Michael Crichton, author of many bestselling novels, including Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain, died Tuesday. He was 66.
In the New York Times, Charles McGrath described Crichton as "a kind of cyborg, tirelessly turning out novels that were intricately engineered entertainment systems. No one--except possibly Mr. Crichton himself--ever confused them with great literature, but very few readers who started a Crichton novel ever put it down."
Crichton was working on another novel during his illness, but Variety reported, "HarperCollins’ Jonathan Burnham said that it was unknown whether the book could be published posthumously, since the writer never discussed his work before it was completed. 'He was truly a unique talent,' Burnham said. 'A visionary thinker, a writer whose range of intellectual passion and curiosity was vast and a great and generous entertainer.'"