Plague Ship vs Sphere: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Space ships, Science Fiction, Fiction
Plague Ship
The tramp-freighter spaceship Solar Queen had exclusive trading rights to Sargol and its fabulous gems. But the crew's bravery and resourcefulness strained to the breaking point as they met Sargol's three challenges:…
vs
Sphere
“For a long time the horizon had been a monotonous flat blue line separating the Pacific Ocean from the sky.”
Sphere is a 1987 novel by Michael Crichton, his sixth novel under his own name and his sixteenth overall. The story follows Norman Johnson, a psychologist engaged by the United States Navy, who joins a team of…
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Plague Ship is the quickest read — about 3 hours vs 6 for Sphere.
- Sphere has the widest readership — 202404 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Plague Ship | Sphere | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.9 (2301) | 3.8 (202404) |
| Hardcover | 3.2 (15) | 3.7 (713) |
| Google Books | — | 4.0 (6) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (91) | 4.0 (655) |
Reception
| Plague Ship | Sphere | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 2301 | 202404 |
| Editions | 91 | 69 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 851 | 65586 |
| Reading it now | 211 | — |
| Written reviews | 165 | 5702 |
| Wikipedia attention | 283 | 9442 |
| Pages | 168 | 371 |