Review: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park

By: Michael Crichton

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: SciFi, adult, adventure

Synopsis: An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.
 
Until something goes wrong. . . .
 
In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.

The first section of this review will be spoiler free

 

Let me preface this by saying this is one of my all time favourite books and I was surprised that it has taken me this long to do a review for it. I am sure many of you are familiar with Spielberg’s big screen adaption to this, and some of you may not even have known that before these dinosaurs were dominating the movie scene, they were masterfully created by Michael Crichton. This book is perfect for science fiction lovers. It combines scientific and believable factual elements, with awe-inspiring and fantastical situations. The characters are clearly defined, and though there is not a large amount of character development in the book , it’s ok because the story is more about the theme park and the situation the characters are facing, than their personal attributes. If you are only familiar with the movie there will be a few surprises, as like with any adaption the screenplay writers certainly took a few liberties. The book is often labeled a techno-thriller, and this description couldn’t be more accurate. The detail Crichton puts into the process of resurrecting these dinosaurs makes you believe this could actually happen. The action sequences and thriller elements had me on the edge of my seat, definitely wanting more.

If you are a fan of the movie and are looking for something similar this is a great read for you. If you aren’t a big fan of the science fiction style world building this book might be too dense for your liking. And most importantly of course, you have to be a fan of dinosaurs!

So I won’t be doing a spoiler section for this review, mostly because since many of you have most likely seen the movie, me rehashing plot points might feel a bit redundant. Secondly I want to keep to few things that are different in the book a surprise!

 

Which movie do you prefer, Jurassic Park or Jurassic World? Or are you like me and prefer the book?