Michael Crichton Within a space ship lying on the sea bottom is a mysterious sphere that promises each of the main characters some personal reward: military might, professional prestige, power, understanding. Trapped underwater with the sphere, the humans confront eerie and increasingly dangerous threats after communication with the alien object has been achieved.

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton A space probe, designed to collect organisms and dust for study, falls to earth in a desolate area of north-eastern Arizona. In a nearby town, bodies lie flung about, faces frozen in surprise. The terror has begun. This bestseller is by the author of "Jurassic Park".

Michael Crichton Some biologists speculate that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials, those life forms are likely to be—like most life on Earth—one-celled creatures or less, more comparable to bacteria than little green men. And even though such organisms would not likely be able to harm humans, the possibility exists that first contact might be our last.

That's the scientific supposition that Michael Crichton formulates and follows out to its conclusion in his excellent debut novel, TheAndromeda Strain. A Nobel-winning bacteriologist, Jeremy Stone, urges the president to approve an extraterrestrial decontamination facility, to sterilise returning astronauts, satellites and spacecraft that might carry such an "unknown biologic agent." The government agrees, almost too quickly, to build the top- secret Wildfire Lab in the desert of Nevada. Shortly thereafter, unbeknownst to Stone, the US Army initiates the "Scoop" satellite program, an attempt to actively collect space pathogens for use in biological warfare. When Scoop VII crashes a couple years later in the isolated Arizona town of Piedmont, they end up getting more than they asked for.

The Andromeda Strain follows Stone and rest of the scientific team mobilised to react to the Scoop crash, as they scramble to understand and contain a strange and deadly outbreak. Crichton's first book may well be his best, with an earnestness missing from his later, more calculated thrillers. —Paul Hughes, Amazon.com

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton Harry has a problem. Ever since getting in a car accident, he's suffered from "thought seizures", violent fits in which he attacks other people. He used to be an artificial intelligence researcher, which may explain why he targets anyone who either works on machines or who acts like a machine—mechanics, gas-station attendants, prostitutes, exotic dancers. But there's hope: He can become part machine himself, undergoing "Stage 3", an experimental procedure implanting 40 electrodes deep in the pleasure centres of his brain. The surgery is successful and blissful pulses of electricity short- circuit Harry's seizures. That is, until Harry figures out how to overload himself with the satisfying jolts and escapes on a murderous rampage. One of Crichton's earliest, playing ably on 70s' fears of computers and mind-control. —Paul Hughes, Amazon.com

Karen Joy Fowler

ARTHUR MILLER

Sue Townsend