Michael Crichton and James Patterson (Century (UK) Little, Brown (US))
If you were the person behind the long-running TV show ER, and also had the idea for Jurassic Park, you would be pretty proud of yourself, right? Now imagine you came up with those, plus Westworld, Twister and a host of other blockbusters.
That would make you Michael Crichton, of course. And what a spectacularly creative person he was. In 1995, he could lay claim to (The Lost World), number one movie (Congo) and number one TV show (ER).
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Towards the end of his career, he appears to have taken a swerve into climate scepticism 鈥� never a good look 鈥� but, nonetheless, he remains a titan of popular culture, with Jurassic World (苍茅别 Park) still a thriving franchise.
Now Crichton has a new book out鈥� sort of. When he died in 2008, he left behind an unfinished manuscript. His widow, Sherri Crichton, eventually enlisted the thriller writer James Patterson, one of the best-selling authors ever, to finish the book.
Fast-forward and we have Eruption, a novel billed as 鈥渢he blockbuster thriller of 2024鈥� and 鈥渁 collaboration like no other鈥�. It tells the story of a Hawaiian volcano that is about to blow and the volcanologists fighting to control the coming explosion. To tell you why they want to control it and how they plan to do so would spoil the plot.
So, is it any good?
In brief, no. It鈥檚 a logistics-based drama that never rises above said logistics. These are the things we could do to control the explosion鈥� OK, we are doing the things. The only mystery is: will these cardboard-thin characters be successful in their logistical efforts? Plus, the reason for the scientists interfering with the volcano in the first place feels like part of the plot of a different book.
Eruption does whip along: Patterson is a fan of short chapters, and that helps a book go down easy. However, I remained untouched by the characters and the story. All of which is a great shame when not one but two writers have put a huge amount of work into something. But there it is.
Of course, how we react to a piece of art is entirely subjective. To try to understand why I was left so cold by the book, I went back to read The Lost World, which was such a hit for Crichton in 1995.
The novel starts inauspiciously with a scientist giving a lecture. It is almost actively reader-unfriendly in its construction. Yet before I knew it, I was on page 100. Dead dinos were washing up in Costa Rica, but the evidence was being hushed up. You would need to be a dead dino not to read on.
So, yes, this reappraisal confirmed my suspicion: however much volcano science, exploding lava and helicopter action has been thrown into the mix, the story of Eruption just isn鈥檛 inherently sexy enough.
None of this is likely to harm the book鈥檚 prospects, given the publicity power behind it. Many readers might also disagree with me about the book 鈥� Patterson fans, perhaps, or people with more of an interest in volcano science. It may well also become a film, as so many of Crichton鈥檚 previous books have.
In fact, Eruption does read like a film script, and with fantastic actors adding interest to the characters, as well as amazing volcano visuals, I can easily see myself munching popcorn through the movie version. You may wish to wait until then before engaging with this story.
Emily recommends鈥�
Penguin Classics
Should you wish to read a heartrending account of a volcano erupting, Pliny the younger鈥檚 wonderful collection of letters includes his eyewitness report of the devastating explosion of Vesuvius in AD 79, in which his uncle was killed. 鈥淲e rose from time to time to shake [the ashes] off,鈥� he writes, 鈥渙therwise we would have been buried and crushed beneath their weight.鈥�
Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of New Scientist. Gilgamesh, the second novel听in her Sumerians trilogy, is out later this year.听You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and听on Instagram
@emilyhwilson1
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