Kraken, Kraken!

Original full size public domain image can be found here:

“Hunter went to the stern and looked down at the dreadful sight. The bulbous body of the creature was directly astern, and its many tentacles gripped the ship in a dozen places, whipping and snaking this way and that. The entire body of the animal was phosphorescent green in the growing darkness. The creature’s tentacles were snaking into windows of the aft cabins. Its bulbous body was at least twenty feet long, and trailing behind, a tangle of long tentacles, like Medusa’s head.”

Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton

Partaking in a Hallowed Privateer Ritual

"Sanson bit the gold doubloon, and passed it to Lazue. Lazue bit it then passed it to the Moor. Hunter watched the silent ritual, which all privateers believed brought them luck before a raid. Finally, the doubloon reached him, he bit it, feeling the softness of the metal. Then while they watched, he tossed the coin over his right shoulder." (Pirate Latitudes 181)

Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton

Pirates Blood

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

"Better a voyage begin in blood than end in blood."

Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton, page 100.

Works of Michael Crichton I Have Either Read or Have Seen

Michael Crichton has always been one of my favorite authors. The following are works of Michael Crichton I have read or seen.
Year	Title	Notes
1969	The Andromeda Strain	This title is one of many of Crichton’s work that was adapted for the cinema. This movie was full of suspense and drama.  The plot takes place in the present and depicts a situation where some organism finds its way to some small town out in the desert and most of people die because of their blood congealing in to granules. Two people survive; a wino and infant.
1975	The Great Train Robbery	I believe I saw the movie first and then read the book. I have found that the books are usually better than the movie, but in this case, I feel the movie was better than the book.  This story takes place in Victorian England and tells of a daring train robbery. Seeing the characters in person and viewing scenes from the Victorian era was delightful.
1980	Congo	I saw the movie first and then I read the book. This is another case where the movie seemed better than the book. Very suspenseful.  ”The novel centers on an expedition searching for diamonds and investigating the mysterious deaths of a previous expedition in the dense rain forest of Congo.” It seems that there are descendents of apes originally trained by the servants of King Solomon to protect the diamonds from being found.
1990	Jurassic Park	I read this book and I have seen the movie. In this case the movie was better in that it allowed you to see all those wonderful creatures and added a dramatization that only a movie could bring you.
1995	The Lost World	I wouldn’t mind seeing the movie; however, having seen Jurassic Park and having become more acquainted with these the creatures, the book was very enjoyable and full of suspense.
1999	Timeline	I don’t know whether this title was ever made into a movie, but the book was a good read. It features a plot that takes place in medieval England. A history professor gets warped to the past and his graduate students go back in time to rescue him. Very interesting plot; one of the grad-student becomes infatuated with one of ladies of this age and decides to stay behind. Everyone delightedly reads about his exploits in the redefined history books.

Maps of Fictional Places

I have always fancied maps and charts, especially old maps. I have studied cartography, have a couple books in my library about maps and have a small collection of maps and charts.

By viewing old maps you see how people envisioned their world back then. Some of the oldest maps indicate sea monsters and ships actually falling off the side of the earth. They actually believed the world to be flat.

Viewing the maps that accompany a novel has always fascinated me, maybe even more than the story itself. I believe a map makes the story even more believable. Over the years I have encountered several maps of fictional places. Here is a short list of maps I have encountered through my readings.

Earthsea

I read what, was then a trilogy, of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea fantasy novels during my late teens. The location for the novel takes place on a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by uncharted ocean. The islands are peopled by a few different cultures that use weapons created out of wood and iron. There are dragons, peoples, cultures, and wizards with their magic spells.

The Hobbit

Middle Earth

Middle-earth is the fictional universe created by the author J. R. R. Tolkien for his fantasy writings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Jurassic Park

Isla Nublar

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park was the much publicized theme park that never was. You must watch those disgruntled hackers.

The Lost World

Isla Sorna

The Lost World is another novel written by Michael Crichton. The Lost World is a sequel to his Jurassic Park. Isla Sorna is an island that is purported as being the location for the manufacture of the beasts found in Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park has been abandoned and something has went terribly wrong.

The Land that Time Forgot

Caprona (Caspak) Island

Caspak Island is a fictional island used in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Caspak trilogy, including The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss. Caspak is described as a land mass near Antarctica that through its unique geology is much like a tropical island.

The Lost World, Michael Crichton

I finished reading Michael Crichton’s The Lost World a few days ago. Crichton’s Lost World is a technology thriller. It is a sequel to his Jurassic Park. This is the second novel that I have read with this title, the first being The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that was released in 1912. Both novels were good reads.

Crichton’s The Lost World is probably best read after reading his Jurassic Park. The Lost World turns out to be a search and rescue mission to rescue the scientist Richard Levine, which after learning about Site B, the site where the animals for InGen’s Jurassic Park were manufactured, visits the site and runs into problems.

Some of Levine’s colleagues here of Levine’s problems through a distress call that Levine makes and go to rescue Levine. After arriving, the party made of several scientists and other characters, including Malcolm, a scientist that assisted with consulting at Jurassic Park, start running into to all sorts of problems.

There are many run-ins with predatory dinosaurs and with the addition of another party from InGen’s rival firm Biosyn, circumstances turn from bad to worse. Lewis Dodgson, a geneticist, the leader of this group will put aside all caution and takes all types of risks to obtain eggs from a couple of dinosaur’s nests, which brings trouble down on both groups.

The 403 page hard cover book took me about a week of evening readings to complete, and to be quite honest at the exclusion of everything else. As is the case with most of what I have read of Crichton’s work, the story line is intelligent and spell-bounding.