Customer Reviews

Airframe

5 star:		(224)
4 star:		(160)
3 star:		(83)
2 star:		(58)
1 star:		(40)

 

 

I am constantly amazed by the breadth of Michael Crichton `s interests and by his remarkable skill in researching his subjects. I also find his indirectly expressed issues of more than passing significance. In Jurassic Park the issue is the arrogance of science in its manipulation of nature and the tendency of Western science to eschew accountability for the spillover costs to society when things go wrong. Airframe is another example of it. Here the issue of the freedom of speech and the lack of accountability of the media, particularly television news, is explored. In a society that has come to stress individual rights, little emphasis has been placed on individual responsibility. In order to be a functional culture, there has to be a balance of both rights and responsibilities. Airframe makes this abundantly clear.

As so often with Crichton's central characters, a uniquely placed individual must come to grips with the inherent difficulties of fighting an uphill battle against society's inertia. The heroine, Casey Singleton, is given the task of deciding how a disasterous air accident happened before a crucial business deal collapses and takes the company she works for and all of its employees down with it. It is by no means clear what is taking place, and ultimately she must come to trust her own personal interpretation of events to bring things to a head.

The detail is impressive. The characters are well developed and real. The story is riveting and fast paced. A thoroughly enjoyable book.

This is absolutely my favourite book by Michael Crichton. He may have a medical degree, but he writes about journalism, the media and politics with much more insight than the condescending attitudes of his scientist characters. This book is Crichton at his best--backed up, as ever, by extensive research into the topic, a cast of hugely realistic characters to love and love to hate, and, of course, an intriguing mystery thrown in to boot. Casey Singleton is a classic Crichton heroine--world-weary, wise, and an expert in her field, she reminds me of Sarah Harding from "The Lost World", except Casey has a REAL job. The realism of the plot is one of the main factors in making this one of Crichton's best books--all of this could really happen. I've seen other reviewers bellyache about the mundaneness of the final solution to the aircrash, but isn't that the most chilling note to the whole plot? Just how easily all this chaos was caused? Sleazy journalists, wise colleagues, a comical team of experts called in to exammine the aircraft, and at the centre of it all Casey Singleton, trying to save the company and at the same time trying to stop herself becoming the scapegoat to be sacrificed to the media: for me, this makes a brilliant novel. The final pages will blur by--and when you sit back with a sigh of relief, the underplayed conclusion to this book behind you, there is the final message: Don't believe everything you read in the papers. Well, I said it was realistically underplayed, didn't I?

This was a very enjoyable novel. The trademark punchy Crichton opening scene, around which the entire story revolves , is incredibly exciting. You'll also get a concentrated class in aviation acronyms. And the thoroughly satisfying "getting even" scene, toward the end, is especially tasty. Once again Mr Crichton gives you the tools to figure out the final revelation, but it will still knock you sideways, because I don't think you'll figure it out. The science is fine, and digestible. Once you get into the swing of things (acronym-wise) even the aircraft reports get semi-discernable, and pleasing. I highly recommend this book.

The inner workings of this book are fantastic. Michael Crichton puts us into the Norton Aircraft facilities, with all the political goings on, the backstabbing, the wolves at the gate and now...an air disaster.

As well as entertaining us, Crichton provides with an education in Public Relations and how the investigative journalism doesn't care about the truth, unless it suits their entertainment needs (one example is the DC-10 story he puts in).

I liked the main character who is always on the edge of losing her job. She has a tightrope the size of Dental Floss to work on and timelines that are impossible to meet. That, and the fact that her superiors want her to fail. It was worth the price of the book just to see how she would escape the tomb that others had thrown her in.

The book is chopped up into days (she has 7 days to figure out what caused a near-fatal problem that caused 3 deaths on a flight.) and that provides good suspense and closure as each section ends.

I recommend this book to anyone. It is a good read and one of Crichton's best books.

The narrative is very engaging in the best Crichton style. Since the chapters are very short (approximately 2-15 pages) and self-contained, you can read a piece whenever you have time without loosing the thread. This book is not only entertaining, but also very informative about how commercial airplanes are built and maintained. I fly frequently on long-haul flights and this book has changed the way in which I look and listen to the airplane where I am sitting on. I give only four stars because I could figure out the end before the final chapters, but it's only a minor detail.

If you are a frequent flyer, or afraid of flying, this is a riveting book that will easily cause several hours to pass and will have the added benefit of making you feel much safer as you fly.

