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harveyjoy53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
smashingreads's review against another edition
3.0
BLUF: This book is exactly how you think it will be. Good, but dated.
Plot: Eccentric Billionaire, John Hammond, owns a bioengineering firm which ventures into the re-creation of dinosaurs with the purpose of creating a zoo ‰ЫТ the first of its‰ЫЄ kind. It‰ЫЄs not entertaining to have only omnivores; Hammond creates the carnivores too. Due to investor concerns (specifically, the deaths of some workers due to ‰ЫПconstruction accidents‰Ыќ, EPA investigations, and lizard attacks on nearby islands), Hammond‰ЫЄs lawyers advises that outside experts be brought in as a test trail for the park. What should have been an enlightening weekend trip soon turns into a nightmare when the park‰ЫЄs system crashes.
My Apathy: I‰ЫЄm disappointed in myself for not liking this book more than I did. I have read Michael Crichton outside this series and enjoyed it, but there is something about horror books with animals as the scare factor that just doesn‰ЫЄt work for me. Ghosts, paranormal, etc. scare me. Dinosaurs, killer insects, etc. do not. That said, if you are a person who does get scared by man-eating dinosaurs, you will love this book. There are many close calls and enough tension to keep you on edge.
As for the rest: The story is pretty darn good. It‰ЫЄs everything you could want: there are those in the shop trying to bring the park back on line, those in the field fighting for their lives and to get back in the resort, and many deaths in between the groups. The characters were realistic in their flaws and personality, but I don‰ЫЄt really have anything to say about them. (Three weeks later and they don‰ЫЄt stick in my head. Hmm‰Ы_)
Comparison to the movie: The movie does not majorly deviate from the story until after the car crashes down the tree. This is perfect for those of us who cannot envision a book after seeing a movie, as it allows us to view the book from our perspectives. (I hate the feeling of dМ©jМК vu that comes when this happens.)
My real only complaint: As with The Lost World, Ian Malcolm drove me up the wall. This character will talk your ear off and it is absolutely painful. I‰ЫЄm not sure if this is because he is into himself or if it is simply the content of his speech. Thankfully, he has much less of a role in this book than he does in The Lost World.
Plot: Eccentric Billionaire, John Hammond, owns a bioengineering firm which ventures into the re-creation of dinosaurs with the purpose of creating a zoo ‰ЫТ the first of its‰ЫЄ kind. It‰ЫЄs not entertaining to have only omnivores; Hammond creates the carnivores too. Due to investor concerns (specifically, the deaths of some workers due to ‰ЫПconstruction accidents‰Ыќ, EPA investigations, and lizard attacks on nearby islands), Hammond‰ЫЄs lawyers advises that outside experts be brought in as a test trail for the park. What should have been an enlightening weekend trip soon turns into a nightmare when the park‰ЫЄs system crashes.
My Apathy: I‰ЫЄm disappointed in myself for not liking this book more than I did. I have read Michael Crichton outside this series and enjoyed it, but there is something about horror books with animals as the scare factor that just doesn‰ЫЄt work for me. Ghosts, paranormal, etc. scare me. Dinosaurs, killer insects, etc. do not. That said, if you are a person who does get scared by man-eating dinosaurs, you will love this book. There are many close calls and enough tension to keep you on edge.
As for the rest: The story is pretty darn good. It‰ЫЄs everything you could want: there are those in the shop trying to bring the park back on line, those in the field fighting for their lives and to get back in the resort, and many deaths in between the groups. The characters were realistic in their flaws and personality, but I don‰ЫЄt really have anything to say about them. (Three weeks later and they don‰ЫЄt stick in my head. Hmm‰Ы_)
Comparison to the movie: The movie does not majorly deviate from the story until after the car crashes down the tree. This is perfect for those of us who cannot envision a book after seeing a movie, as it allows us to view the book from our perspectives. (I hate the feeling of dМ©jМК vu that comes when this happens.)
