Michael Crichton dies

This news came as a shock:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The literary agent for Michael Crichton says the author has died in Los Angeles.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights
Reserved.)

Crichton is one of my favorite authors, having written such great books as Jurassic Park, Airframe, Timeline, Prey and Disclosure, just to name a few. He also created the TV show "ER."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a posting on his website says Crichton died unexpectedly after a courageous battle with cancer (I can't get into the site -- it appears to be down).

Crichton was 66. He started writing books about 40 years ago to help pay his way through medical school.

One of the things I loved was how he would take a complex scientific subject -- like DNA and paleontology in Jurassic Park, quantum physics in Timeline, nanoscience in Prey or genetic engineering in Next -- and explain it so thoroughly, but also in a way that made sense to the average reader. And then he'd marry it to an awesome adventure story.

His last book came out in 2006 and I was looking forward to his next one. He'll be missed.