Imaginary raptors roar in grief. The modern world lost a literary giant in the closing weeks of 2008.

Popular author Michael Crichton, age 66, succumbed to cancer and died in Los Angeles. His demise saddens consumers of popular culture. Crichton’s entertaining and exciting stories drew on everything from huge dinosaurs to deadly micro-organisms. He even excelled as a TV/film producer and director.

Crichton’s name graces the covers of techno-thriller novels found in tens of millions of homes. In his Jurassic Park books, menacing dinosaurs make a comeback. In The Andromeda Strain, a military satellite carries a hazardous extraterrestrial organism. In Congo, a jungle expedition faces an astonishing menace. His other leading titles include: The Great Train Robbery, Disclosure, State of Fear and Prey.

Altogether, Crichton’s books sold 150 million copies in 30 languages. His best stories spawned 13 Hollywood movies. By creating ER, a hit TV show about an American hospital’s emergency room, he proved potent on the small screen too.

“Michael’s talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs,” said Steven Spielberg, who directed the movie version of Jurassic Park. “He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth.”

A medical doctor by training, Crichton used technical knowledge to make his fiction realistic and believable. Originally from Chicago, he studied at Harvard and taught at England’s Cambridge University.

Readers appreciated Crichton’s knack to tell complex stories simply. In The Andromeda Strain, for example: “A man with binoculars. That is how it began: with a man standing by the side of the road, on a crest overlooking a small Arizona town, on a winter night. Lieutenant Roger Shawn must have found the binoculars difficult. The metal would be cold, and he would be clumsy in his fur parka and heavy gloves.”

Maybe friendly dinosaurs roam in the heavenly realm where Crichton now resides. Maybe he’ll meet a few folks who died of heart attacks while reading his books. Surely he’ll work on new thrillers to please readers in the “afterlife”.

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