My real only complaint: As with The Lost World, Ian Malcolm drove me up the wall. This character will talk your ear off and it is absolutely painful. I‰ЫЄm not sure if this is because he is into himself or if it is simply the content of his speech. Thankfully, he has much less of a role in this book than he does in The Lost World.
xmenji's review against another edition
5.0
***Slight spoilers if you still haven't read the book***
Okay, so I've loved the Jurassic Park movies for as long as I could remember and have watched it many times but I never actually read the novel until now. Let me tell you, this book is amazing. It has the right amount of technical information that should be in legitimate sci-fi novels (IMO) along with the right amount of suspense that would come from a story about a theme park filled with ancient, lethal, carnivorous creatures. Even though I've seen the movie a bunch of times and basically knew what was going to ensue, I couldn't help but be on the edge of my seat while reading this book. I think Crichton has a way of writing (at least in this book) that kept me absorbed from start to end. He seems to have a good grasp of writing his characters and making them come to life. My favorites, were of course, Ian Malcolm and Robert Muldoon as they stood out to most to me and were, to me, the characters who made the most sense in this story.
I guess the only gripes I have about this book was my annoyance towards Lex for half the book. She is good in the movie but completely different in the book. I just hated the fact that she was always screaming and shouting whenever the trio (Grant, Tim, and Lex) would try and sneak past the T-Rex and velociraptors. I know she's just a kid about 7 or 8 years old but c'mon... kids can't seriously be this insolent... can they? I kept wholeheartedly agreeing with Tim whenever he told her to shut up.
Grant was okay but he sometimes made me wonder where his priorities lay. I just don't understand how, when you witness a freakin Tyrannosaurus Rex break out of its paddock and start roaming freely around the park, how could you be more concerned about the velociraptors on the boat heading towards the mainland than the immediate situation you are in? I mean, I'm sure you could reason that the park handlers could somehow take care of it, but the power was down and the park was already going to hell. He still came off as completely unconcerned about Rexy. It would have been more believable if he was concerned about both things instead of one more than the other.
I was also a little disappointed that Rexy didn't make a come back in the end of the book after being tranquilized. I don't know, I was expecting (hoping) to see more of her one last time.
I also wasn't sure why the book needed to be dragged on further by the inclusion of the velociraptor colony discovered by Grant, Sattler and Gennaro. It didn't seem like it really added much to the story and it only caused the book to end somewhat abruptly. I mean, I still kind of enjoyed it, but I think the ending could have gone a little bit differently and it didn't really seem all that necessary to include that part into the book. Maybe it might make sense in the Lost World--which I also haven't read--but again, its inclusion by itself seemed a little pointless.
Anyways, it was an amazing read and I haven't had this much fun reading a book for a long time. Half the book could just be Ian Malcolm explaining Chaos Theory and I'd still eat it right up. I'll look forward to rereading this in the future.
Okay, so I've loved the Jurassic Park movies for as long as I could remember and have watched it many times but I never actually read the novel until now. Let me tell you, this book is amazing. It has the right amount of technical information that should be in legitimate sci-fi novels (IMO) along with the right amount of suspense that would come from a story about a theme park filled with ancient, lethal, carnivorous creatures. Even though I've seen the movie a bunch of times and basically knew what was going to ensue, I couldn't help but be on the edge of my seat while reading this book. I think Crichton has a way of writing (at least in this book) that kept me absorbed from start to end. He seems to have a good grasp of writing his characters and making them come to life. My favorites, were of course, Ian Malcolm and Robert Muldoon as they stood out to most to me and were, to me, the characters who made the most sense in this story.
I guess the only gripes I have about this book was my annoyance towards Lex for half the book. She is good in the movie but completely different in the book. I just hated the fact that she was always screaming and shouting whenever the trio (Grant, Tim, and Lex) would try and sneak past the T-Rex and velociraptors. I know she's just a kid about 7 or 8 years old but c'mon... kids can't seriously be this insolent... can they? I kept wholeheartedly agreeing with Tim whenever he told her to shut up.
