Odds On

Odds On is Michael Crichton's first published novel, as well as the first novel under his pen name, John Lange.[1] It was released in 1966 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a short 215-page paperback novel. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name on November 19, 2013.[2]

Odds On
First edition cover
AuthorJohn Lange
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSignet Books
Publication date
1966
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages215
LC ClassPS3553.R48
Followed byScratch One 

Plot summary

It describes an attempt of robbery in an isolated hotel on Costa Brava. The robbery is planned with the help of a Critical Path Analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way.

Structure and format

As in many other Crichton novels the chapters are named by date as in a diary, rather than by number or other content. In this particular novel the chapters reflect the total timespan, the ticking clock, of the plot as a whole. The fifteen chapters begins with Saturday, June Fourteenth, and ending with Afternoon, June Twenty-Second. The timespan of the story is just a little more than a week, which is yet another similarity to Crichton's later novels.[3]

Being his first book, it also contains some of Crichton's 'trademarks' for the first time. Among other things, Crichton started his tradition of beginning his novels with quotes:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
– Benjamin Disraeli

Background

Crichton wrote the book in 1965 while a student at Harvard Medical School. He sent it to Doubleday for consideration under the name "John Lange". A reader at Doubleday loved the book but thought it was "too saucy" for that company, so sent it on to a friend at New American Library.[4]

Crichton used the name John Lange because at this stage he planned to be a doctor and did not want his patients worried he would use them for his plots. The name came from a fairy tale writer called Andrew Lang; Crichton added an "e" and substituted his own real first name, John, for Andrew.[5]

Proposed adaptation

In 1969, around the time film rights were bought for Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, independent producer Sam Roy bought the film rights to Odds On.[6] However, no movie was made.

gollark: Why do they need that? No idea. Can anyone get rid of that power? Probably not.
gollark: UK surveillance law gives some random government food regulation agency power to look at internet history data or something like that.
gollark: Fortunately, that doesn't matter because they don't mean anything and can just be ignored arbitrarily by judges.
gollark: Contracts for some things say "we can arbitrarily rewrite this and you can't do anything about it muahahaha", and despite those being really apious you have to agree to those too.
gollark: It sort of holds together, but not in an elegant, consistent or comprehensible way.

References
  1. "Fantasist's Midas touch". The Australian. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
  2. "Hard Case Crime to Publish Early Crichton Thrillers".
  3. "Odds On".
  4. Seligson, Marcia. (June 8, 1969). "The versatile Crichton". Chicago Tribune. p. k6.
  5. ISRAEL SHENKER (June 8, 1969). "Michael Crichton (rhymes with frighten): Michael Crichton". New York Times. p. BR5.
  6. A. H. WEILER (July 6, 1969). "No Gap Like the Generation Gap". New York Times. p. D11.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.