Airframe

Airframe
Michael Crichton
ISBN: 90-245-0885-1
Thriller



Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal mid-air disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner bound for Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation. From The Critics Mary Elizabeth Williams Internal Memo Time Warner Disney Dreamworks Fox-Murdoch Turner Ventures, Inc. From: Ken Sprenkel, CEO To: Michael Wilson, Senior VP, Production I've just looked at the first galleys of Airframe, and I'm pleased to announce that Mike has gone and done it again. Airframe is going to be the biggest-grossing film of 1998. (The sequel to Mikey's Jurassic Park comes out in '97, right? Har har.) Let's just keep our fingers crossed that the FAA doesn't do anything stupid to step up air safety any time soon - a big disaster, timed to the release of the film, would be boffo. The story's great - a charter airline from Hong Kong (political statement? may need to rework) gets into some fatal turbulence (fatal turbulence! how does Crich come up with them?), and lands with a couple of passengers who've permanently cashed in their frequent flier miles. Of course this happens the same week the plane's American manufacturer is about to close a big sale with China - a sale that might or might not cost those hard-working union Yanks their jobs. What's right? What's wrong? Who's at fault for the disaster? (Don't worry - it isn't too morally ambiguous for the average Joe). I see either Sharon or Michelle in the lead as Casey, the gutsy but feminine quality control investigator. Michael Douglas was born to play the nefarious Norton Aircraft CEO John Marder. We're talking Oscar here. Plus there's meaty roles for the ambitious, backstabbing underling (get McConaughey's agent on the phone TODAY), and the scandal digging TV producer (I think either Gwyneth or Liv here, your thoughts?). Obviously, we'll have to gut those pages and pages of aviation terminology - BOR-ing! Mike can get so heavy-handed with that stuff. Which reminds me, let's try to negotiate him down on the fee for writing the screenplay. I mean, frankly, he's already done it. Read the book, you'll see. If he won't play ball, we'll threaten to get Eszterhas to tweak it. -- Salon Publishers Weekly Like his role model, H.G. Wells, Crichton likes to moralize in his novels. In this slight, enjoyable thriller, the moral is the superficiality of TV, especially of its simplistic news coverage. Readers willing to overlook the irony of this message being broadcast by the man who created TV's top-rated drama (E.R.) will marvel again at Crichton's uncanny commercial instincts. The event that launches the story, conceived long before TWA Flight 800's last takeoff, is an airline disaster. Why did a passenger plane "porpoise"-pitch and dive repeatedly-enroute from Hong Kong to Denver, killing four and injuring 56? That's what Casey Singleton, v-p for quality assurance for Norton Aircraft, has to find out fast. If Norton's design is to blame, its imminent deal with China may collapse, and the huge company along with it. With Casey as his unsubtle focus-she's one of the few Crichton heroines, an all-American gal who's more plot device than character-Crichton works readers through a brisk course in airline mechanics and safety. The accretion of technical detail, though fascinating, makes for initially slow reading that speeds up only fitfully when Casey is menaced by what seem to be union men angry over the Chinese deal. But as she uncovers numerous anomalies about the accident, and as high corporate intrigue and a ratings-hungry TV news team enter the picture, the plot complicates and suspense rises, peaking high above the earth in an exciting re-creation of the flight. It's possible that Crichton has invented a new subgenre here-the industrial thriller-despite element.

Recensie:

Van dit boek geen enkele recensie gevonden en dat verbaast me. Het verhaal gaat eigenlijk over de luchtvaartindustrie, de bouw van vliegtuigen en de concurrentie daarvan tussen bouwers onderling en de leveranciers van de onderdelen. Tevens gaat het over de macht van de overkoepelende toezichthouders, de corruptie in die wereld en het gevaar wat passagiers lopen, omdat van bovenaf een strijd uitgevochten moet worden. Natuurlijk gaat het over geld: investeer niet in de beste materialen, dat levert meer winst, maar tevens meer ongelukken op. Een boeiend verhaal, maar wel met veel technische gegevens en lappen codes waar wij als leek niets mee kunnen. Tussendoor een spannend verhaal met bedreigingen en afpersing. Maar voor mij iets te eenzijdig. Niet gaan lezen als je op vliegvakantie gaat!

GH