Tag Archives: techno-thriller

SENSORY DEPRIVATION IN AN IMMERSION TANK – and how it relates to the science technothriller, A REMEDY FOR DEATH

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A while back, I posted here on how author Michael Crichton used an immersion tank to jump-start his idea factory.

That post on immersion tanks drew a lot of clicks, so I thought I’d offer you a long sample from my science technothriller, A REMEDY FOR DEATH –particularly, the section in which Dr. Doug Dalby, a brain researcher, tries out sensory deprivation at a shadowy clinic hidden away in the spooky mountains of central Europe.

How do the immersion tanks and  hyperbaric oxygen treatments relate to what’s going on at the Hauenfelder Clinic and why it’s being supported by a cabal of really, really rich old guys? Well, if you really want to know, then I hope you’ll read the book.

(And, by the way, while this clinic is fictional, I suspect the reality may not be so far away–rich old (and not so old) folks have it good this time ’round, and are not eager to leave it all behind.  See the archive of my posts on this blog.)

Here’s the link to that free sample, and how to order the book via Amazon: To buy A REMEDY FOR DEATH via Amazon as pbook or ebook

Also, here’s the link to my post “Michael Crichton and how he used an immersion tank to jump-start his ideas: __________

Special sample: how sensory deprivation immersion tanks fit into the plot of the technothriller, A REMEDY FOR DEATH

Technothriller blog Uncategorized No Comments

Here’s your free sample drawn from my science technothriller, A REMEDY FOR DEATH.  Note: this special sample does not pick up at the beginning of the story, but rather focuses specifically on how sensory deprivation immersion tanks work in the plot.

Click to enter that special world: A REMEDY FOR DEATH— how sensory deprivation immersion tanks fit into the story

Mr. Putin visits “youth pill” lab in Russia. Better he should read the science technothriller, A REMEDY FOR DEATH

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In the article, “Immortal Vladimir Putin? Russian leader visits anti-ageing pill factory,” The London Daily Star reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently toured a St. Petersburg lab working on anti-aging pills.

That lab is Biocad, reportedly  “Russia’s leading biotechnology company.”

Of the work on the “youth pill”, one of the scientists, Alexander Karabelsk, said, “We are expecting the first results within a year.”

Apparently Mr. Putin and Dr. Karabelsk have not had the opportunity to read the prescient science technothriller, A REMEDY FOR DEATH, as that offers a very different method for life extension and the anti-aging process. (Full disclosure: A REMEDY FOR DEATH was also written by the humble author if this blog-post, Michael McGaulley.)

Here’s the link to the Daily Star article:   http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/573191/Vladimir-Putin-russian-leader-visits-anti-ageing-pill-factory  (Caution: this article should only be viewed by those age 65 and  older, as it abuts on other stories and photos relating to young British women who have apparently misplaced parts of their bathing costumers.)

Want to start reading a free extended sampler of A REMEDY FOR DEATH?    

https://michaelmcgaulley.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/B-REMEDY-SAMPLE-May-11.pdf

MICHAEL CRICHTON’S RETRO-TECHNO-THRILLER

My books Techno-thriller Technothriller blog No Comments

great-train-dec-2Who invented the techno-thriller?  If your taste is military and hardware, then Tom Clancy. If other techno-areas, Michael Crichton gets the nod.

When we think techno-thriller, we tend to be looking forward—the newest ships and planes (in Clancy-land). Or medical or science technologies that are  just over the horizon—as in cloning dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK, the perils of nanotechnology in PREY, biotech in THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, quantum physics as a route to time–travel in TIMELINE.

But we think of techno-thrillers as looking ahead to oncoming tech. What about techno of the past—“retro-tech”? In the course of plumbing the depths of my book-shelves, I discovered that Michael Crichton wrote (if I may coin the term) a “retro-techno-thriller,” way back in the 1970’s. Retro-techno, as it centered around that tech breakthroughs of the mid-1800’s –that new phenomenon, the steam-powered railroads that were extending across England. What was Michael Crichton’s “retro-techno-thriller”? THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.

I’d read it a long while back–see the cover above scanned from copy I read back in 1979 and again this week. That was probably just before seeing the 1979 movie with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland, written and directed by none other than the same Michael Crichton.

In any case, I picked it off the shelf to have another read  and found it was like all new to me  . . .and very good, even by the usual high standards of a Crichton. In my mind, good thrillers—or novels, for that matter–are not only interesting in covering places, people, events and so on, but are also worthwhile. What do I mean by worthwhile? Basically, that I learn something interesting and significant while following the story.

TRAIN drew me on—built as it is around short, punchy chapters. As for “worthwhile”, I feel I learned more about life in Victorian London than from plowing through a handful of non-fiction tomes of that era (perhaps because I’d have fallen asleep long before those dry, academic accounts ended!) Not so with TRAIN—the background, the history, the way of life and expectations across class lines are so well integrated that you learn about that era as you follow on the cascade of events that led up to the robbery itself. And done subtly, though–in several chapters, background of the era begins, then blends into the “now” of the action.