Airframe (Michael Crichton)

A pretty good book. It was interesting to me since I have worked in Quality Assurance. Michael Crichton seems to have done his research pretty well, except for one thing. I'm not sure, but I don't think that Export Control regulations would really allow transfer of wing technology to a foreign country. Other than that, there were some interesting insights into the effect of the media on a company's product, and all that can be done on both sides to affect the outcome of a news report. Some of the tension seems to have been over-manufactured - like being pursued in the dark in a nearly empty hanger - and seem unrealistic to me. But overall a good read.

This year might be the "year of Crichton" for me. I enjoyed this book a lot but I must admit that I'm a little spoiled by Michael. For the first third of the book I was waiting for some big "out of nowhere Crichton surprise", some supernatural thing that would explain or describe `Airframe'. There wasn't one and once I realized that I thought I was going to lose interest in the book. NOT SO! Although this book didn't have the classic "science-y" feel like his other ones this one is by no means boring! It is; however, very technical but Michael has that special skill to write a story so you don't feel stupid as you read it. It was a little different reading a Crichton story that dealt with the "real" world but (again) I really did enjoy it. This book is over 12 years old so I don't need to tell you about it but I do highly recommend it!

Reading this book, for me, was like riding on a commercial airplane. You get on the plane, all excited. You hear about what's coming up in your city of destination. You strap yourself in. You're all fidgety with anticipation. Then you wait. And wait. And wait. You feel like getting off the plane, you're so sick of waiting. FINALLY, it takes off!! That's how "Airframe" seemed to me. I nearly gave up on it, I was so weary of all the aeronautical acronyms and explanations of airplane processes and functions, I wanted action! I'm SO glad I waited. The last quarter of the book is completely worth the boredom of the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the book. Still, I wish those sections had been a little less yawn-inducing.

As the novel opens we see a young family nearing the end of a very long flight across the Pacific. The sun has come up, the passengers are waking to the sounds of the crew getting the breakfast service ready when suddenly, and without warning, the plane hits very rough turbulence. By the time the makes an emergency landing there are deaths and over 50 injuries. The manufacturer of the plane, Norton, finds itself blamed for the event by the FAA, the carrier and the media. Casey, the vice-president in charge of Quality Control begins the detailed investigation into the cause of the accident, one that she soon discovers to be complicated by various hidden agendas that have nothing to do with passenger safety. AIRFRAME is written in the usual Crichton taut style of short sections, some only a couple of paragraphs, that jump from character to character, as they progress in chronological order over the course of a week. Unfortunately although Crichton has stuck to his trademark ... Read more

I enjoyed this book. A bit different than the author's previous books. Quite a bit of mystery to the story which was very readable. The main character is very human and easy to identify with. The story goes into some interesting technnical aspects of airframe design and the ins and outs of contract grabbing. Some have criticized this book as being slow but I don't think so. This book is a good read.