Michael Crichton

In the midst of the Presidential campaign many people missed an important piece of news. Michael Crichton died battling cancer. I’m not too sure what type of cancer, or exactly what age he was, but this is huge to me in so many ways.

I was part of the generation of children who grew up on JURASSIC PARK, a book Michael Crichton wrote. I remember being so excited to see that movie, and loving every single moment of it. Crichton introduced the world to the Velociraptor, and gave virtually every person a new favorite dinosaur. Sure, Spielberg helped, but the movie wouldn’t have been made without the wildly popular book. In my senior seminar class for my English major I was required to make a list of books I thought were new classics. I put JURASSIC PARK on that list, and I meant it. It’s an amazing book that inspired an amazing movie. I saw JURASSIC PARK so many times, and it inspired me.

There are so many other bestsellers he had, so many other great books with great movies based upon them, and a great TV show he created called ER that has stayed on the air for quite a while, but Jurassic Park sticks out to me the most. That and THE LOST WORLD that followed it mean the most to me. Most forget about THE LOST WORLD because the movie was just okay, but I would not say the same thing for the book. I read that when I was in sixth grade, and loved it. If the movie had been based on the book more I would have loved it just as much. Those stories were amazing for very simple reasons. Everyone loves dinosaurs. Michael Crichton realized that, and really just wrote a book based on “what if dinosaurs were in our world?” What a simple, brilliant concept. It did so well not just because kids loved it, but because everybody loved it.

As a writer I truthfully owe a lot to him. I know I’ve revealed very little about VALDEN’S HEIR, the book I’ve written, but it’s his success with JURASSIC PARK reminds me everyday that it’s a great concept. Dinosaurs play a very large role in VALDEN’S HEIR. Michael Crichton’s success with the JURASSIC PARK series is one of the main things I can point to as a reminder that people love dinosaurs. Books with dinosaurs can be huge. I may not have ever written VALDEN’S HEIR or gotten the original idea that inspired the entire series based in the world of VALDEN’S HEIR without JURASSIC PARK. I would have kept my love of dinosaurs a secret passion, and might never have realized that I could use them quite successfully as a writer. I owe that knowledge largely to Michael Crichton, and if I am ever lucky enough to be published I will not forget that debt.

So, I may not have written the most eloquent eulogy that anyone can. I may not have gone into the finer points of his career, and life. I’m sure others have and will, but that’s not really what I was trying to do. I wanted to be simple because a simple, brilliant concept is the reason I first loved Michael Crichton. He was an amazing writer with a beautiful imagination. His loss is a blow to all of us who desire to take readers on a journey to strange yet familiar places filled with exotic creatures. He will be missed.

Taylor