I know this news is old but just wanted to remind. He was one of my favorite authors and has died at the age of 66 (http://www.etonline.com/news/2008/11/67369/). For those of you who don't know him, he was the author of the renowned novel "Jurassic Park" (later a movie).

Regards

A talented man who produced some great stuff, but he ripped Jurassic Park from Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World" from 1912.

Erm.... ok.... thanks for the update.

'Really dead' as opposed to what?

Faked death?

A talented man who produced some great stuff, but he ripped Jurassic Park from Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World" from 1912.

Hardly ripped, there's no copyright in ideas, if there was you could say Conan Doyle ripped the idea from Jules Verne's 'Journey to the centre of the earth' that was published 48 years previously.

Publisher HarperCollins said the final novel he was working on is postponed indefinitely, his fans hope it will be published but no-one is commenting on how near to completion it was.

@Kamaljoe - If you haven't already read it, have a look at Crichton's book "Travels" - it's a very interesting, semi-autobiographical collection of incidents from his varied life, some memorable ones include almost killing Sean Connery whilst filming on the roof of a train, his search for inner enlightenment amongst the mystics and scuba diving with hundreds of sharks.