Airframe | Michael Crichton | This was like an airplane ride!

Airframe | Michael Crichton | A different M.C.

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Airframe

	Airframe Michael Crichton Ballantine Books, 1997 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 538 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. . . .

At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner bound from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation.

AIRFRAME is nonstop reading: the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that has been a Crichton landmark since The Andromeda Strain.

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This was like an airplane ride!

Reading this book, for me, was like riding on a commercial airplane.

You get on the plane, all excited. You hear about what's coming up in your city of destination. You strap yourself in. You're all fidgety with anticipation.

Then you wait. And wait. And wait.

You feel like getting off the plane, you're so sick of waiting.

FINALLY, it takes off!!

That's how "Airframe" seemed to me. I nearly gave up on it, I was so weary of all the aeronautical acronyms and explanations of airplane processes and functions, I wanted action!

I'm SO glad I waited. The last quarter of the book is completely worth the boredom of the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the book. Still, I wish those sections had been a little less yawn-inducing.

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A different M.C.

I enjoyed this book. A bit different than the author's previous books. Quite a bit of mystery to the story which was very readable. The main character is very human and easy to identify with. The story goes into some interesting technnical aspects of airframe design and the ins and outs of contract grabbing.

Some have criticized this book as being slow but I don't think so. This book is a good read.

This is why you need to keep your seat belt fastened

As the novel opens we see a young family nearing the end of a very long flight across the Pacific. The sun has come up, the passengers are waking to the sounds of the crew getting the breakfast service ready when suddenly, and without warning, the plane hits very rough turbulence. By the time the makes an emergency landing there are deaths and over 50 injuries.

The manufacturer of the plane, Norton, finds itself blamed for the event by the FAA, the carrier and the media. Casey, the vice-president in charge of Quality Control begins the detailed investigation into the cause of the accident, one that she soon discovers to be complicated by various hidden agendas that have nothing to do with passenger safety.

AIRFRAME is written in the usual Crichton taut style of short sections, some only a couple of paragraphs, that jump from character to character, as they progress in chronological order over the course of a week. Unfortunately although Crichton has stuck to his trademark style and done his usual thorough research this one is just not as compelling as JURASSIC PARK or ANDROMEDA STRAIN. The novel starts out strong but begins to drag towards the middle and by the end, this reader at least, was at the 'only a few pages to go, might as well finish' stage. Still, a less than average Crichton novel is better than many other authors' best effort so AIRFRAME is an excellent read. Just not the best choice for a reluctant flier to take on their next flight.

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Decent, but Lesser Crichton

AIRFRAME is a competent suspense novel, and I applaud Crichton's attempt to write an intelligent potboiler. But the characterization in this book is quite thin, and the subject matter is simply not as fascinating as Crichton seems to think.

As another reviewer commented, the technology in AIRFRAME outweighs the thrills. Crichton is a remarkably intelligent writer, but he tries too hard to incorporate aviation jargon into this particular book. I know that Crichton does extensive research for this novel, but I felt he made little effort to make most of it understandable to the reader. There were certain chapters where I simply felt my eyes glazing over.

Crichton also uses this novel to rant against certain things he dislikes in society (the media, trial lawyers, unions, US trade policy, the abolition of the fairness doctrine, etc.), which I ultimately found tiresome. The ending of AIRFRAME is also somewhat disappointing, given the huge buildup.

My advice is to go with some of Crichton's other work, such as THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, SPHERE, or JURASSIC PARK.

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Much slower