Odds On

By: Michael Crichton, John Lange

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The plan: to rob the Reina, a super-luxury hotel off the coast of Spain. The crew: three seasoned criminals with the skills to pull off the heist of the century. The edge: every aspect of the scheme has been simulated in a computer, down to the last variable.

The complication: three beautiful women with agendas of their own - and the sort of variables no computer can fathom....

©1966 John Lange; Copyright renewed 2005 by CrichtonSun LLC. “John Lange” and “Odds On” are trademarks of CrichtonSun LLC, used under license. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Basically Softcore Porn

the sci fi element in this Lange novel is that of creating computer software to calculate the odds of criminal activity. seeing as this book was written in the late 60s, it was well before its time.

the real downside here is the interpersonal erotica. the first five chapters is just about introducing new characters. and all of them are important, half of them are introduced during or after sex.

9 main characters, i was getting them confused all the way untill the end. there were at least 3 very intimate sex scenes and a sex torture scene that was difficult to sit through at the end.

all together the worst Lange book I have encountered thus far. the story gimmick was revolutionary for its time, but the smut really outweighs the positives here.

Pretty good caper story, great performance by Lane

The story is very well written, if a bit formulaic. The performance by Lane, however, was stellar. I thoroughly enjoyed my time. Half way through Odds On I decided to purchase the 2 Crichton books that were released after this one (Scratch One and Easy Go) because Lane performs those ones, too. Yeah, he's that good.

Its over already?

this could have been so much more, good story line, too bad it ends so badly...is there a part 2?

Odds On a Different Outcome than Expected

This was a great early novel of Michael Crichton, writing as John Lange. Having read, Grave Descend, Drug of Choice and Binary, I really enjoyed this change of pace. A caper thriller, three men believe that they have the perfect heist planned, the mastermind using computer probability. They learn that life and women will disrupt the best laid plans. Although a bit dated, still true today. I read this book using immersion reading while listening to the audio book. Christopher Lane once again perfectly captured the novel with expert narration. As for the complaints about sex, it's real life and it was one of the probabilities they didn't count on. Entertaining book!

Book didi not age well

The main issue with the book was its implausibility at least for me. It also remined me of how much people smoked in the 60's and that I am so glad it is now.

Super fun for a first attempt

For his first novel, this was very fun and easily enjoyable. Sure this is a “guy” story with slutty girls and macho dudes, so it shouldn’t be taken seriously. Also remember it’s over 50 years old.... well shut up anyway, I enjoyed it, though most people seem to not to

Great work but not Creighton's best

Let's face it, at times it's kinda soft-porn-ish. But it's a very light-hearted easy read. Quite enjoyable listening.

Where'd my review go?

I know I wrote a review on this novel, because I still remember a lot of what I wrote, but it displays as if I only rated it and no review remains - which I didn't think was possible.

From what's left of my memory of this book: This is Crichton's first fiction and it's pretty terrible. You can really see the potential writer in him at this point though. The dialogue is both exhausting and lazy. The characters aren't developed effectively in most cases and could be interchangeable in many cases. His treatment of female characters is exceptionally telling in that they are all sex-objects and play no direct role in the story beyond that (with one exception). The ending is a "there were no hints - just accept that it ended." I could get a clear sense that Crichton's technical interests were developing at this point - which is what lead to a majority of his successful fictional works, so the window this novel provides into his development as a professional writer has some merit.

I don't remember what I rated this one as, but I believe it was something like, "A horny 20-something writes a crime story with very little research."