I was a surgery resident when Andromeda Strain came out. Michael Crichton was a close friend of a fellow I knew from the Mass General Hospital when I was a medical student. Crichton had written the novel when a medical student and its enormous success (well deserved) sent him into writing instead of medicine. He is most famous for writing Jurassic Park, which became a hit movie. I might add, the movie scared the beejesus out of me when I saw it. His most recent work has been about global warming and a sensible approach, including a novel satirizing the GW alarmists.
His outstanding essay critiquing the AGW scare is here.
He will be missed. There will be plenty of time for post mortems on the election. This is more important.
Oddly enough, his web site with his speeches and books is suddenly unavailable.