Jurassic Park: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – September 25, 2012

The movie was great but it is clear that the book adds much detail. Jurassic park: a novel is a great sci-fi story based in a science of the time it was written. Not to long and not to detailed. Enough to make you think. The over arching concepts still hold value today.

Wow, I really enjoyed this. As a kid of the 90’s, Jurassic Park was a staple for me. Reading this brought a different perspective and built more of the world I knew from the movies. It had so many similarities to the movie and I have to say that reading it, whoever did the casting of the movie got the main characters so spot on. There were also a lot of differences which I won’t spoil, but it made this book more exciting because it was similar character wise but also really different with the whole plot and what happened at the end. I recommend it for anyone who likes this gender, dinosaurs, and/or the JP movie franchise. The writing was spot on and suspenseful.

I have watched the vastly popular film Jurassic Park countless times and remember seeing it on the big screen when it debuted in 1993, so I have been wanting to reading Micheal Crichton’s novel for quite some time and recently finally had the chance to do so. It didn’t disappoint at all, and was as impressive as the film. I like Crichton’s attention to detail, and how he enhances the tension in some of his techno-thrillers all the while exploring important themes and ethics.In the case of this novel, I think we all know the basic premise: specific individuals have created a theme-based park with live prehistoric creatures. John Hammond, a billionaire behind the scheme, along with several others have found a way to clone dinosaurs and creatures using genetic engineering. He intends to wow the public with his newfound creation, and create a themed park that will take the public to another place and time. However, at what cost? Is it even possible, or even ethical, to recreate the past using technology? Or will there be flaws in the system? These are the questions that the book delves into and explores.As far as the pacing and the plot itself, it is quite tense and suspenseful, action-packed and an intense thrill ride until the end. As all know, things go horribly wrong when a team of scientists and others go to the island for a weekend for a preview before the opening.With regard to the film vs. the book, I definitely believe that the book amps up the horror aspect quite a bit more compared to the film. Some of the dinosaur attacks and death scenes are pretty brutal. Crichton structures the plot so we see many different vantage points from characters and see their various dilemmas vs. the creatures play out.The novel is also very intelligent and science-based in some respects, as there is quite a bit of information about the prehistoric animals and their habits contained within. I didn’t think this was much of a deterrent, and gave the novel another added dimension.If there is one knock from the novel (and I know this has been mentioned before in various reviews), it is the annoying children (especially the girl Lex) who accompany the team to the island. Next time leave the children at home!Overall, though, Jurassic Park is a fun, thrilling intense experience of “technology gone wrong.” I want to go back and reexperience the film now, and I look forward to reading the next in the series, The Lost World, to see what happens from here.

Michael Crichton was a master of hard science fiction. As I was a!already familiar with Spielberg's adaptation I decided to have a look at the source material. It is a gripping read with loads of dinosaur action that is presented in a realistic fashion. If dinosaurs had survived the KT extinction event this might be how they would behave. In general terms the novel has been well-a adapted to find though there are some differences, I found it fun to look for these minor variants it did not spoil either novel or film.

Before I say anything about the book, I need to say Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park: The Lost World, are probably two of my all time favorite movies so I can’t really help but compare the books to the movies. I’ve probably watched those a thousand times. The movie were perfection and set the bar high; I never read the book because I was afraid it would suck and then how would I view the movie? Alternatively, what if the book was better and then the movie suddenly sucked? The third movie was a total disappointment. It would be a long time before I figured out the third movie had no book to support it, and I would then attribute the bad plotline to the fact that the story had been nothing more than box office fan fiction. Now with advertisements for a fourth Jurassic Park, and a second fan fiction, I found myself once again intrigued and captivated by test-tube dinosaurs… And hoping the 4th is a better fiction than the 3rd considering it too is inspired by its predecessors and not actually based on a pre-written plotline. So I worked up the courage and opened the book.A short summary probably isn’t necessary with the story’s fame, but just in case, here goes. Eccentric billionaire John Hammond is the founder of a biotechnology company, InGen. He’s working on a top-secret project: A state of the art genetics lab with a resort on a privately owned island off Costa Rica where the main attractions are genetically engineered dinosaurs. But after locals begin complaining of strange animal attacks, Hammond’s investors want the project investigated for safety reasons. Enter paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, mathematician Ian Malcolm, and lawyer Donald Gennaro; it’s their job to assess the park’s value and safety measures. Also meet John Hammond’s grandkids, Alexis and Tim who’re just here for the tour. Unfortunately, they’re all arriving in time to witness what happens when a disgruntled employee takes revenge on a dinosaur zoo. Chaos ensues.I’ve never been more relieved by a book’s excellence! Of course, the book was very different from the movie in some ways. John Hammond isn’t a jolly Santa-like Dino-nut who wants to bring adventure to the world’s children; oh no, he’s just an overambitious money-grubbing douche-bag who won’t listen to reason. And Alan Grant? He loves kids. (That was actually harder to get used to!) And if you’ve seen the movies and know that the velociraptors are supposed to be the villains of the story; they are but the T-Rex is almost as bad. Maybe he can’t see you moving, but he’s going to track you like a bloodhound.I actually didn’t mind the differences. It was like having two people look out the same window and having them each describe their first impression. Nobody ever views the world exactly the same way as the person next to them, even when they’re looking at the same thing. So going from the movie to the book was like experiencing the story through someone else’s eyes. It was just as beautiful as before, just different. I loved ‘seeing’ the paddocks teaming with strange animals for the very first time; hearing about the sounds they could have produced, feeling character reactions. The banter between long-winded Ian Malcolm and the employees were fascinating even as Grant stood by, being both a main character and oddly quiet observer.My only complaint with the plot had to do with Arnold finding the products of Dennis’s sabotage. Something about “the security system is down.” Basically, security is security; it’s not an either or kind of thing. How can a company so genius it can use DNA to raise the dead forget to think about two separate security systems? Or rather why would human security and animal security be tied so disastrously together? It seems you would have to worry about locking down the humans at a resort in the event of an animal escape. It would also seem in the event of a natural disaster you’d want those fences on a different system, on a back up generator, to protect guests… Or am I forgetting the year this story was written; maybe with tech at our fingertips I’m forgetting how limited it once was. And I’m not saying the fictional-theoretical security system couldn’t still have been sabotaged, I’m just saying regardless of human interference, one system to control both inhabitants of the island seems rather short sighted…The book was a fun adventure with just enough science talk to make the story plausible. The movie version may have changed some things around, it still managed to keep the integrity of the book. Although, the two endings were very different… So different it made me think about The Lost World and of course now I’m reading that.

An incredible read! Extremely contemporary and fitting current events. It’s not Shakespeare but it’s sci-fi and grand visions at its best.

After having seen the movie, it was interesting to read the source material. While faithful to the book, there were notable events not portrayed in the film.