I viewed Crichton as one of the cleverest and most thought-provoking writers around, if not quite possessing the most profound prose. Whenever I picked up one of his books and read the blurb, I would inevitably go: damn, what a cool premise, I should read this book! And I did read a number of them. While I ended up generally liking the movie adaptations of his books more than the books themselves, a Michael Crichton story was something I paid attention to.
Farewell, Mr. Crichton. You will be missed by many.
I tended to prefer the books to the movies. Think I walked out of Sphere. Ah well...I had ideological differences with him, but I still liked his books.