“Ingenious and beguiling.â€
—Time
“Crichton keeps us guessing at every turn in his best work since The Andromeda Strain.â€
—Los Angeles Times
“Sphere may be Crichton’s best novel, but even if it ranked only second or third, it would be a must for suspense fans.â€
—Miami Herald
A classic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton, Sphere is a bravura demonstration of what he does better than anyone: riveting storytelling that combines frighteningly plausible, cutting edge science and technology with pulse-pounding action and serious chills. The gripping story of a group of American scientists sent to the ocean floor to investigate an alien ship, only to confront a terrifying discovery that defies imagination, Sphere is Crichton prime—truly masterful fiction from the ingenious mind that brought us Prey, State of Fear, and Jurassic Park.
This is the way the world ends:
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A nuclear strike on a deep sea vent. The target was an ancient microbe—voracious enough to drive the whole biosphere to extinction—and a handful of amphibious humans called rifters who’d inadvertently released it from three billion years of solitary confinement.
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The resulting tsunami killed millions. It’s not as through there was a choice: saving the world excuses almost any degree of collateral damage.
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Unless, of course, you miss the target.
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Now North America’s west coast lies in ruins. Millions of refugees rally around a mythical figure mysteriously risen from the deep sea. A world already wobbling towards collapse barely notices the spread of one more blight along its shores. And buried in the seething fast-forward jungle that use to be called Internet, something vast and inhuman reaches out to a woman with empty white eyes and machinery in her chest. A woman driven by rage, and incubating Armageddon.
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Her name is Lenie Clarke. She’s a rifter. She’s not nearly as dead as everyone thinks.
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And the whole damn world is collateral damage as far as she’s concerned. . . .