although this is about the investigation of a mid-air "incident" it made me a little less fearful of flying.

In the book, there is an incident of midair "turbulence" which results in several deaths and many injuries, as well as extensive damage to the plane. The plane's manufacturer must quickly investigate if it wants to save a large potential sale of its planes to China. There is also a subplot involving corporate intrigue and back-stabbing (not as interesting as main plot). And our main protagonist (who solves the whole thing and saves the company) is a female Quality Assurance executive.

The one jarring part for me was the subplot involving union unrest. The union is fearful that some of the manufacturing for the potential large sale would be sent overseas. This may be a reasonable fear, but would that lead the union to seen goons to brutally attack (in a way that could be charged as attempted murder) company management personnel, including our protagonist, and on top of that face little to no consequences for these actions? I don't think so, but maybe I'm naive.
With that caveat, this is a good read.

First line: "Emily Janson sighed in relief."

3 stars ( )