The author has done a really outstanding job of first understanding and then explaining to a lay person the enormous complexity and rigorous attention to detail that go into building and testing commercial aircraft, and investigating mishaps when they occur.

The minor plot elements aside (the usual cast of media mediocrities, intra-office back-stabbers, etc.), this book makes aircraft safety *exciting.* I was completely absorbed in what this author has put together, and highly recommend this book as an intelligent thriller with a practical foundation.

Wow, now that's what I call a good, quick read. Michael Crichton just never lets you put down the book. At the end of almost every chapter, he leaves you with a cliffhanger just making you want to turn the page. Airframe was no exception. Airframe is about a commercial airliner and its internal happenings. Casey Singleton, the newly appointed QA director for the builder of the plane, gets the job just in time. En route from Hong Kong to Denver one of her company planes all the sudden jerks out of control. Does TWA Flight 800 ring a bell? Casey must investigate to find out why the plane mysteriously did so and in doing so killed several and injured many others. She encounters many obstacles along the way and has to do and say some things that she wouldn't normally. Overall all, I thought that Airframe was a very good book. I would recommend it to anyone over the age of 15. If you really want a rush, read it while flying on a plane. That should at least double the value of reading it.

I love this book! Michael Crichton writes his books in such a way that they are near impossible to put down. This is accomplished primarily by the fact that the story never gets boring, and he usually ends chapters on a cliffhanger note, thus nearly forcing you to turn the page. This applies not only to Airframe, but all of Crichton's book.

Also, his documentary approach to the novel of suspsense (complete with a very posh looking intro) will leaving you wondering whether or not the story really happened, such is the level of detail. It's a shame that this wasn't made into a movie as it seems more fit to be one than some of the other Crichton ones that they've made into movies (Rising Sun, Eaters of The Dead (13th Warrior).

I can gurantee one thing, after reading this book you'll either never worry about riding an airplane again, as the safety measures of them are recounted in this book so painstakingly detailed, or you'll never fly in one again!

Based on the plot blurb on the jacket, this didn't sound like one of Crichton's best novels, so I put off reading it for years. Now I wish I hadn't. Airframe stands up with his best. A story of corporate politics, union violence, bureaucratic b.s., and media responsibility (or the lack thereof), Airframe weaves all of these elements into a seamless whole.

Casey Singleton is a single mom, and a vice-president of quality assurance at Norton, one of the world's top (and few remaining) manufacturers of airframes (i.e., the body of an airplane, but not the engines). With a terrible but inexplicable accident threatening to upset a vital deal, it's up to her to get to the bottom of what actually happened in order to prove that the model of the plane is safe and reliable. But the union, afraid that jobs are going to be outsourced, will go to any lengths to stop the deal, and that means derailing Casey's investigation. Plus, it seems like there may be someone in upper management working against her as well. On top of all this, Casey is appointed as the company's liaison with the media about the incident. Can she deal with a violent union, back-stabbing co-workers, irresponsible journalists, senseless bureaucracy, and still solve the mystery in time?

As usual, Crichton puts in enough technical detail to make the story seem hyper-real, but not quite enough to bore the reader with minutiae entirely irrelevant to the story. And unlike some of his more science-fictiony stuff, this novel is firmly in the realism camp, along with some of his other better novels (Disclosure and The Great Train Robbery come to mind).

A couple of minor drawbacks: Some of the characters are a bit thinly drawn, for instance the upper-level management of the company, whom Crichton portrays as very hard workers in a sort of vague way but who we otherwise have no idea how they got where they are. And he treats some of his subject matter a bit inconsistently, for instance having a character who appears to be speaking for the author insist that federal regulation is the only way to ensure that corporations make safe products, but then showing regulatory agencies basically just getting in the way with a bunch of useless red tape and showing very clearly that the company's real motivation to put out a safe product is so they can actually sell it and make money off of it and not go out of business and all be out of jobs.

But these are fairly minor issues in the novel. Overall, it's a great read, and I highly recommend it.

The only reason that I gave this book four stars is simply because it is not the best Michael Crichton book.

Michael Crichton takes you in to the world of aviation design and politics and delivers a high suspense thriller.

Whether you have a broad knowledge of aviation mechanics, or never set foot on a plane, Crichton will give you an understanding that will take you deep inside the complexities of this remarkable field.

It will make you look at air turbulence in a whole new light.