The Terminal Man - It Never Gets Old

I am a faithful reader of Michael Crichton's work. Recently I have been catching up with his previous books. This book was written about 20 years ago and I am surprised to find out that the information presented by the book still sends me shocks.

One of the things that I enjoy Michael Crichton's book is the amoutn of research and interesting points of views that he brings forth. His ideas and information regarding to technologies are alwasy so fresh and new that it draws immediate attention.

I think this book was one of his best work. Not only the technological information was interesting, but also the ideas asscoiated with it are intriguing as well.

The first 1/3 of the book was quite slow, however things start to pick up after that and you just never want to put down the book. The story ended somewhat abruptly, makes you feel like lingering for more. But I have finally realized, after reading tons of Michael Crichton's books, that it is one of his styles to leave things sort of sudden and unfinished.

I strongly recommend this book. Don't brush it off just because it is old, trust me, it is still as good as his new books.

Pretty good!

While "Terminal Man" isn't Crichton at his best, it's still a pretty good book. It's about a man who's having seizures that make him prone to violence. He's signed up for surgery that will implant an electrode which will control these seizures. Unfortunately, the electrode is implanted in one of the pleasure centers of the brain. This positively reinforces the seizures and subconsciously teaches the patient to have them more frequently, which actually makes him more violent. It doesn't help that he's psychotic, paranoid that machines will overthrow humanity.

One of the things I admire about Crichton's work is the amount of research he puts in before writing. He presents a lot of science fact (well, it was up-to-date in the 70s) along with science fiction. He also explores some of the philosophical implications of using brain surgery to curb violent behavior, and the relationship between computers and the human brain.

My chief complaint is that the novel ends rather abruptly. Usually, I expect novels to have a short chapter at the end that tells what happened to the characters afterwards, and this one didn't. A minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Okay medical Crichton

A man suffers from seizures that make him go psycho. I found this an ok book. I liked some of his other books better.

On the positive side action packed ending.

On the negative side it takes too long to get to the good part.