Easy Go: One of Crichton’s Earliest is a Mediocre Romp

So recently I learned that there are some books from my author I never read. I For ages declared I have read every Michael Crichton novel, but there are some books not many know about. There are a select few he wrote in college. They were published under the pen name of John Lange and it wasn’t until after his death that they were rebranded as the Michael Crichton's Med School books. There five or of them and the book I decided to read first was Easy Go.

So what is Easy Go? It starts with an archaeologist name Baranby, who while in Egypt one day, thinks, “I want to rob a tomb,” and he has a good idea of where an undiscovered tomb is. Late that night he has a drink in a bar and meets a journalist named Pierce. He likes Pierce and trusts him enough to pass the idea of the tomb raiding by him. And not only does Pierce want to do it, he has connections. A team is put together and they go off to rob a tomb.

So the good? It’s fun. It’s different. It is a fun little tale. Also it has a nice little twist ending you don’t see coming.

The bad? There were two things that I found very odd. One concerned the women in this book. Most women are prostitutes without a name only in the story so that the male characters can be entertained. Then there’s Lisa. She is a character who when introduced appeared to have purpose at first, but was really there so that Pierce would have a love interest. Seriously, she could have been replaced with a house plant and it would have changed nothing. I do understand that Crichton was young when he wrote this and it was just a different environment in America at the time. So I can cut him slack and say that the culture and youthful ignorance led to this portrayal, because he has such developed female characters in his more well known later novels. But some people may not look at it this way and get offended. The same could be said to the referral of Egyptians as Arabs in this story, which could be an issue for people. But again, this is if you’re easily offended. I tend to blow these things off when I read books and just ignore it to focuses on the core story. So this is more of a warning for people. This book is very old and its not politically correct as some would like. Another thing I found odd is it starts as Barnaby’s story, but Pierce hijacks the book fifty pages in. It’s very bizarre. Lastly this book is about tomb raiding and that is it. There are no chance scenes, espionage, Indiana Jones like traps, or curses. They are just robbing a tomb. Toward the end they all face unexpected consequences for their actions you don’t see coming. It’s a very big moral dilemma. But despite the intriguing ending, the reader will be wondering when and if something will happen.

Overall, this is an interesting early work of Michael Crichton and far from the quality of his later stuff. It’s not for everyone. A lot of people may be very disappointed and very bored. But for a lot of people this will be good read, bust because it is well paced, well written and just a different engaging read.

2 smoothies out of four.

Overall Rating: One of Crichton’s Earliest is a Mediocre Romp