With the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park (film) having just passed, I’ve had Michael Crichton on my mind. I was introduced to him with Prey in middle school (undoubtedly a little early for the material) and I consider his work to be hugely influential in my love for reading today.
Bearing in mind at the end there he got a bit controversial, I still love almost every Crichton book I’ve read and have a few cherished copies of Prey and Airframe in my collection (IMO an underrated title in his backlist).
Are you a Michael Crichton fan and if so which titles do you most enjoy? Who are some other pop fiction authors you enjoy or consider guilty pleasures?
From the original “pulp” era: Sax Rohmer. Love that 1920s pulp fiction. He’s horribly racist, but it’s enjoyable if you just swap the “heroes” and “villians” in your head as you read. (Fu Manchu is the most evil man in the world because… he wants to free China from British colonial rule? Right. Go Fu Manchu!)
Also, Doc Savage. I like Doc in the same way I like the 60s Batman TV show: I don’t particularly like the “heroes”, I just enjoy the environment. (In one Doc Savage story I read recently, Doc’s plane is described as being so INCREDIBLY high-tech and bleeding edge, that the WHEELS RETRACT WHEN IN FLIGHT. Amazing. WHAT ELSE WILL THE FUTURE BRING!?!?)
I grew up on Lovecraft, but have discovered that what I like most in his work was done better, previously, by Lord Dunsany. (Particularly the Dream Quest stuff.)
I own a few magazines from the end of that era. These are issues #2 & #3 of Fantastic Magazine, 1952:
That cover art is incredible, holy crap
Oh wow OK you win the thread! Those magazines are wonderful, what fun items to have in your collection.
I think it can sometimes be difficult to consume media from periods where the common belief systems were just so antithetical to today’s way of thinking (especially older pulp) but it sounds like you have a fair way of handing the dated ideologies 😊
Some writers you can use the reverse trick on, some you can’t. Some stuff is just horrible and should be avoided. But I’m definitely against pretending there’s no problem.