“A thing?” Murray said. “God, you scientists with your fancy words.”
There’s trouble brewing in paradise. Rumblings and earthquakes and the swelling of Mauna Loa indicate that an eruption is imminent, and it may be a big one, threatening the single urban area on Hawaii’s Big Island. Unfortunately, the situation is a lot worse than anyone outside of a single army base know: the lava flow stands to overrun the island’s dormant volcano that the Army is using to store some spectacularly dangerous experimental substances that should not, under any circumstances, be exposed to heat or stress or anything remotely interesting. The result is a disaster novel with SF tinges, one that has an interesting premise and an attractive setting, but is riven with plot implausibilities and characters I didn’t care much about even when they were dying. I mostly checked this out because of the interesting collusion of authors (the late Michael Crichton and the still-living James Patterson): Crichton is an author I’ve never failed to enjoy, and Patterson is an author I have….read. As collaborations go, this is definitely more of a Patterson novel than a Crichton novel, though there are some obvious Crichton elements: the amount of scientific detail, for instance, the running theme of hubris, and the occasional use of the reader being presented with the same data as the characters. There’s no author lecture, though, and the ending is solid “and then a miracle occurred” territory. It was an enjoyable enough way to pass the time, but it’s definitely not memorable like most of Crichton’s other works.
Reading Freely 
Sounds like a Crichton idea/outline but actually written/fleshed out by Patterson… As I’ve lost a *great* deal of faith in both authors I’ll take your advice and pass! [grin]
You ever had faith in Patterson? I’ve never read anything by him that wasn’t a potboiler….
I really liked his early Alex Cross detective novels…
Ahhh, okay. I think those came up in pre-covid Book Bunch meetings…
I’m not a huge thriller fan, so never read any Patterson. I do have my first Crichton read lined up in the next few months in the form of Sphere. Very dim memories of the film, but otherwise going in blind.
I remember that one fondly and will look forward to your review. I read Jurassic Park by him back in 2010 and have sampled his works pretty regularly since, though he has a great deal that I’ve not tried.
Looks like Michael’s wife should have chosen another author to go through his notes and write the book!
Yeaaaaah. Suarez or Crouch would have been excellent.