Grant was okay but he sometimes made me wonder where his priorities lay. I just don't understand how, when you witness a freakin Tyrannosaurus Rex break out of its paddock and start roaming freely around the park, how could you be more concerned about the velociraptors on the boat heading towards the mainland than the immediate situation you are in? I mean, I'm sure you could reason that the park handlers could somehow take care of it, but the power was down and the park was already going to hell. He still came off as completely unconcerned about Rexy. It would have been more believable if he was concerned about both things instead of one more than the other.
I was also a little disappointed that Rexy didn't make a come back in the end of the book after being tranquilized. I don't know, I was expecting (hoping) to see more of her one last time.
I also wasn't sure why the book needed to be dragged on further by the inclusion of the velociraptor colony discovered by Grant, Sattler and Gennaro. It didn't seem like it really added much to the story and it only caused the book to end somewhat abruptly. I mean, I still kind of enjoyed it, but I think the ending could have gone a little bit differently and it didn't really seem all that necessary to include that part into the book. Maybe it might make sense in the Lost World--which I also haven't read--but again, its inclusion by itself seemed a little pointless.
Anyways, it was an amazing read and I haven't had this much fun reading a book for a long time. Half the book could just be Ian Malcolm explaining Chaos Theory and I'd still eat it right up. I'll look forward to rereading this in the future.
guacomoli0809's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
drvibrissae's review against another edition
4.0
A book set in the decade you were born
It shouldn't surprise anyone that this was an entertaining and engaging read. The movie was a great adaptation and so there were some beats and tension that probably would hit harder or differently if I didn't know what was going on ahead of time. This is my first Crichton book, and I suspect I'll pick up the sequel eventually.
Some random impressions:
1. Almost everyone is less likable in the book except Dr. Grant who is considerably more likeable, and the women have almost no lines.
2. Apparently there are a bunch of local workers and caretakers on the island who get like a paragraph total? Feels weird when you are suddenly reminded there are other people just, I don't know, hanging out? It's never mentioned if they are warned or how they are told to respond to these unfolding crises
3. It's funny how I was fine suspending disbelief and hand-waving away or ignoring everything I know about genetics and DNA sequencing, but got weirdly hung up on a line about birds and dinos both having nucleated red cells, so that's why they think dinos are more like birds that reptiles (fun fact: reptiles ALSO have nucleated red blood cells). Me getting caught up on small details while ignoring huge leaps or outright nonsense is not unique to this book, I just had to mention it.
4. I mean he sets up like seven or 8 loose threads about dinos on this island, the mainland and the other sites so of course there was going to be a sequel.
5. Crichton seems to have a bugaboo about science that is voiced through a long rant by Ian Malcolm in the closing chapters, but most of the complaints seem to be more ascribable to unfettered capitalism...and the character even has to align science with inherited wealth to make the leap, it's like he almost go there but not quite? It was off-putting.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that this was an entertaining and engaging read. The movie was a great adaptation and so there were some beats and tension that probably would hit harder or differently if I didn't know what was going on ahead of time. This is my first Crichton book, and I suspect I'll pick up the sequel eventually.
Some random impressions:
1. Almost everyone is less likable in the book except Dr. Grant who is considerably more likeable, and the women have almost no lines.
2. Apparently there are a bunch of local workers and caretakers on the island who get like a paragraph total? Feels weird when you are suddenly reminded there are other people just, I don't know, hanging out? It's never mentioned if they are warned or how they are told to respond to these unfolding crises
3. It's funny how I was fine suspending disbelief and hand-waving away or ignoring everything I know about genetics and DNA sequencing, but got weirdly hung up on a line about birds and dinos both having nucleated red cells, so that's why they think dinos are more like birds that reptiles (fun fact: reptiles ALSO have nucleated red blood cells). Me getting caught up on small details while ignoring huge leaps or outright nonsense is not unique to this book, I just had to mention it.
4. I mean he sets up like seven or 8 loose threads about dinos on this island, the mainland and the other sites so of course there was going to be a sequel.
