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 scientists assembled to examine a spacecraft of unknown origin discovered on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The novel begins as a science fiction story but quickly transforms into a psychological thriller, developing into an exploration of the nature of the human imagination. ---------- See also: - [Sphere](https://openlibrary. org/works/OL18169959W/Sphere) Also contained in: - [Congo / Sphere / Eaters of the Dead][2] [1]: http://www. michaelcrichton. com/sphere/ [2]: https://openlibrary. org/works/OL14950504W/Congo_Sphere_Eaters_of_the_Dead