Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Ballantine Books (1988), Edition: Reissue, 288 pages
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a neurological thriller about the dangers of cutting-edge medical experimentation. Harry Benson suffers from violent seizures. So violent that he often blackouts when they take hold. Shortly after severely beating two men during an episode, the police escort Benson to a Los Angeles hospital for treatment. There, Dr. Roger McPherson, head of the prestigious Neuropsychiatric Research Unit, is convinced he can cure Benson with an experimental procedure that would place electrodes deep in his brain�??s pleasure centers, effectively short-circuiting Harry's seizures with pulses of bliss. The surgery is successful, but while Benson is in recovery, he discovers how to trigger the pulses himself. To make matters worse his violent impulses have only grown, and he soon escapes the hospital with a deadly agenda.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jimmaclachlan
Years ago, I saw "The Andromeda Strain" & then saw this book, so I picked it up. It was pretty good & was an early explorer of man-computer interfacing. It also shows the fallacy of positive feedback as a form of control. There's a fair amount of gore & the hospital descriptions really impressed
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me. It might be a bit dated now, though. If you have to hunt up a volume, try to find the first hardback. It had some good, if a bit gruesome, illustrations in it, as I recall. Show Less
LibraryThing member b_zedan
Oh Michael Crichton, you've never liked machines, have you?
LibraryThing member Omrythea
Reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange, this new therapy is questioned. Can we really control people so easily? Compelling, engaging, interesting, tense, a must-read for Crichton fans.
LibraryThing member wfzimmerman
With the benefit of 35 years of HMOs, stem cell research, cloning, and information technology, this title looks more prescient than ever.
LibraryThing member HvyMetalMG
My 3rd experience with Crichton and it was not the best. A good story nonetheless, but nothing to write home about.
LibraryThing member mramos
Though this book is a good and quick read. It is not up to the standards of Crichton's other books. But still better than many books out there. The Terminal man does keep your interest. This is an old time Sci-Fi story. You can tell that Michael Crichton did research on Psychology and the technical
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aspects of the age. Giving the story some semblance of fact. Show Less
LibraryThing member BrennanRSmith
The medical surgery of the century was going to be performed on a man who believed that technology was evil. Unfortunately, this project would include sticking wires into his brain to control the spasms that kept happening. He could not remember these spasms but when he came out of them there was
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destruction all around, and some times dead people. So he was taken into the hospital and the doctors had mixed feelings about how the operation would turn out. So to find out if the surgery will be successful red the Terminal man by Michael Creighton. Show Less
LibraryThing member StormRaven
The Terminal Man is a by-the-numbers Crichton novel. Reckless doctors rush a new procedure into use that has scary implications (and for extra scariness, it is powered by a plutonium implant). A wise Cassandra-like protagonist warns against the new procedure, but is ignored. The procedure is
The story would have been helped if the Cassandra-protagonist's warnings hadn't been so tepid, or if she had stopped whining about how the male doctors wouldn't listen to her because she was a woman (the male doctors probably didn't listen to her because her warnings were couched in such listless ways). The plot itself is extremely linear - the book is literally procedure, screw up, resolution. And things go wrong in the book because the nurse's in the hospital ward where medical experiments are conducted are portrayed as being extraordinarily dense: they don't recognize the signature of the head of the ward on the experimental patient's chart, and just ignore this critical notation on the chart rather than ask anyone about it. It seems as if Crichton thinks women are simpering fools with heads full of cotton.
This book was one of Crichton's earlier efforts, and it shows. As said before, the Crichton anti-technology playbook is in evidence, probably in its most basic form in this book. The characters are wooden, the female characters are also almost universally stupid or timid, or both. Elements are introduced that have no payoff, like the plutonium powered nature of the implant, the growing memory capabilities of computers, and the unexplained breakdown of a couple simulated computer personalities (which vaguely tie into the plot, but only just barely). Crichton's anti-technology paranoia is front and center through the whole story. The book was made into a movie that flopped, and it is easy to figure out why. This is a book not worth wasting one's time upon.
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performed, and disaster ensues. People die or get horribly injured. The heroic protagonist, with the help of a love interest quality police captain, tracks down the villain and ends the threat.The story would have been helped if the Cassandra-protagonist's warnings hadn't been so tepid, or if she had stopped whining about how the male doctors wouldn't listen to her because she was a woman (the male doctors probably didn't listen to her because her warnings were couched in such listless ways). The plot itself is extremely linear - the book is literally procedure, screw up, resolution. And things go wrong in the book because the nurse's in the hospital ward where medical experiments are conducted are portrayed as being extraordinarily dense: they don't recognize the signature of the head of the ward on the experimental patient's chart, and just ignore this critical notation on the chart rather than ask anyone about it. It seems as if Crichton thinks women are simpering fools with heads full of cotton.
This book was one of Crichton's earlier efforts, and it shows. As said before, the Crichton anti-technology playbook is in evidence, probably in its most basic form in this book. The characters are wooden, the female characters are also almost universally stupid or timid, or both. Elements are introduced that have no payoff, like the plutonium powered nature of the implant, the growing memory capabilities of computers, and the unexplained breakdown of a couple simulated computer personalities (which vaguely tie into the plot, but only just barely). Crichton's anti-technology paranoia is front and center through the whole story. The book was made into a movie that flopped, and it is easy to figure out why. This is a book not worth wasting one's time upon.
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LibraryThing member andyray
one can almost feel the tentative probing of the first time novelist in this story. it is written by a physician probing the story format. he got it right. this is first edition of second book, and first one to make it to national attention in 1972. a one-time read. not unusally brilliant...more
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technical. Show Less
LibraryThing member tororojo
Wow, the underlying science and technology is really dated, almost 40 years later. That's to be expected, but that facet will be at the forefront of the reader's consciousness.
The book displays the origins of Crichton's technique of extrapolating current science to craft a thriller novel, but it's
The book displays the origins of Crichton's technique of extrapolating current science to craft a thriller novel, but it's
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not as polished as his later work. Show Less
LibraryThing member brysoncrichton
The first Crichton book I ever read but the one that got me hooked. My memory of the details is vague but I remember the exhilaration you get when you finish a good read. Now if I could only get the image of George Segal from the movie out of my head.
LibraryThing member Anagarika-Sean
This book was alright. Mr. Crichton has done much better.
LibraryThing member StBu0404
A good book about a man who has problems with his brain. These problems cause him to have seizures and become very aggressive after these seizures. He gets beta surgery that temporarily helps him, then makes him worse
LibraryThing member reblacke
Another Crichton masterpiece.
LibraryThing member AliceAnna
I didn't really care for this one. It meandered a bit plot-wise, and many of the characters were difficult to separate and put faces to. The climactic points were well-crafted, but overall nothing to grab you. I don't care for the way he writes his female characters in some of his books (including
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this one). He comes across as somewhat misogynistic. Show Less
LibraryThing member petrichor8
I thought the ending was too abrupt, left room for more
LibraryThing member mckzlve
Spoiler-free review: I thought it was a fairly interesting book. I just finished reading Sphere by Chrichton. I thought Sphere was much more profound and less predictable. The plot of The Terminal Man was was somewhat predictable, but I still enjoyed reading the book. In my opinion, the ending
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wasn't terrible, but it wasn't immensely satisfying either. Overall, it was an okay book. I'd recommend it to fans of thrillers with a bit of sci-fi mixed in. 7/10 Show Less
LibraryThing member claidheamdanns
A lot of cursing, but otherwise a very interesting story. The ending was not what I expected. But you’ll have to read it yourself and see what you think.
Subjects
Awards
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1972)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1972
ISBN
0345354621 / 9780345354624