Jaws

 Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974, 278 pages)

This review contains book and movie spoilers!

I was so excited to read this book because of course, I love the 1975 movie. Perhaps it's unfair to compare them. In my mind Chief Brody is Roy Scheider! But in the book, he's a completely different character. He's more aggressive, mean, and impatient. Perhaps most of it stems from the shark terrorizing the water, though. He has the same care for the general good of the townspeople as in the movie, but his interpersonal relationships are a mess.

I wish I were joking when I say. That sixty pages. SIXTY. Were not about the shark. Or even the effects of the shark on the town. It is about Chief Brody's wife cheating on him. With, of all people, the scientist Matt Hooper. It was cringey and boring. It's also pretty clear that Mr. Benchley had some misogynist views.

The action though? Incredible. It was only the final 30-40 pages, but the build up and suspense (minus the whole cheating subplot) was great. It was genuinely pretty scary and I couldn't put it down. The fear from something so unforgiving, so unrelatable, so unrelentless, attacking you just to attack is terrifying. I think what I was looking for was a novel version of the movie and while the plots are pretty much the same, this isn't it.

Sphere

 Sphere by Michael Crichton (1987, 385 pages)

I picked this book up because I had just finished Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  by Jules Verne and heard Sphere pulls heavily from it. In this sci-fi mystery, a group of scientists is pulled together to investigate an airplane crash in the middle of the ocean. The list comes by the recommendation of psychologist Dr. Norman Johnson when the U.S. Navy asked him for a report on human responses to potential alien contact.

The story becomes claustrophobic as the scientists and Navy personnel live solely in a cramped underwater habitat. They have to don diving suits to access the underwater crash-- which they identify as American-made, but nothing they recognize. It becomes a little thriller-y when the human psyche is pushed to the limits of underwater living. Mysterious creatures show and events start happening after the discovery of a large polished sphere on board the crash site. A lot less dense than Jules Verne books, and a lot more mystery, but it does incorporate a few Vernian ideas.

I tend to love Michael Crichton books, and this one was interesting but left a lot to be desired. In my opinion, this book is for those who enjoy the fiction part more than the science part of science fiction. It has the mystery thriller part of Crichton's Andromeda Strain but fewer explanations and more focus on human interaction.