Sphere explores fear and panic when confronted with the unknown. It shows us the power of groups and the ease in which we can turn against each other.
Introduction
I’ve read a few of these Michael Crichton books, namely the Andromeda and Jurassic Park books, and I’m generally pleasantly surprised by them even though, for the most part, they deliver on a set pattern and have a familiar style to them.
There’s usually a team of scientists or other assorted professionals. They’re often trapped in some sort of place where they can’t leave. Then they run into horrors beyond comprehension. Throughout the novel, they slowly have to comprehend those horrors through deduction, logical reasoning, and good old-fashioned science as people die all around them.
Sphere takes place almost completely underwater, a thousand feet below the sea, in an elaborate Navy habitat. They’re sent down there to explore a supposed alien artifact.
At first, things slowly go wrong with mystery oozing out from every corner, then the plot rapidly accelerates until things quickly spiral beyond control. Like some sort of horrific Jules Verne nightmare.
It’s very cinematic, and I always feel his books have gripping climaxes. He’s very much a movie author, but I mean that in the best possible way. I can envision every scene and those imagined pictures stick with you far after the book is put away. There’s lots of action, and he doesn’t waste time.
I love his exploration of scientific concepts and how he twists them to create uncomfortable and ponderous situations. He keeps you on your toes with just enough threads that you never really know where it’s going to turn next.
Summary
Our protagonist, an accomplished psychologist named Norman Johnson, is sent along with a small team down beneath the water to investigate a crashed spaceship hidden under 300 years of coral in the Pacific Ocean.
The Navy tells them that this may be the work of extraterrestrial intelligences, so they are enacting hypothetical plans that Norman had written up years prior for that express purpose.
His workmates include a young black mathematician and child prodigy named Harry Adams, who’s smart, anti-social, and always keeps a few steps ahead of everybody else.
He bumps heads with Ted Fielding, an optimistic but aging astrophysicist primarily concerned with leaving a legacy and making a name for himself.
The female zoologist is Beth Halpern. She is constantly on guard and is fearful of being diminished after her research was stolen years back. Her desire to be recognized is a constant battle with others and with herself.
They are led by Navy Captain Harold Barnes. He is exasperated whenever the mission goes beyond his control and is primarily occupied with the optics back on land.
Norman is the least defined and mostly defensive about his position as a psychologist in a room full of more external scientists. He struggles with thoughts of inferiority (physical and mental) and feels useless most of the time. Most of the book consists of him analyzing others.
It is discovered almost immediately that the spaceship is not designed by aliens, but instead by a United States nearly 60 years in the future. Somehow the ship traveled back in time and crashed in the Pacific Ocean centuries ago only to be found in the 1980s.
As if that revelation wasn’t enough, on board the ship, they discover a perfectly machined metallic sphere about the size of a small house.
The plot truly heats up once Harry discovers how to enter the sphere. He goes in alone without telling anybody else how he did it. A little while later, he’s spat back out, and remembers very little of the experience.
After being nursed back to health, strange things start to happen on the dark ocean plateau where they are situated. Large populations of marine animals start to surround the undersea habitat, and a strange code begins to emanate from the computer terminals.
Through a series of deductions, they realize the computer code is actually an entity trying to communicate with them. This entity calls itself Jerry. Not only do they suspect that this entity originates from the sphere, but they also think that it is manifesting the creatures they are seeing.
This is when tragedy strikes and one of the crewmen, (crew-women, to be precise), Jane Edmunds is swarmed by jellyfish while archiving the expeditions recordings. They chew through her diving suit and leave her dead. Painful screams ring through the intercom in her last final moments.
And if that wasn’t enough, soon after, the entire habitat is attacked by a giant squid. Their life support is severely damaged and many of the remaining crew members die. Over the course of these marine manifestations, everyone is picked off except for Norman, Beth, and Harry.
All the while, severe storms are thundering overhead, locking them down in this deep, dark arena.
There are other inexplicable changes. Unidentified seamen start to appear in the labs and living quarters. The internal layout of the habitat itself seems to change.
Beth returns to the spaceship and discovers entirely new sections that weren’t there before. Norman begins to piece together what is happening.
He discovers that the entity they’ve been talking to through the computer, as well as the strange manifestations, creations and changes that have appeared all spring from the subconscious mind of Harry. Norman deduces that entering the sphere gives one the ability to create reality through pure imagination.
Norman and Beth come up with a plan to sedate Harry until the storms have passed and they can reach the surface. They succeed in tranquilizing Harry with a constant supply of intravenous drugs.
No sooner does Norman do this than he starts to realize that Beth is acting strangely herself. It doesn’t take him long to put together that she has also been in the sphere. Her subconscious is much more dangerous, hostile, and far further in denial. She rigs the habitat to explode and attacks Norman, trying to sedate him. He avoids her and runs, finding refuge in the science lab. She eventually attempts to murder him by shutting off life support to the room.
He escapes and realizes the only way he can survive is by going in the sphere himself. While inside, he has a conversation with his own subconscious mind. Beth threatens to kill them all with the explosives. Norman attempts to disarm them, but instead, activates a 20-minute timer that cannot be undone.
His first thought is to escape and save himself, but eventually he turns back to save both Beth and Harry. He nearly dies in the attempt, but all three of them successfully make it to the submarine.
They narrowly avoid the blast radius, riding the shockwave to the surface just as the weather clears and the Navy arrives.
In the end, all three of them decide that this power is too great and too dangerous. So they use the power to rewrite reality in order to alter the recordings, any evidence, and to forget the power exists at all.
They exit the novel unaware of what happened to them during their time below.
Conclusion
Overall, the book is about the responsibility of thought, how panic and fear can overtake us. It’s about psychology, the power of group dynamics, and how the unknown can lead us to act in unpredictable ways.
The story went in a direction I didn’t prepare for, but it was good regardless. I thought it’d be more about the spaceship itself and where it came from and the premise of time-travel. Which ended up being a very minor part of the story.
A few of the mystery points were just small red herrings that were resolved without any fanfare. He introduced a few characters that just exited without much being done with them. In the beginning of the story, there was a marine biologist that was meant to be with them, Dr. Arthur Levine but he’s seasick and doesn’t make it to the main setting.
At one point Beth says that the animals she’s studying don’t have stomachs or gills. Which is resolved merely a few scenes later as her just being overwhelmed at the situation and tired.
Once the first character died, many of the other characters perished in quick succession. The Navy crewmen, in particular, were one-note and weren’t given the opportunity to do much beyond dying.
It makes this story delightfully unpredictable, but also makes it feel underexplored. I have a copy of Airframe sitting on my shelf, and I hope to make that my next Michael Crichton exploration.
I also plan on checking out the (reportedly) middling film adaptation with Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson.