Reviews

I read this about ten years or so ago and I don't remember it being all that good. However i do drink some so.....I am sure its a lot better than I remember!

xavier_yates's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

dmcke013's review against another edition

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3.0

Yet another of [author:Michael Crichton|5194]'s science-thriller turned-into-a-movie novel, in which the movie bears only the slightest resemblance to the source material.

While the basic outline of the plot is the same in both - discovery of the lost city of Zinj in the Congo, expedition to said city that includes a Gorilla taught American Sign Langauge - the particulars of both are different, with the movie (form what I remember - it's been a decade or so since I last saw it) making far more of the exploration of Zinj and the fact that it is guarded by a new breed of vicious gorillas specially bred for the purpose by the original inhabitants than the novel does.

The characters in the novel are also less sympathetic than those in the movie - it's hard to take Tim Curry seriously as a hardened mercenary - while it has, also, aged somewhat due to the reliance on (then) state of the art electronics explained therein - a computer has a whole 256k of memory! Wow!!

syndi3's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is one of my favorite from Michael Crichton. The treasure hunting, the crazy adventure. I especially touch by the relationship between the chimpanze and human. Above all the adventure is really setting the heart pace on a wild rate.

I also like the movie.

toeffy's review against another edition

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adventurous informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Not bad but somewhat disappointing

When in the mood for a science-based thriller you can't go wrong with Michael Crichton... Or so I thought, because apparently you can.

First of all, there was waaay too much technical and historical info dumping. The actual story takes place in the last 20% of the book, the rest is page after page of tech speak interspersed with historical trivia about the exploration of the Congo. This book should have been marketed as "fictional non-fiction" instead of "gripping thriller".

And that's my second issue with this novel, there's not much story to begin with and what little there is... Is no thriller. It's bland. Illogical. Requires way too much suspension of disbelief. It feels like the author went through a checklist of stereotypical African dangers (Pygmies, cannibals, hippos, corrupt war lords, ...) and made the protagonists encounter them all over the span of a few days. And the encounters themselves were hardly dangerous, rather they were used for more info-dumping. All tell, no show.

Explanations for certain plot points were either not provided at all (why did the "monster" use such a specific killing technique?) or were implausible (why did they even bring Amy? There was no guarantee whatsoever that she would be useful - the money it took to bring her would be better invested in a heavily armed squad of mercenaries).

So, overall it was a tedious and disappointing read. Not awful, but thoroughly meh.

slvstrlpz's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

klynnweber's review against another edition

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3.5

The technical jargon in the beginning was a bit of a slog, but there were some interesting nuggets of information. The second half of the story was a wild ride.

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