Publication Order of Jurassic Park Books
| Jurassic Park | 1990 |
| The Lost World | 1995 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| A Case of Need | 1968 |
| The Andromeda Strain | 1969 |
| Dealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (With: Douglas Crichton) | 1970 |
| The Terminal Man | 1972 |
| The Great Train Robbery | 1975 |
| Eaters of the Dead / The 13th Warrior | 1976 |
| Congo | 1980 |
| Sphere | 1987 |
| Rising Sun | 1992 |
| Disclosure | 1994 |
| Airframe | 1996 |
| Timeline | 1999 |
| Prey | 2002 |
| State of Fear | 2004 |
| Next | 2006 |
| Pirate Latitudes | 2009 |
| Micro (With: Richard Preston) | 2011 |
| Dragon Teeth | 2017 |
| Eruption (With: James Patterson) | 2024 |
Publication Order of John Lange Books
| Odds On | 1966 |
| Scratch One | 1967 |
| Easy Go / The Last Tomb | 1968 |
| Zero Cool | 1969 |
| The Venom Business | 1969 |
| Drug of Choice / Overkill | 1970 |
| Grave Descend | 1970 |
| Binary | 1972 |
| A Murder in Hollywood | 2026 |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| Five Patients | 1970 |
| Jasper Johns | 1977 |
| Electronic Life | 1983 |
| Travels | 1988 |
About Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton (1942 to 2008) was an American novelist and filmmaker, best known for “Jurassic Park” and “The Andromeda Strain”. His techno-thrillers and science fiction novels have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and more than a dozen have been adapted into films.
Crichton was born in Chicago and raised in Roslyn, on Long Island. He studied at Harvard, graduating in 1964, and received an MD from Harvard Medical School in 1969, but never obtained a licence to practise medicine. He wrote his first novels as a medical student under the pen name John Lange, beginning with “Odds On” (1966). “A Case of Need” (1968), a medical thriller published as Jeffery Hudson, won him an Edgar Award.
The first novel to appear under his own name was “The Andromeda Strain” (1969), about scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism. It made him a bestselling author and was filmed by Robert Wise in 1971. He followed it with “The Terminal Man”, “The Great Train Robbery”, “Eaters of the Dead”, “Congo” and “Sphere”. He also wrote and directed films, including “Westworld” (1973) and “Coma” (1978).
“Jurassic Park” (1990), in which cloned dinosaurs escape in a wildlife park on an island off Costa Rica, was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1993. Its sequel, “The Lost World”, followed in 1995. Crichton also created the television drama “ER”, which ran from 1994 to 2009. His later novels include “Rising Sun”, “Disclosure”, “Airframe”, “Timeline”, “Prey”, “State of Fear” and “Next” (2006), the last published in his lifetime.
Crichton died on 4 November 2008, aged 66, while being treated for lymphoma. Several books have been published since. “Pirate Latitudes” (2009) was found as a manuscript on one of his computers, “Micro” (2011) was completed by Richard Preston, and “Dragon Teeth” (2017) is a historical novel he had written in 1974. “Eruption” (2024), about an eruption of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano, was completed by James Patterson from an unfinished manuscript. “A Murder in Hollywood”, a previously unpublished John Lange mystery set in 1970s Hollywood, was released in May 2026.
Photo: Jon Chase photo/Harvard News Office, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).