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Michael Crichton and James Patterson's novel Eruption fails to thrill

Eruption, the much-vaunted "collaboration" of the late Michael Crichton and thriller king James Patterson, may work better as a film than a book. Wait till then, says Emily H. Wilson

By Emily Wilson

5 June 2024

W0XR8N hawaii volcano kilauea

Lava flowing from Kīlauea, a shield volcano in Hawaii

Tomas Micek/Alamy

Eruption
Michael Crichton and James Patterson (Century (UK) Little, Brown (US))

If you were the person behind the long-running TV show ER, and also had the idea for Jurassic Park, you would be pretty proud of yourself, right? Now imagine you came up with those, plus Westworld, Twister and a host of other blockbusters.

That would make you Michael Crichton, of course. And what a spectacularly creative person he was. In 1995, he could lay claim to the US’s top-selling book (The Lost World), number one movie (Congo…

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