THE TERMINAL MAN

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972. First Edition. Cloth and boards. Fine/Fine. 8vo, butterscotch cloth with silver lettering on spine over light brown boards with lettered strip repeating "The Terminal Man," Mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket (unclipped) with a man's face backed by colored wires designed by Paul Bacon, brown endpapers with cutaway perspective drawings of a human brain, 247 pages + [6]. Exceptional Condition for one of Crichton's best novels. Dr. John Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was an author, screenwriter, and director and producer who worked in every visual media and made techno-thrillers extremely popular. The Terminal Man is about a computer scientist and epileptic named Harry Benson who specializes in A-I. He had seizures followed by blackouts, but while incapacitated he severely beat two people and attacked another. Because he was thought to be psychotic, in a pathfinding operation, neurosurgeons implanted forty electrodes called "brain pacemakers" into his brain (Cyborg-like) . Powered by an atomic battery, the operation had dangerous results and further damaged his brain. It was preceded by The Andromeda Strain and followed by The Great Train Robbery. The New Yorker review called it "A fascinating, splendidly documented thriller." During 1972, the novel was simultaneously serialized in Playboy. In 1974, Crichton's techno-thriller was made into a movie starring George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard Dysart, and Donald Moffat.