Cobbled from notes in Crichton's papers and put together quite professionally by Patterson. I don't know who did what. I'm guessing the heavy volcano mumbo jumbo was from Crichton. He specialised in taking a silly concept and grounding it in as much reality and research as possible. I totally bought it.
The novel started well, with its set up of a Hawaiian volcano about to expode and the reveal that it has gas that would wipe out the world and a plan to blow up the volcano and divert lava.
It gets less effective as it goes on. Main problem - the army and President keep everything hush hush. Why not tell the world and get the world's resources devoted to getting out the gas and blowing up the volcano? It affects the whole world. Why not tell the town and get them to evacuate?
The tough hero scientist Mac is particularly dull. Like he's tough and impulsive and has some girlfriend and... ugh. He's cardboard. I'm not sure why the reporters are Bad or the head of civilians or the volcano experts who appear on (gasp) TV.
The final volcano isn't bad with a decent death toll. They could've had that an evacuatin. But it sets things up nicely for a suicide run then goes into a deux ex machina. Frustrating.
Easy to read. Short chapters.
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