I've been a fan of Michael Crichton since way, way back . . . back even before he became Michael Crichton, back when he was writing under the pen name John Lange. (I think I learned that John Lange was really the then-unknown Michael Crichton from a book review in the NY Times when I was in New York on a consulting project. )
Hence I'm on a Google Alerts list for the name Michael Crichton, which is how I happened on the attached blog post in which Michael Carlson reviews two of Crichton's early books published under the Lange nom de plume, now brought out under his own name. (Hence "review of his two new (really old) thrillers.")
I've also begun rereading my collection of Lange/Crichton, beginning currently with ODDS ON, 1967, and I can see (a) why I liked them so much at the time; (b) the Crichton writing world-view--no technothriller stuff then, except that computer with punch-cards were high techno at the time; (c) even then, in his first, his use of the calendar count-down to up the pace.
I'll leave you to read Carlson's take on Crichton. But I'll add this: I've looked over Carlson's blog (Irresistible Targets) and found a lot of good stuff, enough to put Michael Carlson also on my Google Alerts list. Carlson knows what he's talking about in areas including a rogue's gallery of thriller authors, and what makes each special.