5. Crichton seems to have a bugaboo about science that is voiced through a long rant by Ian Malcolm in the closing chapters, but most of the complaints seem to be more ascribable to unfettered capitalism...and the character even has to align science with inherited wealth to make the leap, it's like he almost go there but not quite? It was off-putting.
the1germ's review against another edition
3.0
This was my first "adult" book that I ever read, and I'll always remember it fondly for that: hiding under the covers with a flashlight and this tattered paperback I'd spirited away, reading about that movie in theaters my parents insisted I was too young to see.
In truth, I was probably fine to see the movie... but much too young for this book lol.
Revisiting it this many years later as an adult highlights flaws I didn't notice at the time. The characters are stilted and one-dimensional. Ian Malcolm is a stand-in for Crichton himself, going on long rants where the character is replaced by the author. A lot of the science is showing its age. Scenes generally lack the "oomph" you'd expect, I didn't really feel a sense of wonder or terror.
It's an important book both culturally and in my life, but I think that overall the movie explored the concept much better. I'll always appreciate the book and Crichton for the rabbit hole they sent me down, though.
In truth, I was probably fine to see the movie... but much too young for this book lol.
Revisiting it this many years later as an adult highlights flaws I didn't notice at the time. The characters are stilted and one-dimensional. Ian Malcolm is a stand-in for Crichton himself, going on long rants where the character is replaced by the author. A lot of the science is showing its age. Scenes generally lack the "oomph" you'd expect, I didn't really feel a sense of wonder or terror.
It's an important book both culturally and in my life, but I think that overall the movie explored the concept much better. I'll always appreciate the book and Crichton for the rabbit hole they sent me down, though.
quercus707's review against another edition
2.0
I feel kind of bad giving this book just two stars, because I think that it was a far more compelling and groundbreaking story when it was published in 1990, and parts of it have worn well. The scientific hubris, the commodification of science, the ethical dilemmas imposed by the abilities to do genetic engineering, the unintended consequences of efforts to "control nature" are just as timely and relevant today. And although Chaos Theory has become pretty ubiquitous, it's partly because of this book that people are as familiar with it as they are. It deserves credit for all those thing.
The thing is, I don't think it's a very good story. There are huge plot problems - leaving aside the issue of actually being able to clone dinosaurs, which you obviously have to suspend your disbelief about. But even given that, could you really expect to have 8 to 20 ton creatures grow to full size and begin reproducing in 5 years? Jurassic period trees and plants of full size? And could you have been able to solve the ecological problems, really - even the ones they solved only temporarily? It's a little too much of a stretch.
And the characters: ok, I get it, they were meant to be flat representations of various kinds of scientific knavery and hubris. But their reactions once things started going wrong didn't ring at all true to me. And I really didn't care about them. And the little girl was super annoying, you almost wanted a dinosaur to eat her.
The movie was thrilling when it first came out. Would it be as thrilling to kids now? Or would they just kind of "meh" the special effects, finding both the story and the visuals kind of tired? I don't know, but that's kind of the reaction I had to this read of the book.
The thing is, I don't think it's a very good story. There are huge plot problems - leaving aside the issue of actually being able to clone dinosaurs, which you obviously have to suspend your disbelief about. But even given that, could you really expect to have 8 to 20 ton creatures grow to full size and begin reproducing in 5 years? Jurassic period trees and plants of full size? And could you have been able to solve the ecological problems, really - even the ones they solved only temporarily? It's a little too much of a stretch.
And the characters: ok, I get it, they were meant to be flat representations of various kinds of scientific knavery and hubris. But their reactions once things started going wrong didn't ring at all true to me. And I really didn't care about them. And the little girl was super annoying, you almost wanted a dinosaur to eat her.
The movie was thrilling when it first came out. Would it be as thrilling to kids now? Or would they just kind of "meh" the special effects, finding both the story and the visuals kind of tired? I don't know, but that's kind of the reaction I had to this read of the book.